Christmas Sailing in Florida

From: Ted George (tjg@sco.COM-DeleteThis)
Date: Thu Jan 04 1996 - 16:34:43 PST


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From: Ted George <tjg@sco.COM-DeleteThis>
To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
Subject: Christmas Sailing in Florida
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Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 16:34:43 -0800 (PST)
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Well I headed to Florida this Christmas to visit my parents for Christmas.
We decided to leverage the trip to include a week of windsurfing.
My wife found an ad for a place called the Banana River Windsurfing Resort in
Cocoa Beach, about 1 hour from Orlando that was reasonably priced and seemed
to meet our requirements. Check out their Home Page at:

        http://www.stpt.com/banana/

We were looking for a place where I could get some strong wind,
yet there would be lower wind for my family who are just learning the sport.
And if it did not blow, we could go to the Kennedy Space Center, Disney World,
etc, as well surf the Atlantic across the street.

Well the Banana River did not let us down! The weather was a bit cold for
Florida, but the weather brought some great storm winds, which varied in
strength and direction through the day. I sailed shortboards 5 of the 7 days
there on everything from a 4.7/8'8" to a 7.4/120l AstroRock. The last was
a bit bizarre but managable and fun. I guess I am really a 'shortboarder'
because I prefered that rig to the same sail on a Mistral OneDesign. There
were plenty of those around because there were a half-dozen athletes in training
for both the US and Canadian Olympic windsurfing team there.
And yes, the 7.4 I used was a Mistral OneDesign 7.4 Race Sail. Besides being
BIG, the use of an adjustable outhaul was very interesting, dramatically
increasing the high and low range of the sail. In OneDesign racing they race
this same sail in winds from 8 - 30 mph!

And my wife and kids also sailed 5 days (at different times than me) in
8-12 mph winds. They all progressed to be able to longboard in 12 mph, with
the instruction provided by Beth Powell, owner of the resort and Olympian
in training.

Beth, athletes and others staying there were all great. Friendly and fun
to be around. The set up is a building
with 6+ full-apartments, ~5 rooms sharing a large kitchen, an Beth's home,
all directly on the Banana River. Lots of short and long board gear to
rent, instructions, etc. Directly across the street is a great beach for
surfing and wave sailing. I hear that higher winds are more consistent
in the summer months.

Check it out!

Ted

 



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