X-OldHeader: From harris@skolar.com-DeleteThis.com Wed May 23 17:10:24 2001 Return-Path: <harris@skolar.com-DeleteThis.com> Received: from opus.labs.agilent.com (root@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com [130.29.244.179]) by jr.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id RAA00494 for <wind_talk_ls@jr.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Wed, 23 May 2001 17:10:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: from msgbas1.cos.agilent.com (msgbas1.cos.agilent.com [130.29.152.58]) by opus.labs.agilent.com (8.9.3 (PHNE_18979)/8.9.3 AgilentLabs Workstation) with ESMTP id RAA03695 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Wed, 23 May 2001 17:10:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: from SKOLAR.com (www.skolar.com [64.168.231.131]) by msgbas1.cos.agilent.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 942713EE for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Wed, 23 May 2001 18:10:25 -0600 (MDT) Received: from skolar.com (skolar-gh.skolar.com [172.19.36.111]) by SKOLAR.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id RAA32661 for <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>; Wed, 23 May 2001 17:10:25 -0700 Message-ID: <3B0C5187.25904FA7@skolar.com-DeleteThis.com> Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 17:10:47 -0700 From: Greg Harris <harris@skolar.com-DeleteThis.com> Organization: Skolar Inc. X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (WinNT; I) X-Accept-Language: en To: wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com Subject: Re: Breakdown report at 3rd yesterday References: <001801c0e3c3$544352c0$6701a8c0@pacbell.net-DeleteThis.com>
Since breaking my uni happened to me just this week as well and has happened
before and I'm semi-opinionated about the issue... here are my thoughts.
I was in the middle of the ebb at Crissy closer to Sausilito than SF and my uni
broke as I landed a jump. I have the double bolted black-hourglass type of uni
w/ the webbing. I jibed, then sailed in on a plane, although unhooked just to
be conservative w/ how much pressure I was putting on top of the board, webbing,
etc. No damage to board, the webbing kept the whole thing intact aside from
being a little wobbly.
One year ago, my uni-tendon snapped which forced me to sail / waterstart
position sail my way back in from the channel at third. I found it not very
easy to waterstart w/ no real connection to my board other than grinding the
sail straight down into my board. Sort of sailable if your willing to kill your
deck, which I didn't feel all that good about. My deck still got messed up
anyway since I didn't do a full self rescue. And doing a self rescue out at
Crissy or a slow deck crunching sail would not have been much fun with as fast
as the ebb was going.
I've also both had my uni separate from my board at the level of the bolt, where
a safety line doesn't do any good and very nearly done so a second time since it
simply loosened up on the deck.
Lessons I've learned: 1) Use two bolts, I've never had a problem of the base
coming undone or becoming loose from the board in such a case. The fact is
losing your board at some of the sites we all sail in can potentially turn into
a very scary situation. Which is also why during a self rescue I keep a rope to
tie myself to my board. And while the ebb may help save you a walk, it's also
far more likely to keep you out in the water much longer since it pulls you
directly away from shore. Lesson 2) Use the webbing: it keeps everything intact
rather than having the sail attached by a wobbly rope. I jibed and planed in w/
no damage to my deck and I could have been back on the water w/ a new uni in 10
minutes if I wanted.
greg
Dave Polzer wrote:
> Good to hear all went well... just thought I'd add my 2 cents...
>
> I've had the same breakdown occur to me and was very greatful for the saftey
> rope that ties the 2 universal pieces together. If you dont have that 3"
> rope then make sure you add one.. I had seen my buddy have the exact same
> breakdown and he was able to sail it back in with just the saftey rope
> attaching the sail to board but his board took quite a beating....
>
> Here is where my good fortune came in and I thought I'd just pass it
> along... I've always used a volcano pad around the universal due to the
> numerous times I'd kick it stubbing my toe... but it also came in handy
> after my universal broke. It served as adaquate padding to save my board
> from the pounding of the mast while getting get back in.
>
> So needless to say now I try and never sail without a Volcano Pad and I pay
> a great deal of attention to the saftey line and or webbing on my
> universals.. because the do work. Was I ever happy to not only make back in
> but also with a completely unharmed board.
>
> See ya at third!
>
> Dave Polzer
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jonathan Hahn" <hahn@unetix.com-DeleteThis.com>
> To: "Multiple recipients of list WIND_TALK"
> <wind_talk@opus.labs.agilent.com-DeleteThis.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 12:10 PM
> Subject: Breakdown report at 3rd yesterday
>
> >
> > I had a breakdown yesterday at 3rd, but I couldn't have been too much
> > luckier...
> >
> > I was out enjoying the conditions out in the channel yesterday
> > well-powered on a 5.5m2 when my board (ASD 9'0") simply shot out from
> > under me and left me holding my rig (and sinking). The pin that
> > connects my universal joint to the board sheared at the rubber of the
> > universal. This is the second time I have experienced pin shear like
> > this but that's not too bad for over 15 years of windsurfing. I've
> > never experienced a rubber universal itself failing. My universals are
> > probably over 5 years old, so perhaps I had it coming. They are Mistral
> > systems that I bought at a Vela summer sail.
> >
> > I ditched the rig and swam for the board which was being prodded away
> > from me by the swell in the channel. Eventually I caught it and brought
> > it back to the rig which was still afloat. I would guess you have a few
> > minutes before it's unrecoverable. Fortunately, another sailor (Akram?)
> > was in the vicinity and stopped to help me. He helped me stabilize my
> > board and rig while I ran a line under my mast track adapter and through
> > the nylon u-joint safety webbing. It took a few attempts but we finally
> > got it as tight as possible, but that still had about 6 inches of play.
> > We were lucky that it was ebbing and so we didn't get blown downwind
> > while we were doing this. I'd guess it took about 10 minutes or so.
> >
> > Then I tried waterstarting. This took many attempts and failures but I
> > once I got up with the mast positioned properly on the board (up wind of
> > the mast track) I was underway and even able to hook in. I stayed out
> > of the footstraps since the dynamics of sailing this configuration were
> > very weird and took contortions to maintain my course. But still, I was
> > able to sail non-stop about 3/4 the way in from beyond the middle of the
> > channel. Once I dropped, I just walked the rest of the way since the
> > tide was out and my board was getting screwed up.
> >
> > The mast scratched and caused a depression in my board, but other than
> > that, I survived the episode unscathed. I never really thought about
> > how I'd connect a mast to the board in an emergency before , but I now
> > realize that being able to tie something to the mast track is very
> > important.
> >
> > Thanks to Akram and everyone who stopped to check up on me.
> >
> > Jon
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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