Crunching the Numbers

[chanrider]

Ok, so I kept track of my sessions on the water locally this season. Got out yesterday for a decent evening light wind sail on Waconia, 8.4M planing full on for an hour until it started getting dark... at 6pm! That made 50 this year. It was quantity over quality, cuz I have to stay local due to family etc etc. 36 windsurf, 14 kite. I was surprised at how little the smaller WS gear gets used. I know it's not much, but dang, those are some of the most memorable sessions. Light wind days sort of blur together. But I'm not complaining! Here's some the data...

[Woody]

Very cool Chanrider! Nice pie charts

[tailwindsaloft]

did you by any chance log what the average winds were in relation to what size sail you used?

[chanrider]

Average wind is a tougher one for me, because the wind is so variable around here. In my sailing log I created this year I pasted a copy of the iwindsurf graph for the day to get an idea of what the trend was for the day and the spread between average and gust readings. It’s pretty subjective on how your gear choice matches to the conditions. Waconia gets pretty choppy when it gets windy.

On Sunday I decided not to sail there because not only of the wind but also the terrain looked really confused and wicked. Vojta just said “There’s a lot of shi+ going on out there!” Veteran gorge & expert riders were in their element but I ran off to try a smaller “kiddie pool” lake by my house with flatter water. I’m sure with a 96 liter board (my smallest) and cold hands Waconia would have kicked my butt real good.

So for me it’s wind readings at the airports and also looking at the surface conditions.

Here’s sort of a general guide in knots, but also totally depends on how strong the gusts are and others might totally disagree.

10-12 Big kite
12-15 8.4M sail or big kite
14-18 7.4M sail
16-22 6.6M sail
20-26 5.5M sail
24+ ask what others who are better than you are using!

Any super gusty conditions tend to favor kites, so that’s also a factor. Keeping track of what you use the most gives you a good idea of what works for you personally which is pretty helpful, but it’s not necessarily applicable to others who sail different spots, with different skills, weight, etc. etc.

And those darn pie charts are starting to make me hungry!

[Woodette]

Neat! Last year I got out windsurfing 92 times. Always rigged ( thanks Woody ) always ready to go. I kept a journal, writing about every session, who I was out with, what the conditions were, what gear I was on, new things I learned and added pictures etc. This year we never had a windsurfing friendly summer at all and I sailed more in September/October and even this past week then I did all summer. Strong winds almost everyday and warm... for us Polar bears anyway.

Woodette

[Fred MPL]

Geez you guys. How the heck do you do it?

I probably got out no more than 10 times.