before racing, i always get nervous that there may be too much wind for my 12.5 (which, per neil pryde, tops out at 18). once i get on the water, there is NEVER too much breeze. need to ignore my fear, rig big and go for it.
i think the key to winning each race tonight was the start. each start i was able to get clear air, launch into first and never look back. 5 laps for everyone and 7 for me. the last race i caught a couple stragglers and lapped them...that was fun.
today was the first day on the new neil pryde 12.5 that micah sent me. it's AMAZING. definitely my favorite BIG sail. the reason i liked it so much is the way it handled the puffs...VERY controllable. the boom length on this sail is giganto. thus the power is down low and controllable. tons of power to get planing. a lots of control in the puffs.
the races were done at 5:21. i sailed till seven to work out and train for the big weekend coming up (sf classic on sat and course racing on sun...wahoo!). i could gybe twice in one minute (short lake). so i did about 200 gybes. felt good. the 12.5 is a beast to gybe and i was winded for each slalom race. after the racing i relaxed a bit. it was still a beast to gybe though.
below is a picture of ted huang, my son emmett and mike gebhardt from the 2006 rs:x pcc's from last july.
teddy is an amazing windsurfer. one of the best slalom sailors in the world. i asked him how he gybes so well. he said he simply focuses on the turn and everything else falls into place. today, i think i got a little bit of that. when it was puffy, i was turning through the gybe so much that by the time i flipped the sail, it was a handful to get going again. i backed off on the carve a bit so the sail was more downwind and i could speed away from the gybe a lot faster. i found the faster i got in the foot straps on the new gybe, the faster i could be on my way....just focus on the carve.
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