If a mast breaks and nobody is there to hear it, who cares? But if someone IS there to hear it, and they hear it out on the water, and they hear it while they're on their most exciting reach of the day and so on, and if it's me on the reach, well then you're going to hear about it.
First, the sound: "BANG!" Like firing a shotgun. Loud!
I was sailing with Jon Ford at Ponquogue, light wind wave sailing at what is the easiest and nicest wave sailing venue I've windsurfed on Long Island (I'd like to hear from others about their preferences). Three to five foot gentle waves, generously distributed and well spaced, with an orderly outside and reasonable inside for jibing. "Inviting" is what Jonathan called it. "Appealing" was the word that came to my mind. We sounded like we were reading some gourmet magazine.
Anyhow the east wind (side shore!) was light, so we were on 7.0's, just happy to be out there. My 7.0 takes a 460 mast, in this case my seven year old Fiberspar 6000 (100% carbon and NOT approved for wave sailing) but hey, I've never broken a mast* so I felt pretty good about the situation. I was having a great time, mostly planing, getting some decent jumps, everything just exciting enough for me who has sailed in waves all of nine times. Then finally the wind kicked in fully as a nice set arrived, and I started tearing ass towards shore from the outside, howling with joy and shooting upwind on the swell face. It was possibly the happiest moment I've had on the water all year.
BANG!
The last time I found myself in the water with a swim ahead of me all I could think of was sharks. This time all I could think of was that the bliss session was over.
It only took about ten minutes to get in. Jonathan (sailing Bill B's Kona) towed me a good bit of the way.
By the time I disassembled the broken rig and got it back to the van, the wind was up, and now on a 6.2 it was return to bliss.
Today I will buy an ocean-worthy 460.
* I should note that for several years I've been embarrassed that I'd never broken a mast. Anybody who sails hard in challenging conditions long enough is going to break a mast eventually. They're going to break several over the years. While I've trashed in battle at least one of every other windsurfing component, I've felt a bit unmanly for my pristine mast collection. I still haven't pogo'ed one in the impact zone, but at least I'm on my way.
(Top Photo: That can't be right.
Bottom Photo: Jonathan looks for his wave, inbound at Ponquogue)
Congratulations!
Posted by: Marni | June 14, 2007 at 01:27 PM