The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Steel Bolts Fail (over enough time)

I'm a two-bolt mast base man.   No single bolt uni's for me (except on the SUP which only has an insert.)   The attraction is the extra safety...if a bolt fails I can still sail home on the other, though the mast foot may get out of position.   Also the two bolt plates can be left on every board, and just the uni(s) can be attached and removed as needed, speeding up derigging.

End of sermon.   Here's what happened at the last session:   I was adjusting the mast foot position on my 99 Skate in the parking lot of South Jamesport, when, while tightening the bolts, one sheared off while I was not applying that much torque.   I wasn't close to using a strong twist.   That bolt was ready to fail...happily it did so on dry land.*

I'm guessing I bought the foot ten or twelve years ago...maybe more.   I'm not sure how I'm going to be inspecting the others, but taking them off of the boards (I have a two bolt plate on all four boards) for a look I will be doing.    Gear breaks.

*More happily I had an extra one in the van.

(Photo:   The bolt in two pieces.)

Catching Some in 80 Degrees

We don't have a category for "warm water sailing" on the Puffin, but we could have with sessions like yesterday's.  When signs of a thermal began popping up the texts went out, resulting in a small turnout of Scott, Artie, and your editor.   Sceptical Scott sat in his pickup saying "get me excited before I rig".   Artie and I had no time to waste...it was HOT out.   Artie only brought his 6.0...the perfect choice it turned out.  I rigged 6.3 and a 100 liter board, and down to the beach we went.   Once we figured out how to launch in between the two dozen people swimming (walk all the way upwind, shlog most carefully) we were on it.   There were lulls but there were also speed patches, and soon SceptiScott was out on his 5.8.   The forecast was for it to build, but after 90 minutes it seemed to be dropping, so in the interest of spousal points we wrapped it up.

(Top:  Artie jibing on the inside.  Bottom:  Me happy to be hiked out.  Photos by Chris.)

Summer Shortboarding

Friday at South Jamesport:  I arrived to find only Scott and his 4.7.   I rigged 5.4 and the easy breezy planing began.

Soon the Wolf arrived, followed by Christian and Artie.  And more wind...4.7's for all!   By the time Pav and Joe Natalie were ready to rock 4.2's were being sailed.   I had to leave by then, but returning home saw some texts about 3.7's.  Wow.

Sunday at Mecox:   Massimo arrived first, then Sally and I pulled up in the van.  My wife hadn't sailed in two years but got a good run in on the 4.7 whilst Mass and I were sailing 6.2's.    Warm and sunny again.   Easy windsurfing!