The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

Van Stuff (An Electric Shredmobile? I Wish...)

Three months ago during a quick session with Christian the driver's door to my van got yanked by the wind...big time.   Christian had warned me about parking tail to the wind, but I was not careful, and it cost me $900 to get a working front door (a lot of welding was necessary...doh!)  But hey the van door works again!

All of this fussing over my 19 year old van got me thinking about the possibility of upgrading.  Ford is making an electric pickup, so I thought "wouldn't an electric van be cool!"   Could power up our launch sites...need to use power tools?  A hot water heater and pump for showering?  Fun fun fun.   I was reading a couple articles about the surge in sales for electric vehicles when I found this article about electric vans in the New York Times.   It seems like every electric van that's going to be made in the next ten years is already sold...to either Amazon, Fedex, or Walmart.

Time to order new car seat covers for my trusty old ride!

 

Dead Shredmobile

A warm windy three-day weekend, and my van won't START?  Argh!!   The good news is this happened on the way home from Friday's session.   The bad news is that it happened before Saturday and Sunday.   So I sucked it up and hung out with my wife's friends, ignoring the trees, ignoring the texting on my phone ("3.7!" Scott wrote).   So while the Eastern Long Island Wind Chimp Association and Greater Puffindom were out on their smallest boards, I played croquet.

I said it.

This morning comes the word:  My 16 year old van needs a new fuel pump.   Which is in the gas tank.  Oh yeah and the left front ball joint has a lot of play in it...

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures (rigged sail on the roof)

Technically speaking I have only sailed twice this summer (ie after the Summer Solstice).   When there's a morning northerly brushing the beach at Towd Point (the closest spot to our house) I race down there, rig the 7.5 as fast as I can, and get some runs in.   But rigging a 7.5 in a hurry and derigging it in an hour or so is not particularly enjoyable.

Enter stupid idea.

It's been about a decade since I last did this, but I put padding on the inside of the van's roof rack, and I slide the top of the sail under the front rack while tieing retention lines from the boom to the back rack.  I can safely get to Towd Point Beach keeping my speed under 20 mph, so for the last few weeks I've kept the big wing rigged in the barn.  Oh yeah.

Only caught 45 minutes last weekend, but sans rigging time it was a complete win.  Hell it would be a win even with rigging and derigging, but I'd have missed the chance to do something stupid!

The Death of My Spencer Bucket

When I started outfitting my windsurfing van back in 2003 one of the first ideas I poached was the Spencer Bucket.   I met Spencer at a Dasher Windsurfing Clinic in May of ’03, and I was immediately drawn to his bucket.

 “Ya gotta have one,” Spencer explained.   "You can throw a good quantity of wet and sandy neoprene, harnesses etc into the thing after a session, you can use it as a platform to change fins and footstraps on a board, and the thing can be hosed out or just whacked on the back to get clean again.  The Spencer Bucket*."

This was Saturday at the clinic.  Sunday morning I arrived with my own Spencer Bucket.   Over the years it has met or exceeded expectations in terms of performance and utility.    But today it died.   More accurately:  Today I killed it.    I’d just taken off my wetsuit after a morning SUP session, and I thought I’d whack the back of the thing to get some sand out.    So I whacked, and it cracked

I’m going to K-Mart right now to replace it.   Can’t imagine showing up for a sesh without one.  

*Spencer did not refer to his bucket as a Spencer Bucket.   But I always have, in honor of Spencer (who called it a $7 bucket from K-Mart).   I’ve given them as gifts, and at least one happy recipient calls his a Spencer Bucket too (Steve don’t let me down when I see you this weekend!)

Windsurfing Van Tweak: Downhaul Crank in the Extension Rack

In the four years since I first set up my windsurfing van, I've all but completely switched from standard to RDM masts. While my old mast base extension rack had no trouble accomodating RDM extensions, I decided to make a new rack anyway now that I'm all but completely RDM.

While I was at it I decided to fool around and see if I could get my downhaul crank to live in the rack as well. I think I came up with a solution, with both the cup of the crank as well as the handle having holes to accomodate them.

This little rack saves me time every time I rig, and I expect making the crank easier to grab will have a positive effect as well. Recently there was a thread in an iWindsurf thread started by a guy looking for a downhaul tool to help him rig his race sails. He said he was too cheap to buy a $46 crank and was looking for cheaper alternatives. All I could think of was:

Race sails: $600 each
Racing grade mast: $500
Racing boom $600

Rig total: $1700

...but he won't spend another 2% to allow him to tune all that precision gear? Gear that's pretty much a waste unless it's dialed in?

It got me all excited about my Chinook crank. (We are suffering from lack of wind, folks!)

(If you're interested in setting up a vehicle for windsurfing, check out this post on my van, and in particular the photo album with explanations of everything I've done so far. This is not professional, merely a rolling experiment, my toy box on wheels.)

Ridiculously Cheap and Easy to Build Board Rack

A new thread in wreck dot about board storage got me Googleing for a rack design I'd found many years ago. Intended for surf boards, it is stupendously obvious and simple and brilliant. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Ply Rack:

Check out the Plyrack web page and see how the thing folds up if you need to get it out of the way. I think there is an idea here for van board racks too...swinging arms allow the van to carry oversized objects if needed.

With a single sheet of plywood (I'd get 3/4") 4 hinges, some screws and a jig saw you can put this thing together. Cool!

The windsurfing van

        "It's good to have a shredmobile" my friend Caldwell said, and now I have one.   My windsurfing van is a Ford E150 done up with lumber and inexpensive "storage solutions" from k-mart.   

Check out the van photo album to see and read how I've set it all up.  After four years it's quite dialed in.   Each photo is accompanied by notes on how it all works...I update these as I make changes and/or learn better techniques.   (Thanks to Spennie the Wind Junkie for hardware tips and the story of his very impressive van.)   If you're interested in greater detail on any aspect of the van, leave a comment...I'll answer and add photos as necessary.

Behind the driver’s seat is the board rack.   The rack takes four boards, and has a sail loft above which holds my four largest sails.  It's made of 2x2's.  Supporting crosspieces have foam pipe insulation on them to protect the bottom of the boards.  There are eye bolts in the uprights for bungee cords to secure the boards, as well as a bottle opener.  If you use bungee cords it's good to anticipate how the thing might snap out at you if the far hook somehow breaks, and position yourself accordingly. An eye surgeon friend has noted that bungee cords do their fair share of putting people's eyes out.

In order to fit more boards into less verticle space, three of the boards are spaced so tightly that they must slide out sideways, as there isn’t enough clearance to allow the foot straps to fit underneath the support for the board above it.   I’ve got a crude cantilever system that supports the two middle board supports entirely from the single inside rear support.    Note that this only applies to the rear rack.   The front rack is a straight “ladder” design.

The van also sports 9 storage drawers, a mastbase extension rack, and secure boom storage in addition to room for 3 additional sails.   

There is lots of detail and photographs, in addition to specific information on how it’s all put together, in the Windsurfing Van photo album.

I was inspired to share my attempts after years of availing myself of those who have generously documented their windsurfing vehicles online.   Check out Hans Anderson's old but still good list of windsurfing vehicle links.  For an example of someone trying to have it all, take a look at Danny Steyn's Ultimate Windsurfing Van.   

Other links to consider:

Check out these steel racks from an English outfitter.

In July I adapted my mast extension rack to accomodate a downhaul winch.