GO windsurfing with me … now …
By amokaman | August 27, 2008
I put the Sanyo Xacti on my helmet and took a ride in some strong NE 15-20 mph winds we had here on August 26, 2008. I was riding my BIC Techno II 160 with a Sailworks 5.5 Retro sail. The video came out pretty good so I posted it on YouTube.
Topics: BAF | No Comments »
Another summer day at the Bay - August 2008
By amokaman | August 19, 2008
Monday evening’s weather forecast said it would blow 10-20 all day Tuesday August 19th. A few minutes after I arrived at Maumee Bay State Park the whitecaps disappeared and the winds subsided to 10 to 15 mph. Chris and Chuck were rigging 8.5 and 9.5 sails so I rigged my Comp 8.5 on the Prodigy and got in a good long 4 hour practice session. In two weeks the last windsurf regatta in this area for the 2008 season is being held at Higgins Lake Michigan so I was practicing extra hard. The east winds made for some nice two foot swells to ride on. Later in the afternoon Denny and Dick arrived and did some long boarding on big sails. There was a wind line about a half mile out from shore and I was planing on the Prodigy which always makes for a fun session. One lone Michigan kiter got in some rides in the puffs and looked to be having an OK time sticking close to shore.
Toledo boardsailors pack up after a good August afternoon.
Around 5:30 we packed it up and four of us boardheads headed over to the BayShore Supper club for refreshments. I had a perch sandwich which is my favorite after a good workout on the water. The summer of 2008 has been a great one for wind here on the North Coast. There have been few no wind days this season. We’ve had a lot of nice 10 to 15 days along with a handful of 15-25 days. August usually is hot and humid but this year we’ve had low humidity with sun and cooler temperatures most of the month.
The local K-12 schools start here on Thursday August 21st signaling the start of the end of another summer season. The beach at the park is strangely quiet which is a nice change. As I watch the news of tropical storm Fay blasting Florida I can’t help to think that the North Coast is a pretty good place to live.
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Stick Bug
By amokaman | August 13, 2008
This is totally unrelated to windsurfing but every summer I run across one of these buggies on the garage door. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of it this year. My Sanyo Xacti on auto focus does a pretty darn good jobs with close ups. This has to be the strangest insect on the North Coast. A few days later I took a picture of a praying mantis that was on my trailer cover. Click on the pictures for a larger view.
Topics: Other Interests | No Comments »
2008 Olympics and RS:X Hybrid
By amokaman | August 12, 2008
With Olympic windsurfing racing going on this week now is a good time to talk about the RS:X board used in the Olympics. The RS:X One Design board is sold by Neil Pryde a competitor of Mistral. The official Neil Pryde RS:X Class Web site is http://rsxclass.com/. The RS:X board and rig is also considered a Hybrid one design kit like the Mistral Prodigy is. So when an RS:X shows up at a regatta it will race in the same Hybrid class that I race in. Unfortunately that kit uses a larger sail and fin which gives it an advantage so I’m never happy to see one. It would be nice if the Hybrid class for US Windsurfing had a limit of an 9.5 sail and 56 cm on the fin to help equal everyone out.
The RS:X class sail for men is 9.5 square meters in size and women an 8.5. Perhaps the largest difference is that most racers use a very long 70cm fin with a deep tuttle box. I’ve raced against the RS:X on several occasions and in medium to high winds it betters the Prodigy. On a course where winds are up and down a bit in a mixture of light to medium air the kits are pretty equal. In really light winds the Prodigy kit will better the RS:X even with the Prodigy using a square meter less of sail. The RS:X doesn’t have any rail thus it really sucks in light ( < 6mph) winds. I haven’t priced the RS:X lately but from what I’ve heard they are hard to get and much more costly than a Prodigy. Given that we don’t seem to know from one to the next Olympic’s if there will even be Olympic windsurfing the class probably won’t grow outside of those contending for a spot on their countrie’s Olympic teams.
Nancy Rios the USA RS:X women’s Olympic hopeful has a blog at http://www.nancyrioswindsurfing.blogspot.com/
Given the tones of her postings the first couple days in Quingdao are not going well as it sounded like it has been a pump fest. At the 2007 Calema Midwinters in Florida I raced in several races against Nancy and I know she would be doing well if the winds were up. Likewise Ben Barger the USA men’s entry is pretty far back in the standings also after four races. Some good news is Annie Tunncliffe in Radical Laser who did sail just up the road from Toledo out of North Cape Yacht club is in first after two races!
Results of races here:
http://www.sailing.org/olympics/resultscentre.php?eventid=16195
Some Olympic windsurfing history:
1984 Los Angeles windsurfing was a demonstration sport, Scott Steel from USA won a second using the European WindGlider. The other board considered was the Windsurfer One Design manufactured by Hoyle Schwitzer of the USA.
1988 Pusan Korea Mike Gebhart from the USA won the Bronze on a Lechner Dvision II which was built in Austria. The Division II has a rounded hull and resembled the old BIC 152 if you have ever seen one of those.
1992 Barcelona Spain Mike Gebhart from the USA won the Silver on a modifed Division II Lechner. The Lechner was beefed up and a larger 7.3 sail supplied by Neil Pryde was used. As in previous events there was alot of equipment failure which led to the Mistral IMCO longboard being choosen for the next Olympics. They had a distribution system with dealers that made the board easily available near worldwide.
1996 Atlanta Olympics were sailed in Savannah on the Warsaw Sound. The Mistral IMCO performed well and it’s ready supply and low cost boosted Olympic as well as amatuer level racing world wide.
2000 Sydney Australia there was no equipment changes per say however in 1997 Mistral had attempted to shift production of the IMCO to Malaysia along with making some improvements on the board and rig. However after difficulties it had to move production back to Europe. That led to a shortage of boards and concerns that One Design wasn’t so One and unfortunately that started a discent movement against the Mistral IMCO.
2004 Athens Greece, this was the last time the Mistral IMCO was used. With Formula style racing gaining popularity in Europe and with Olympic politics at their worst the Neil Pryde RS:X was chosen in 2005 as the next Olympic board. Several boards were evaluated including a lightweight version of the Mistral Prodigy.
2008 China - the Neil Pryde RS:X is new Olympic board being used. Light winds are in the forecast thus likely this will be a pump fest event. It will be interesting to hear what the windsurfing Olympic community thinks of the RS:X after the 2008 Olympics.
My opinion is the bad thing about the RS:X is it is not a longboard or a full sized Hybird like the Prodigy. The supply of used Mistral IMCO Longboards was about endless and they helped many people get into the sport of windsurfing during the 90’s. The fact they were known to be the Olympic board for near 12 years was a big plus. They sailed very well in light winds and they didn’t particulary cost much.
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4 Days of Bliss - 2008 I-LYA Regatta
By amokaman | August 7, 2008
This was my third time attending this race known as Bay Week and this time we had 9 Mistral Prodigy One Design kits racing. The I-LYA group was very happy to see us there because as like in windsurfing the attendance at many sail boat regatta events has declined over the last decade. In total counting windsurfers there was near 70 boats there. With 50 of them being crews of three or more there was a crowd of around 200 people at the Monday evening Captain Morgan rum party.
What I’ve noticed is the big boat sailing community easily relates to the Prodigy One Design class when they see a group of us. When they see us using the same hulls and sails that makes racing sense to them. The Prodigy hull basically has the shape of a small sail boat so it looks real cool to them. I think the Prodigy class really fits in well with small centerboard type sail craft on a race course. Below are some of Prodigy boards at our launch site on Middle Bass Island.
The Erie islands are a great place to be at anytime during the summer. The daily late afternoon Bay Week festivities keep you busy after the morning’s races. This year a really great local musician named Alex Bevin entertained us during the daily beer blasts. We stayed on Middle Bass Island at a place which has a great view of Put-In-Bay harbor. The picture below is of the National Memorial Perry’s Monument which celebrates Perry’s victory at the Battle of Lake Erie in 1812. Put-In-Bay harbor is just to the right of the monument. The land at the right is Gibraltar Island where Ohio State University has a research center.
The winds were good Monday, awesome Tuesday and races were canceled Wed as the winds were in the 2 to 5 mph range at 9:30am. The Prodigy class and Interlake class could have raced in that light air. Unfortunately I think they canceled because most of the Hobie Wave class were having difficulty getting out to the start area. I raced well but others were at the top of their game and raced better. I need to find the VMG angle quick off the start and adjust it quickly in the puffs. Usually by the time I get the right angle going the puff has ended. On day two I was close to the front pack several times and was doing real well on the upwinds but lost ground on the down wind legs.
The final results I believe were:
1 Dick Tillman
2 Rod Clevenger
3 Denny Brengartner
4 Chris Barry
5 Scott Haas
6 Joe Belhobeck
7 Frank Murry
8 Gary Smith
9 Don
Above some of the Prodigy group warms up in light air before the Wednesday morning racing was canceled. In the back ground on the right those specs are the sails of the big sail boats in the distance. This is a beautiful spot to race at because the course is nearly surrounded by islands. Below in the picture is Sugar Island to the left of and Middle Bass Island on the right of the committee boat. Some time in 2009 a renovated Middle Bass State Park with a new marina and campground is scheduled to open. We are hoping that happens in time for the 2009 Bay Week event. The campground should be a great spot to windsurf from.
Topics: Prodigy Racing | 1 Comment »
Mistral Superlight I - the original IMCO board
By amokaman | August 1, 2008
I‘ve bought and sold several Mistral Superlights I over the years but this particular one is in extra nice shape so I’ve decided to sail it myself. I picked it up on EBAY with a couple old sails and booms for $111. The Superlight as the name suggests was lightweight for a board of it’s day. Without centerboard it weighs around 30 pounds but much of that weight is in the back half of the board. The nose end of this board is light and that really helps it glide along in light air conditions. I’m not sure of the year but around 1994 Mistral came out with the Superlight II which was an Equipe II hull with none of the accessories on it. The Superlight II still remains popular today for racing with but they are somewhat hard to find these days as no one want’s to give them up.
I believe the Superlight is the board that started the International Mistral Class Organization or IMCO http://www.imco.org/ . As late as 1988 there was a large Mistral Superlight following with some great Superlight IMCO competitions held in the Ohio and Michigan area. I can remember over two dozen Superlights competing at the Alum Creek regatta back in 1988. The one design sail used with it was the 6.3 RAF Mistral Progress Line sail. The sail came in three sizes 4.3, 5.3 and 6.3 and the orange color scheme was unforgettable.
There are two mast foot holes in the deck with the front one giving you better upwind power. The fin pivots against a spring which is way cool allowing you to beach start in like 6 inches of water. The centerboard is huge but the cassette has no gasket but that dosen’t matter unless you really get going fast which isn’t a great idea. Notice there are no foot straps on this guy. The bottom is wide and flat back by the fin then rounds as it goes towards the nose with a lot of vee in front of the centerboard. The Superlight can easily better modern race boards in light wind conditions. I’m looking forward to doing some Open Class racing in the future on this board when conditions are right. Many people still keep an old Superlight in their garage for light air sailing on hot summer dog days.
Around 1989 the Mistral IMCO One Design longboard with it’s 7.4 and 6.6 cambered sails became popular very quickly. The new funboards of the late eighties had quickly laid the Superlight to rest. The IMCO longboard was announced in 1992 as the new Olmypic board for the 1996 games. During the early 90’s IMCO longboard racing grew steadily but for several reasons it’s popularity died near as quick as it started in the late nineties. Now the wide style Mistral Prodigy is the IMCO board of choice in this region however I still always see one or more IMCO One Design longboards competing in any midwest regatta I attend.
Topics: BAF | 1 Comment »
I’m number 1, I’m number 1, …, …
By amokaman | July 31, 2008
The US Windsurfing NRT (National Ranking Tour) has me as number 1 in the Hybrid Class as of July 2008. The NRT race series consists of a dozen or more races held around the country. Basically this is a contest where attending more races than other competitors can propel you to the top of the NRT list even if you don’t place well in individual races. It helps greatly of course to do well and attend the larger races where more points are possible.
There is one more NRT race this season in my area the Fall Windpower Champs up in Fond Du Lac Wisconsin that I hope to get to this year. I’m not claiming to be the best Prodigy Hybrid racer but for now I can claim I’m number 1 and doing well in the NRT Points race. Local Toledoan Rod Clevenger is just 3 points behind me!
Topics: Prodigy Racing | No Comments »
BSAF - NCSKG - July 18-20, 2008
By amokaman | July 22, 2008
Another Black Swamp Air Force North Coast Kite Stunt games is in the history books. I camped at the park Thursday through Saturday nites in the Lucky Dog. Each night after dark Terry G. made a great camp fire for people to gather round.
It was hot and humid this year and lucky for me the A/C unit in the trailer works great. I was on lot 187 and was able to fly a kite from my camp which was nice. Some of the guys flew at night putting up some strobe lights.
The BSAF club purchased a memorial tree which was planted on lot 209 during the festival. It’s purpose is to remember all kite flyers that have passed on including Al, Rick and Tom who frequently attended the NCSKG festival.
Topics: Other Interests | No Comments »
FOR SALE 1 trailer, 21 sails, 8 boards and more
By amokaman | July 13, 2008
I’ve been busy for several days sorting through a trailer load of older used gear I purchased. It’s been a trip through memory lane looking at equipment dating back to 1989. One of the boards is an Mistral IMCO longboard from 1989 which is still in what I’d call nice condition. Another is a old Fanatic Bat which also is in nice condition. These will make nice outfits for someone starting out that is on a budget.
Some sails never die and I was surprised to now be the owner of Phil Zabawa’s old Shamrock sail. Phil was a great windsurfer and racer that died from cancer back in the early 90’s. I was basically still learning my way around a windsurf course when I met Phil. He lived on the water in Luna Pier Michigan and the Toledo group partied and sailed from his place a few times. I remember the Shamrock mounted on an old Superlite beating me more than one time in area regatta.
For the next few weeks I got plenty of sail and board repair projects to keep me busy. I’m glad I’m retired from the day job.
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4th of July on the North Coast
By amokaman | July 4, 2008
The 4th for Haas family the last several years has been a day to get together. My sister Cindy and her husband Ron bought the 40 acre family farm which has been owned by a Haas for over 100 years now. Ron retired after 30 years on the day job and now runs a landscape and mowing service and Cindy runs a craft store on the weekends from a huge new pole building they added a few years back. The old corn crib my dad remodeled 30 years ago is still a great summer party building and with the picnic tables in it a group of 30 can eat together. It’s always good to get together and eat a few dogs, shoot some fireworks and fly a couple kites over the back 40.
So far July has been hot here and winds are coming now pretty much only when a front pushes in. July 18,19 and 20th are the North Coast Stunt Kite Games out at Maumee Bay State Park. I’ll be camping out there with the Lucky Dog Serro Scotty and selling kites all three days.
Topics: Other Interests | No Comments »
The track car on the 06+ Prodigy
By amokaman | June 24, 2008
For near twenty years the Mistral boards I have had used the same steel peg foot in the sliding mast track with the safety bunge cord hooked to a lease spoon on the mast foot. My early 2006 Prodigy is no different. However in 2006 and later the adjustable track changed greatly. The name most people call the new track is the thermometer track because of it’s bulge at the pedal end.
Since I’ve not personally used this track yet I can’t say much about it other than hopefully the engineers knew what they were doing. The mast foot peg used in this track is 1/8″ shorter than most other Mistral pegs people have in their gear bags. After comparing several different older Mistral mast foot pegs from various people I was surprised in the differences. The peg hole in this track car is not bottomless! It ends so you can’t use a mast foot with a long peg. If you do and it fits tight I can tell you that getting it unlocked can be a real struggle.
I have heard that some people have drilled out the bottom of the hole so their current mast feet work. I would be afraid an extra long peg might catch on the track adjust mechanism and that might break the track but good. It probably would be best to just use the supplied mast foot peg that works perfect as is with this track.
Unless someone tells me different the bunge cord and ball you see above is not a safety lease line. A safety lease spoon on a mast foot actually gets in the way of the locking lever operation on this new car and doesn’t fit over the knot above that ball. Once the lever is pushed in the peg is locked in and should not release under pressure thus no safety lease is needed. The tighter the bunge cord is the more friction there is when the car slides in the track. The bunge cord is looped around wheels at the ends of the track. Without the bunge cord the car could move very fast crashing from one end to the other when the pedal is depressed. The cord can be easily tightened by putting a new knot a few inches down in it which makes the car slide harder in the track. As the cord stretches and wears a bit adjusting the cord length is something one will want to do.
Call me “old school” but I would feel better if there was an optional addon for a safety lease and line. When I’m sailing offshore there is some comfort in knowing I have a safety line there if the foot should release or peg come unscrewed somehow.
Topics: Rigging Prodigy | No Comments »
Prodigy Standard Centerboard
By amokaman | June 13, 2008
The Prodigy standard centerboard is constructed of plastic and thus is one third the price of the carbon race version. The standard version weighs about 1/2 pound less than the larger race version. It’s much more durable as the plastic surface is tough to chip and scratch. The other big difference is because it is not as wide it does not go above the deck when in the up position. For beginners this really helps them out as it is one big less thing to not have to stumble across the deck on.
Even if you are an expert racer having the standard centerboard is nice especially if you have friends or family riding your board. I don’t want my racing centerboard to be getting large nicks in it from fun sailing. Thus when fun sailing I’ll use the standard centerboard and if racing in a shallow area with a rock bottom I’ll use it then also.
Below you can see the standard centerboard is the same length but narrower in width. I usually have Prodigy centerboards in my online catalog.
Topics: Rigging Prodigy | 2 Comments »
Toledo Race - 4th place
By amokaman | June 2, 2008
The 19th annual TABA Windsurf regatta was held here in Toledo Ohio on May 31 - June 1st , 2008. Mother Nature blew hard both days. We had a great turnout of eleven in the Prodigy fleet! We could have had a couple more but they were needed on committee boats. Unfortunately we have a lack of non-sailing club volunteers to do such jobs something we hope to correct for next year. Below A-Fleet approaches the start line.
Prodigy class results in order showing sail number and name.
NATI Nat Siddall
OH10 Chris Barry
MIG Glendon Gardner
H Scott Haas
GL240 David Chapman
1 Rod Clevenger
S1 Scott Fohey
57 Dennis Brengartner
U Gary Smith
X5 James Donahue
9 Frank Murray
36 Philip Dufresne
Of the six races we ran I didn’t have any particularly good starts but then no real bad starts either. The course was a simple two mark course with a just a windward and a leeward mark. That means half the course is downwind which I’ve found out is currently a weak point of sail for me. I’ll be practicing downwind reaching much more in the future.
Topics: Prodigy Racing | 3 Comments »
True Ames Series 2000 54cm fin for the Prodigy
By amokaman | May 30, 2008
The one design 50 cm (20 inches long) Prodigy fin works pretty darn good overall even though it has an usual shape to it. In light winds it more than does the job and in strong winds it performs well. However I don’t always race in the Prodigy One Design class. I can also race in Open Unlimited or Hybrid class. In the Hybrid class you can use a fin up to 70cm in length and a 9.5 square meter sail. Though I’ve not personally seen it happen experts have told me you risk blowing out the powerbox type fin box using fins over 60cm. Luckily with the Prodigy board and the Comp 8.5 sail a better 54 cm (21. 3 inches long) fin is all you need anyway. I’ve used the True Ames Series 2000 54cm fin during several sessions and it performed nicely. The big difference was that I felt I could rail up in much less wind and keep on the rail which is exactly what I had hoped it would do. The other problem the fin solves is that I want to keep my compeitition fin in good shape and nick free so I’d radther not use if for fun sailing.
The Mistral Prodigy 50 cm one design fin runs $129 while the True Ames Series 2000 54 runs $147. The Series 2000 is a slightly longer fin and is raked forward more. You can find the Series 2000 54cm / 21.3″ in my online catalog. It comes with a nice padded fin cover and weighs 1 lbs 14 oz. Visit the True Ames Web site for details.
Topics: Rigging Prodigy | No Comments »
Telltales
By amokaman | May 21, 2008
What is a Telltale? They are little ribbons you fasten to both sides of a sail that indicate how the air is flowing or not over the sail at that point. I’m not going to try to explain the technical side of it all for that you can Google telltales and read up on them. The skinny of it is that these things can help you trim the sail in light wind conditions. What you want is for them to be flowing straight back toward the leech and not hanging down.
I was going to order a 12 pack of telltales which ran $6.95 at everythingyouwantintheworldsailit.com Shipping and handling would add another $8.00. So near $1.25 per tail. That would help keep the ten year old in the Far East employed that made them along with the seaman that pilot the freighters to get them over the ocean, the dock workers that unloaded the container, the truck driver that got it to distribution company, the truck driver that got it from distribution to the retailer, the employees at etywitwsi.com, the ISP people that run the Web site I ordered it from and the UPS driver that delivered it to me. I could probably think of fifty more people involved somewhere along the line like the people that engineered it and the materials it was made of and don’t forget the people that refined the oil that fueled the ships and trucks. Anyway I decided against employing 99% of the world this morning and built my own using ripstop from my kite sewing scraps box.
I used my hole cutter on 2″ wide adhesive backed dacron repair tape to make circles and sewed 12″ ripstop ribbons on them. The ribbons are about 1/2″ wide and I slit them so I guess you would call these Slit Telltales. Ripstop gets all wrinkled laying around so I just iron with a normal iron the little ribbons to flatten them out. Green I believe goes on starboard and red on port. Of course the real test is if I get out in 25mph winds will they shred. If they do no problem as I made spares.
Topics: Rigging Prodigy | No Comments »
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