Eight in the 808 - 60 Days of Summer Day 20

My Tabou received some more attention this morning and is now sporting a flesh lick of paint. I am itching to get back onto a wave board and sail after a couple of weeks dedicated to being overpowered on big gear. After confirming my entry this morning and choosing my event t-shirt size (which ended up being quite difficult!) I arrived at a much windier Kanaha than was presented yesterday. It was set up to be a great opportunity to get some high wind practice in and I rigged a 6.0 with most people of 5.5 – 5.8m sails. It looks like it will be rather windy on Saturday so I had picked up a 5.5m to add to my ever growing quiver of boards and sails. There are not many details online about the 2010 Maui Race Series but this weekend Kanaha will host the Neil Pryde State Championships, the first possible start is 11:30am so get down and check it out. It should be a good watch for all the family (entry if FREE for spectators!). I will be posting a report on Saturday evening which will include onboard video from my races so that you’ll be able experience what it is like to hurtle round a slalom course with 10 other guys all trying to beat you!

With my two week preparation almost complete my plan for today was to simulate a full race day which consists of 4 races in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, I would use my timer to practice my starts and try to get into some sort of rhythm. It was extremely choppy especially in the upwind area where the races will start. It is hard to fully visualise the course without the course actually being laid but I know the Kanaha waters well and the GPS tracks are interesting and show that I managed to keep a fairly constant course throughout the day. I completed 4 back to back downwind slaloms with a max speed in the low 29’s.

The timers used these days are rather better than what I had15 years ago with a big display and being easy to use.

After a brief lunch break I was back on the water for the second set of 4 races. The wind had picked up (but looking at the online data it appears that it wasn’t as windy as two days ago when I was on the 6.6!) and I was thankful of the extra inch of downhaul that I had added during the break but, the broad downwind legs especially the first two were extremely tough and it was hard to keep the board in a straight line and from smashing into the chop. I have been practicing on a figure-8 course in recent days so it was interesting to try out a different angle.

This is the analysis of one of the practice races, you can clearly see the sail upwind and start (the shorter red ones) where I was coasting and then the 5 legs. The start is towards the beach from the outside and it this clearly shows how much slower it is going out through the chop on the 2nd and 4th legs. At the weekend I will try to set a WAYPOINT at the startline so that I can assess my speed at each of the starts.

By 4:15pm I had successfully completed 8 practice races and hadn’t fallen off at a gybe mark even once! I figured that was a good time to quit for the day! My max speed was clocked at 29.82 knots and I was pleased with a new Alpha 500 PB of 22.734 Knots which will go towards the HAM challenge score, looking more closely this was completed with only a max speed of 26.7 knots which makes me think that there is more that I can do here.

Check out the HAM website, maybe you could do a challenge in your sailing area?

This GPS image shows all of the tracks from today, again you can clearly make out the start area in the top right, the five legs and the upwind cruising (back up to the start).

After arriving home having completed some errands (of which one was to stock up on Powerbars!) I once more donned my running kit and set off into the wind and up to Paia before going straight up the hill, it was a fairly short but tough run and I was really pleased after a fairly taxing day at the beach. I do feel somewhat ready now for the weekend and I may not train tomorrow or Friday instead opting for some bump’n’jump action as I am keen to get on my waveboard and try those new fins some more.

Pic of the day

On top of the world, click to enlarge

Sailing record = 100% (19/19)

More to follow...