More Blanks

Marlon and I went to Fiberglass Hawaii up in Wahiawa this past Friday and picked out blanks for our next projects.  He picked up a 9'8" Y blank in polyurethane with a laminated stringer.  He is going to make another longboard (purple colored????)

I got a 9'8" XX in EPS.  I'm going to chop it in half and get two foilboard blanks out of it.  I think it is 3.75" thick at the middle - these boards will be sinkers for sure.

Have I said I really like this truck of mine???!!!

Whatelse Can It Carry?

A BIC sailboat.

Weekend End Surf - 28 July

Marlon and I hit the beach this evening.  Surf was slightly smaller than yesterday - but just as fun.  I brought the longboard again as the tide was lower than I am comfortable foiling in.  It's been good getting reacquainted with the longboard.

Good, clean fun!!!

Tuesday Errands - April 30

Marlon and I hit the surf again - this time I brought the foil.  Marlon brought the Wavestorm.  The swell was a hair smaller, but it was still challenging on the foil.  I caught some good lengthy rides - and I eat it on some wipeouts.  I am getting to the point where I know if I'm going to fly or if I'm going down in a blaze of glory - I can't remember when I was so stoked to see smaller, barely breaking waves...

Marlon caught a bunch - then he came over and was acting goofy - trying to blow bubble rings, accusing me of being a slow paddler, and just giggling for no reason.  I guess he likes surfing!

I am going to try out the smaller front wings - I'm starting to think the Slingshot FSurf Infinity 76 may be too big to catch fresh white water, or the steeper pitching waves (since I instantly breach after getting up despite the forward weight).

These pictures above are actually in reverse order...

After the short surf session, we hit Lowe's to buy more wood for the deck project.  Here's the truck pulling errand and surfmobile duty.

Teaching the Kids How to Windsurf

We had a free afternoon yesterday so we headed out for windsurfing lessons again (second time).  I had dug out the smallest sail I have - a 4.0 m2 Simmer Style X-Flex and rigged that up (mainly for Noe).

The wind was light (yes I did bring the hypernut and the Go Foil - but I figured it would best to focus on the kids), so we were able to focus on rigging, uphauling, and steering.  Marlon went out first -

Having a SUP out at the same time is handy for coaching and for switching out after we've drifted too far downwind.

Noe was next - since she is still light enough, I was able to stay onboard and walk her through the discussion points, instead of just talking about it.  Probably helps I've lost a few pounds ;)

We went back in I could get on the SUP and she could sail on her own.  Same drill after - swap boards - kid paddles in and I sail back upwind.  When we got back in, I had the kids practice uphauling and "drawing the sail across their body" to get into sailing position.  I probably should have started out doing that (and will do so next time).

So with the south swells pretty much done for this year, this (and foiling) has proven a great way to stay on the water.  Oh, and this truck... I can't say enough great things about this - seriously, three boards, a hydrofoil, a paddle and dry clothes for everyone - perfection!

A big MAHALO to La for taking pictures and being patient ;)

Third Time Out on the Hypernut

I had the afternoon to myself (La and the kids went to a end of the season party for their sailing club) - so I went on a foiling jaunt.  The truck was made to do this ;)

The wind was supposed to be up, tradewinds - 15 to 25 mph from the NE.  I brought the 5.0 and 4.5 sails, and the Maliko 200.  All the foils are setup for plate mounting now.

The wind was blowing 15 mph with gusts past 20.  Then it would have a few lulls below 10.  I decided to rig the 5.0 with a looser outhaul (for more power when needed).  Foiling with larger wings that are spaced closer together is different than foiling with high speed foils (smaller wings spaced a lot further apart).  So instead of using large sails, I'm using smaller ones - but I'm trying to gage the sail size from my regular windsurfing experience - and knowingly dropping a couple of sail sizes.  The launch at Hickam Harbor is perfect.  You walk out to chest deep water, flip the board so the foil is down, hop up and uphaul.  At 106 liters, this Hypernut isn't exactly a high and dry floater, but I am getting used to balancing it while getting underway.  I made several runs and initially was worried about making it back to the the launch/landing site (there is nothing but rocks everywhere else) - but after a few  runs, I was pretty confident I could make it back  without issue - the foil mast and wings act like a huge fin providing lateral resistance to drift.  I still have to sail upwind and keep conscious of the line I'm sailing, but I think I can limp back to the starting point in low wind.  

Now for the good stuff - I got the foil to lift several times.  The first time I thought "whoa - I'm way up - this is really high off the water" and I proceeded to breach the foil to windward.  There are a lot of things going on all at once - pressure from my feet, the sail rig, where my weight is relative to the foil, position of the foil mounted on the board, and others I probably haven't thought of.  On subsequent runs I kept more front foot pressure and more pressure to the windward side of centerline, sheeting out more to reduce power and I was getting longer runs.  Of note, I also had the boom a hair too high up on the mast.

The thought I have running through my mind is what would happen if I have better control of the foil (exerting pressure to control the lift of the foil and not have to have it lift at random when I'm moving fast), can I further drop the sail size?  Especially since I've seen videos of people sailing in less wind with smaller sails (I just don't know how much those people weigh).  I'll keep a log of the sessions - equipment and weather conditions - and see if I can figure this out.

 The rigging spot has really nice grass.  There is a hose with good water pressure and drainage so I can rinse the gear (while it is also on grass - at a spot midway between the rigging spot and the launch).  And the walk is pretty short from the launch to the rigging spot.  I think I'll be sailing here a lot more than Kailua (closer to work and the house, way less crowded, less chance of the truck getting broken into, less work to setup-walk-launch-rinse-walk back).

Weekend Regattaing

Marlon and Noe both sailed in races this weekend.  Marlon sailed on Saturday and Noe sailed both Saturday and Sunday.  Noe got 2nd on Saturday and a 3rd today, and Marlon got a 3rd yesterday.

I towed on Saturday out to Kaneohe and back again today.  I like towing.  And I like helping to make sure these kids (all of them at Pearl Harbor Yacht Club) get to sail.

Have I said I love this truck????

Hurricane Lane Preparations

We spent the last few days preparing the house for Hurricane Lane's arrival.  Moving plants, securing objects in the yard and ensuring pieces and parts of the house stay put are among some of the things we've been doing.  But in order to get the larger plants sheltered (in the bed of the Ridgeline, with the Ridgeline in the garage), I had to clear the workstation I set up to get the hydrofoil built.  In order to get the rest of the space cleared, I actually had to cut the blank in half.

I laid out the templates to confirm a good fit on both.  Pray that Hurricane Lane has minimal impact to the visitors and kamaaina of Hawaii... we'll see you on the other side of this storm.

Hauling a 7th Hull

The kids had a couple of regattas this weekend and I hauled the boats to Kaneohe.  There was a need for a 7th hull for the Saturday race and the team didn't want to pull a second trailer - Super Truck to the rescue!!!!

I finally got a chance to rig up the double hitch receiver and the Thule Goalpost Hitch Rack!

The setup worked, but since the rack was now subject to the motions of the trailer (both connected to the dual receiver), I did notice some lateral motion in the rear rack.  Not a big deal, but something to be aware of if you plan on using a similar setup.

Everything else was as normal - great teamwork and an enjoyable day of sailing (for everyone but me - I ended up doing some hydrofoil research and helping at the CSSH Plant Show - but those are separate blog entries).

On the way back I ended up bringing the 7th hull back and the motion issue was not there - confirms the trailer was the variable.

Weekend Surfing

Our time demands were a lot less than normal this past weekend.  Enough so that I got to go out and surf twice this weekend.  Coincidentally, there was also a south swell that hit and made things interesting (but the tradewinds also picked up and it wasn't quite an epic swell).  With the larger than normal size, I decided to breakout the Firewire Greedy Beaver - a little overkill since it does fit in the bed, but here is the board tied up to the roof racks.

I was actually a little spooked about keeping it in the bed because of the forward tiedown hooks - they could put a ding in a board if there is a little movement in the bed.

Plenty of room up top.  The surf was pretty wind whipped on my Saturday evening session.  I did manage to grab a few waves where I got a good bottom turn followed by a long-ish glide.  Good fun (and probably better that fighting the wind on the TJ Everyday or a SUP).  I ended up putting the board in the bed on the way back home from surfing.  The board did not shift - I'll probably still put a piece of foam over the tiedown hooks, but it is pretty handing having a truck bed - might as well use it.

And on the Sunday morning dawn patrol - the wind was low at the onset.  And it stayed low just until I got out (about 8am).  Marlon used the 6'5" shortboard quad that I built (look to the beginning of this blog several years back) - he said it was real easy to duck dive through the breakers.  I got several good takeoffs - still short rides, but it feels good surfing a shortboard again!

Mother's Day Surfing

La actually asked to go surfing on Mother's Day -

Have I said I love this truck???  Four boards, two paddles, chairs, snacks, extra clothes and more on board!

I got to surf the longboard and the Starboard Element (and I should have surfed the ULI Lopez and the Wavestorm to make it an ALL BOARD day - but I just farted around instead).

A couple of "jellyfish" body surfing.  These pictures are from La's phone - I'll post more from the GoPros shortly

UPDATE:  Here are the GoPro pictures

This was Marlon's first time SUPing in the waves - he said it was real easy to catch anything that came by.  I can see La and Marlon taking SUP surfing breaks a lot more now.

More Pictures from the Kids Previous Race

Catching up on the posts again - here are more from last weekend