Never seen it like this in over 4years of sailing here. Its normally covered in nasty chop but today it was glass despite the 20knots of wind. So much fun despite the water only being 1degree and the air temp without wind chill 3degrees

Ok so maybe I missed it, where are you? Sounds damn cold to me??

Yes, frozen water, also called ice, is very smooth.
Of course, under the condition that windspeed is low, when the water freezes.

What location is this BTW?

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evets said..
Ok so maybe I missed it, where are you? Sounds damn cold to me??

Prince Edward Island ,Canada.
Its was ice a couple of weeks back. I was out ice boating on it.

Are there any world class speed sailing spots there?

yes I can think of a few which could work. It's always windy on the island somewhere, at pretty much any point in time you can find 12knots plus somewhere if you don't mind driving 2hours to find it. And on the plus side COVID never really came here, at one point there was panic when we had 10cases but it's calmed back down now (-;

The circled area near Tyne Valley is always windy, very very flat water but also very shallow in places, it's where all the kit surfers go (google kite point PEI) to the right of that is New London bay never sail there as access is tricky but again very flat and windy. Then right of that is Rustica bay ( from the above photo ) 3pm everyday it blows there, gets really choppy and to the right of that covehead bay, Only really sail here early in the year as it warms up the quickest, big problem here is in April the mussel nets take over the bay.

That does sound promising. What we seek are 30knots plus winds at 130 degrees on flat water. Usually it's beings a low sand bar so we can sail close enough at the right angle to the wind to stay in pretty flat water. The exception is where there is chop killing weed in the water, like at Lake George South Australia, but even there it is difficult to get over 40 knots in less than 25 knots of wind.

I remember reading about a lake in (I think) the central Canadian plains, where an annual speed event used to be held. Flat grassy plains surrounded the lake so the wind was pretty consistent and often very strong. Sadly, I have not heard anything of it for many years.

Just had a browse on GE, zooming in on all of those inlets/estuaries on the North side of the island. There does indeed look to be some really good potential there to find a great speed strip. Are there any GPS sailors at all in that area?

I used to work with a guy from Nova Scotia. He used to joke "we have two seasons. Winter and one day in summer."

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stehsegler said..
I used to work with a guy from Nova Scotia. He used to joke "we have two seasons. Winter and one day in summer."

Nova Scotia has great weather, I think he's confused it with Newfoundland where you get to see the sun through the fog once or twice a year, If you want wind though NF is the place to go. Lived there for a few years, great place but just the wettest, windiest weather ever. Wouldn't want to windsurf there though the sea is pretty rough.
PEI summers are great, 20-30degrees everyday and I would say 5 out of 7 day are 12knots plus for at least 3-4hours.

GPS sailers here!!! no chance I'm the only windsurfer and I tend to forget my GPS most the time. Lots of kitesurfer normally but probably not this year as we have closed our borders.
A few windsurfers in Nova Scotia but most Windsurfers seem to be around Quebec.

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Ben1973 said..

stehsegler said..
I used to work with a guy from Nova Scotia. He used to joke "we have two seasons. Winter and one day in summer."

Nova Scotia has great weather, I think he's confused it with Newfoundland where you get to see the sun through the fog once or twice a year, If you want wind though NF is the place to go. Lived there for a few years, great place but just the wettest, windiest weather ever. Wouldn't want to windsurf there though the sea is pretty rough.
PEI summers are great, 20-30degrees everyday and I would say 5 out of 7 day are 12knots plus for at least 3-4hours.

What's the water temperature?

Gets up to 18degrees in july, august, September, right now it's 1

I can't get planning in 12kts, even with my biggest gear I need over 13

I'm 90kg and only need 10knots to get planning on the ultrasonic and a 9.2

I think what you are prepared to sail as your biggest gear pertains a lot to what your typical local conditions are like.

Currently, I rarely sail bigger than my 6.3m and IS87, but have a IS97 and 7m, and very rarely used bigger gear for long light wind 8-12Kts summer days cruising.(Old Formula and 8.4m) I'm 75Kg

Most used gear this summer was IS80/5.7m and IS87/6.3m. In other years it has been the CA40 speed board and 5m/5.4m.

I am guessing Decrepit's biggest sail he normally uses is a 6.2m

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decrepit said..
I can't get planning in 12kts, even with my biggest gear I need over 13

Cold air is a lot denser. It's a noticeable difference. It can be worth a sail size (12-15% denser). That's one of the few positives of winter sailing - the air is so much punchier.

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Paducah said..

decrepit said..
I can't get planning in 12kts, even with my biggest gear I need over 13

Cold air is a lot denser. It's a noticeable difference. It can be worth a sail size (12-15% denser). That's one of the few positives of winter sailing - the air is so much punchier.

Its true that colder is denser - but not as much as people ascribe it to be.If you are comparing 40deg to 0deg, then it is 14%.

Most of us in Straya sail somewhere between 30deg and 10deg which is 7% ** vs sail sizes which vary about 11% per size gap, eg Severne Mach3 7.8 vs 7.0

**Ocean water tends to reduce/increase the air temp that is above it, limiting the max air-temps. Obviously Melbourne Summer Northerly @ 38deg or Tassie @ 4deg are extremes.

Its rare for someone to to experience a full-sail-size difference due to air temp -> its closer to a half-sail-size.

Yes we're totally spoilt here, if it's not flat and over 15kts I don't bother unless I'm desperate. Then I might rig the 6.6 and the 65cm board. But a lot of the time I'm on a 48cm board with a 5.7

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mathew said..

Paducah said..

decrepit said..
I can't get planning in 12kts, even with my biggest gear I need over 13

Cold air is a lot denser. It's a noticeable difference. It can be worth a sail size (12-15% denser). That's one of the few positives of winter sailing - the air is so much punchier.

Its true that colder is denser - but not as much as people ascribe it to be.If you are comparing 40deg to 0deg, then it is 14%.

Most of us in Straya sail somewhere between 30deg and 10deg which is 7% ** vs sail sizes which vary about 11% per size gap, eg Severne Mach3 7.8 vs 7.0

**Ocean water tends to reduce/increase the air temp that is above it, limiting the max air-temps. Obviously Melbourne Summer Northerly @ 38deg or Tassie @ 4deg are extremes.

Its rare for someone to to experience a full-sail-size difference due to air temp -> its closer to a half-sail-size.

Good points except OP was sailing in roughly 3 degrees. And, the context is OP's sail size vs decrepit's.

Where I sail, our winter mins (of what we usually tolerate) are around 3-4 degrees and usually around 6-7 and our summers are 30-35. As I said, it's noticeable. For someone blessed with more temperate conditions, yes, the difference is less. For the rest of us (what you describe as extremes), it's bigger. Is it 3/4's of a sail size or an entire sail size? That's not the point. If I rig in the summer based on winter "experience", I'll be bobbing around underpowered - it's happened and it's really annoying.