I just got a longboard so looking up some technique info, etc.
but the LBWS forum is down !
its been showing an admin login page for weeks now, anyone know who runs it and what happened to it?

the longboard wasn't enough to save me from getting skunked this sunday,
but i did get it going ok in about 7kts saturday morning to about slow jogging speed
and great upwind.

I forgot my boots, so it was running shoes or barefoot.
Being a serial toe-stubber i opted for sailing in running shoes!
proper authentic 80s-style!
which worked out ot be a good idea when you've got to give the mastfoot a good kick to slide it

I didn't get it railing or get a proper flare gybe




check out those rails, right angles all along from nose-to-tail

I guess the uni joint worked out.
Did you get down to Mordy Sailing Club? Dan from Wasup was there with the Hosie gang.

I met with them during Saturday lunch and WV will be hosting some course racing races during their winter series (Aug11-Sept11). We will use this as test run before the planned series out of Mordy and Parkdale (Oct11-Apr12), including windsurfing beginner clinics as recently hosted at Parkdale.

WV will also be running course racing clinics through the series.

In the mean time you could check out the Peter Hart DVD 'the winning streak'.

You can also checkout this weblink.
windsurfraceboard.blogspot.com/

Thanks Steve,

after looking at that site I'm feeling well underfinned:
everything listed was 35 -70cm, ave around 40-45cm
I've got a U.S. box 23cm, might have to look around.
Why has a longboard got a U.S. Box ?!




Y i looked at the wind (lack of), time wife was allowing and generally the fact that i was testing old, used gear and decided I'd rather go off a known (stuff-up friendly) beach than join a race straight off.

I measured it up as 66cm * 380cm and 16Kg
Took it out with a NP V8 8.5, but had sail leant to leeward for the duration.
It reminds me more of the Laser than shortboarding.

Next weekend I'll take it out for all but the biggest wind.

For anyone who fancies some Autumn doldrums longboarding its currently Bayside hard rubbish time! and I've previously passed dozens of big old boards on the nature strip: F2, Ten Cate, Bombora, Tiga. Saw a Mistral One Design last time but after a sprint home on foot to get car it was gone

Did you see these boards last time or over the weekend?

no i've not see anything this time as it runs over 5 zones, one per weekend, and its not our zone yet. I've just seen quite a few over 4 years of living in bayside.

2 made it home: A Bombora BigToy (360cm longboard), now gone,
and a 88L F2 Starlit Slalom Wave, which I beleive used to hold world speed production board record in its day, set on my old local sailing spot of West Kirby Sea Lake, near Liverpool, U.K.

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steveBayside said...

Thanks Steve,

after looking at that site I'm feeling well underfinned:
everything listed was 35 -70cm, ave around 40-45cm
I've got a U.S. box 23cm, might have to look around.
Why has a longboard got a U.S. Box ?!




Y i looked at the wind (lack of), time wife was allowing and generally the fact that i was testing old, used gear and decided I'd rather go off a known (stuff-up friendly) beach than join a race straight off.

I measured it up as 66cm * 380cm and 16Kg
Took it out with a NP V8 8.5, but had sail leant to leeward for the duration.
It reminds me more of the Laser than shortboarding.

Next weekend I'll take it out for all but the biggest wind.

For anyone who fancies some Autumn doldrums longboarding its currently Bayside hard rubbish time! and I've previously passed dozens of big old boards on the nature strip: F2, Ten Cate, Bombora, Tiga. Saw a Mistral One Design last time but after a sprint home on foot to get car it was gone

Great to see some interest in sailing these old 'ships' again. I had to seriously refurbish my '84 Fanatic Cobra after it was covered in moss and gunk being negleted for more than 10yrs behind the garden shed. The plastic mast track fell apart so I decided for a fixed mast point to screw the new age Uni Joints in and covered the slippery as buggery surface with a soft rubber compound bought from Clark Rubber. I was orginally thinking using it as a SUP, but I took it out Friday arvo out of pure desperation not having sailed for several weeks due to lack of wind. I had surprisingly fun with it. I have since refitted the straps (need one more velcro padding as most my old ones were rotten away).
Would be interested to catch up for a light wind longboard revival session. I can sail this board in around 10 knots.

A few of us were done at Inverloch on our Wally's on Sunday. Becoming a regular sight again down there with these light winds. Still great fun.
Check out www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Victoria/RPS-IWC-Longboard-Challenge-Saturday-19th-March/ for what happened at our recent long board weekend.

jakranz at work today during lunch suggested a bay long board sail maybe on the weekend. Maybe cruise from beach to beach etc.

Pity the lbws site is still down, I'm sure someone on that site could give you the history of that board. I think JF is for Jim French, a local board builder.

The fin is tiny, but for non-planing conditions < 10 knots it's probably not such a bad thing. US box would have been the only option when the board was built. I had a similar age board and retro fitted a tuttle box so I could use bigger fins. I currently use the fin in the middle (38 cm) and with an 8.5m sail it takes about 12 knots to get planing. If limited to US-box look for a second-hand fin like the one on the left. I tried the big 56cm fin on the right but found the board lost manoeuvrability.


I find these boards perfect for 8-15 knots, wind that would tempt but usually frustrate me on a short board. In these conditions I use it as a "touring" board, heading up wind in a building seabreeeze, then deep off the wind planing. Here are some GPS tracks. In wind 15+ knots and with 8.5m sail I've got to Vmax=22knots.

PtOrmond-Black Rock


StKilda - GreenPt

Now that is long board sailing. I use to do the same many years ago with one my old mates, well before portiable GPS.

Who would be interested in do the same sort of tour on the bay?

thats great than jonesmb, y that left fin looks good.
I was considering whether a tuttle or powerbox could be refitted as I've got them, but I'd probably wreck it.
I'll keep an eye out
Also the U.S. Box fin top looks simple so that a powerbox, say, could be easily cut for it ?
Anyway if my fin was good enough for the board's last 20 odd years
then I'll wait until it gives me a problem.

those are long runs you made ! I wonder how my GPS lines would look?
I've toured along bayside on a longboard before but ususally in a westerly.

Windrider Im well up for a longboarding in the bay this weekend.

For anybody who is not yet longboarded up there is a full Windsurfer One Design in Melbourne on ebay with 2 days left for $50 !
(Bill? Carey?)

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WindRider said...

Now that is long board sailing. I use to do the same many years ago with one my old mates, well before portiable GPS.

Who would be interested in do the same sort of tour on the bay?

I'm in if it's anywhere around +10 knots. Even Inverloch would be ok for me.

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Looks VERY similiar to my Tiga longy that Ive been surfing for the last three years.
Once its on the plane and Im hanging my 100kgs off the boom in a seat harness the thing absolutely flies.

I have to wax the deck as my modern kit (sails) dont suit the foot strap location.
but this isnt a problem with rubber soled booties and some mrs palmers.

I even take mine wave sailing, but it only has three manouvres in the surf, bottom turn, down the line and off the lip (if the section approaching is about to throw)

I love this board, and the fact they dont sink when the wind gets skunky.

viva the longy revolution !!!

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For anybody who is not yet longboarded up there is a full Windsurfer One Design in Melbourne on ebay with 2 days left for $50 !
(Bill? Carey?)

Not having windsurfed in that era (as it was too expensive) $50 looks tempting but it really looks like one big headache. I will have to see how well you are going first. Hard rubbish time might be the go now that everyone on Seabreeze knows about the eBay bargain. Will probably be out of my reach if it gets to $60.

Y fair enough Bill,
I learnt today that its not all easy !
and yes I managed to to damage more equipment, but in a new way.
I took it our this afternoon (wth 6.6) off Hampton beach, it picked up from 10 to 25 kts, I catapulted on broad reach and ripped the slider straight out of the mast track
(but no damage at all to the slider or track !). Reassembled and is good.
I got back in with a wetsuit boot over the mast foot(to stop board damage) and tied the downhaul to the daggerboard handle, never had to do that one before!
Brilliant fun until then!

A few questions for anyone who can help:

- When the daggerboard is loaded up with sidewards pressure (anywhere not dead up or downwind) it won't move. How do I move it up/down without either head to wind or go on a run? (it occured to me later i might want to sink windward rail until daggerboard is under no sidewards pressure, would this work?)

- The harness lines felt wrong (as setup for this sail for my normal shortboard).
The front hand was far too heavy on all sailing points.
Do you generally need to move lines forward for longboard ?

- With daggerboard up, when trying to bear off downwind in strong wind, beam to broad reach especially, it seemed impossible to steer downwind. I tried sail steering, foot steering(carve), mast foot pressure to force nose downwind(i.e. hiking well out to force board sidewards and lift it off water surface), scissoring with legs. Nothing worked too well.
I presume this is because of very striaght boxy rails.
(It seems now that it is not under-finned, I'm not going to slip downwind anytime soon!)
In the end I powered down and went on a tippy run home.
What to do ?

Thanks

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I took it our this afternoon (wth 6.6) off Hampton beach, it picked up from 10 to 25 kts, I catapulted on broad reach and ripped the slider straight out of the mast track (but no damage at all to the slider or track !). Reassembled and is good.

The mast track looks like the one I had on my old board (Tyrosea track). I found I could replace the carriage with an aluminium plate tapped with two holes to take a standard 2-bolt base plate. One of the bolts is long enough to go through the plate and act as the locating pin. The new track slid reasonably well and allowed standard unis to be used. I can post some photos if that does not make sense

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- When the daggerboard is loaded up with sidewards pressure (anywhere not dead up or downwind) it won't move. How do I move it up/down without either head to wind or go on a run? (it occured to me later i might want to sink windward rail until daggerboard is under no sidewards pressure, would this work?)

I release the pressure by letting the sail luff a little. Usually when I go off the wind (i) unhook from harness/beating straps (ii) luff the sail (iii) raise the centre-plate (iv) bear off wind using sail forward steering (v) slide mast track back (vi) into back footstraps and harness.

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- The harness lines felt wrong (as setup for this sail for my normal shortboard). The front hand was far too heavy on all sailing points.
Do you generally need to move lines forward for longboard ?

I use the same boom/harness lines with a 6.5 sail on my slalom board and don't adjust anything.

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- With daggerboard up, when trying to bear off downwind in strong wind, beam to broad reach especially, it seemed impossible to steer downwind. I tried sail steering, foot steering(carve), mast foot pressure to force nose downwind(i.e. hiking well out to force board sidewards and lift it off water surface), scissoring with legs. Nothing worked too well. I presume this is because of very striaght boxy rails.

Daggerboard up is correct. From a windward course I tend to use sail steering since the board doesn't really start planing (full foot steering) until a reaching course is achieved. With a powered up sail this does become difficult, the board starts to accelerate and responds to a body position trying to counteract the sail (i.e. windward rail might be depressed - carves back onto the wind). So I guess with strong wind I start bearing off with sail steering but then foot steering takes over to complete the manoeuvre.

Should have been a happy sailing day but wetsuit zipper was broken- brr.
And then had to swim in from a wind shadow while demonstrating the wonders of longboarding. Dont think I got a candidate...

Up to planing speed everything is reversed- sinking the far rail helps the daggerboard point you high. And instead of a shortboard carve to turn downwind, keep the windward rail well engaged while bringing the sail across. If it is still not happening fast enough get the nose up a bit by standing with feet very wide. This is also good insurance against the deadly submarine stop into a wave Modern sails seem to want to be left right back most of the time, I notice.

P.S Zipper repair- across the road from MacDonalds Wonthagi

Ow! Gusts to 44 knots and I still hadn't gone back for the shortboard .
Retreat to get warm and find no electricity availabvle.
Gotta get a long sleeve long ass polypropaline, it seems.
Or go up mountains for dry cold.
Regarding turning downwind, I find rakingthe sail back early shortboard style hinders the process. A true plane back to the footstraps is needed before relinquishing sail steering (mast upright).

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oldie said...

Ow! Gusts to 44 knots and I still hadn't gone back for the shortboard .

So that was you up the other end of the Inlet!!.
We got caned down on the strip when the squalls came through. Never seen so much sand airborn!

No. it's not back....
It's (the old site) buriedin the wayback machine.
JF board?
web.archive.org/web/20090914011907/http://www.forum.lbwindsurfing.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=616

Who can run downwind railing to clew first and back again?
Usually ex longboarders, as the glide is the key.
BACK ON LINE yeehar

Lonngboard forum is back online!!