Step-Tail Addition to SUP Finished - First Impressions

Today I finished the elaborate windsurfing gear project that I've been working on since before Christmas; converting a standard SUP board to a twin-fin WindSUP with a step-tail. It was a ton of work, and I probably won't attempt anything so fancy in the future. That said, I like how it turned out. The outline of the step-tail platform, with its little wingers leading into a swallow tail, looks like it fits well with the twin fin positions. I'm also pleased with how I was able to transition the rails smoothly into the stepped-tailed section, adding a sharper release but keeping them moderately thin and tucked. The rocker of the step tail is very flat, but I kept the same amount of vee in the bottom that it hard originally, which I hope will help keep the ride smooth at higher speeds. Shaping a smooth transition from curved rocker to straight rocker where the step-tail begins was the hardest part. I think I messed that up a bit, ending up with a slightly concave instead of perfectly flat transition.



After sanding and painting the board today, I took it for a paddle in tiny, glassy waves at Wiggins Pass. I couldn't detect any difference in stability, but paddling in flat water felt slightly different. It may be that the step tail and the two larger fins add a bit more drag in displacement mode. To my relief, the board seems to catch waves just as easily as before the change, and there's no greater tendency for the nose to pearl or anything like that. Once on a wave, the acceleration is good, and I think the board may be faster than before. Turning and going sideways on the wave still seems easy, but I'll need bigger waves to really get the feel for the speed and turning differences. I've got a busy week coming up, but I might be able to get out with a sail on Tuesday afternoon. What I really want to figure out is if the board will plane with a sail now.

SUP - Windsurf Modification + MUFin Wave Fin

Since getting back from a nice, long winter vacation I've been quite busy at work. A colleague is on paternity leave so I've been substituting for his two classes of 72 freshmen each, plus I have two classes of my own with 72 and 50 students, respectively. It's not too hard to teach the extra classes because they're the basic "Marine Systems" course that I've done before. It just means there's less time to work on other things, and therefore a little less time for hobbies and play. E.g., I'm still getting on the water but haven't made it to the blogging about it phase until now.

Anyway, one of my best sessions recently was one where I tried out a new Christmas present. My wonderful future in-laws got me a Maui Ultra Fins 26 cm Wave Fin; the ultimate wavesailing fin to match my freestyle-wave board, the Exocet Cross 106.



Astute blog readers might now be thinking, "I thought he already had the perfect fin for the Cross!" Indeed, a while back I proclaimed my MUFin No-Spin 32 to be the perfect fin for the Cross. I still think the 32 is perfect as a freeride / bump & jump fin for 5.5 - 6.8 sails, and it works ok in waves, too. But it's not as "loose" as a wave fin needs to be to make real tight turns and cuts on the steep part of a wave, and it's also more prone to scrape the bottom in shallow water where small waves break. I would sometimes use a 23 cm Weed-Wave fin on the Cross to get that looser feel and shallow water security. But like most weed fins, the weed-wave does everything a little worse than a regular fin of similar size. So I always felt like I wasn't experiencing the intended wavesailing performance of the Cross. Until now.

My first session with the MUFin Wave 26 was in 15-20ish mph side-onshore wind and 2-3' waves at Wiggins Pass. I used a 5.5 sail, which was at the lower end of its wind range and therefore rigged with a tight leach and loose outhaul. The fin got planing quickly and supported a good upwind angle without allowing spinout, but it definitely felt much looser than my 32 cm MUFin, and more "slippery efficient" than my weed-wave fin. There seemed to be a good balance between the edging effect of the fin and the edging effect of the board- you couldn't "ride the fin" like you would with a big freeride or race fin, but you didn't have to rely solely on the edge of the board to get upwind, either. The good blend of looseness and upwind competence helped when I needed to quickly veer upwind into a little ramp for a chop-hop. As expected, on the wave rides was where the fin felt most awesome. It let me turn the board really tight without dropping off a plane, which let me stay on the slope of the wave when turning. I'm hoping that helps me improve my wavesailing with more "surfing" style moves on the wave.

Most other sessions lately have been on the formula board or the Exocet WindSUP 11'8". I had a nice time SUPing the latter today at Wiggins Pass. The magic seaweed surf report was for 1-2' waves with 6 second period, which is pretty good for around here. I've found that any swell at least 1' high with 5 second period is rideable at Wiggins, where inlet-related sandbars perpendicular to the shoreline magnify the swells into nicely pealing peaks. Today the sandbar on the north side of the pass was working especially well. You could catch a wave near a channel marker about 200 yards out, stay on the "shoulder" of the wave all the way into the inlet, and then turn around and ride the outgoing tide back to the takeoff point. Woo hoo!

Back in "dry dock" on the patio, my modifications to the Angulo Surfa 10'4" sailable SUP are going pretty well, and I hope to be able to get it on the water by the end of this week. I routed out two rectangles in the step rocker section and filled them with high density "pour foam" before routing smaller grooves into the pour foam for the fin boxes.



I put fins in the boxes before I epoxied them in so I could be sure the boxes were at the correct angle. They came out nearly perfect, which was a huge relief. (At some point I might want to get matching fins so the board can be symmetrical, but I think if it works at all it will probably work fine with unmatched fins.)



I've since glassed the hull, but I still need to glass the rails before the final stage of sanding and painting. The rails will be the trickiest part because they have some right angles that the glass cloth isn't going to want to bend to fit. I have no idea if the modifications will work like they're supposed to or not, but I'm hoping for a board that planes early and goes fast, turns well enough for jibing and waveriding, and can catch waves easily with either paddle or sail power.

90 degrees F WARMER in Florida than New Hampshire

I'm back in Bonita Springs after a wonderful, long, winter vacation. The first vacation stop for me was my folks' place in Asheville, North Carolina. We did lots of talking and walking in the Appalachian Mountains, and I got to catch up with my sister and her adorable 5 and 3 year old nieces. It seemed plenty chilly there, with frost every morning and some light snow that didn't stick.

Of course, that chill was nothing compared to the next stop, at Rhonda's folks' place in Hudson, New Hampshire. There was a decent layer of crusty old snow on the ground when I arrived, and it was soon complemented by a foot of fluffy new stuff. The kind of snow you get when it's far below freezing is sure different from the typical Washington State "mashed potatoes" snow I remember from childhood. For one thing, it doesn't consistently stick to trees, roofs, or deck railings, so you can't easily tell how deep it is on the ground. For another thing, it makes funny squeaky noises when you pack it down by walking or driving over it.

Two sets of my old cross-country skis were conveniently stored in Rhonda's mom's attic, and I was delighted to be able to use them to explore the woods and parks around Hudson with my future stepfather in law. One pair of the skis was the typical long, skinny xc style, with "New Nordic Norm" boots and bindings. The other pair was a bit wider and shorter with metal rails and "New Nordic Norm BC" boots and bindings. I definitely prefer the latter for making new tracks and for woods trails with lots of ups and downs and turns.

I had planned to do some downhill skiing / snowboarding with my future brother-in-law but we called that off because the forecast HIGH for the mountain that day was below zero F and I didn't have the gear to not get frostbite in such cold. I still got my board out of the garage and walked it up Rhonda's grandma's hill a few times for the heck of it. The effort / payoff ratio of that activity reminded me a lot of SUP wave riding. The thrills by themselves don't quite outweigh the effort, but when you add in the exercise endorphins and the outdoor nature zen, it's a win.

Good Florida Christmas Vibes, WindSUP Tweaks

As one might expect for a Northwest native living in South Florida, I sometimes miss the feeling of cool-weather Christmas. This is not to say that my hometown of Olympia, Washington had picture-perfect snow-white holidays- it was mostly deep green, wet, grey gloom- but something about the darkness outside emphasized the warmth and cheer inside.

This season in the subtropics, though, I'm feeling cheery in a different way. For one thing, the weather has been SUBLIME, ranging from pleasantly cool (AC off, windows open) to ideally summery (walk the dog wearing just your bathing suit, jump in the river to cool off midway through the walk). Also, our little municipality of Bonita Springs is making a good effort to bring a festive mood, with the palm trees in the park wrapped in lights, and lots of free concerts and stuff at the band shell. In the Latin neighborhood across the street, lighted yard displays make a night-time color show that compliments the daytime show provided by the brightly blooming bougainvillea and other exotic foliage.

Also, the windsurfing and paddleboarding have been pretty good. Not too many days of true shortboard conditions, but lots of formula windsurfing weather, and even a few good swells for SUP and WindSUP. I think one time I had to wear a shorty wetsuit, but otherwise it's still boardshorts warm.

Here's a track from a 16 mile long formula windsurfing session on Saturday. Winds were about 10 knot from the SW and I used an 11.0 Gaastra Nitro IV sail with a 70 cm F4 fin. Compared to my old fin, this F4 definitely gives me better upwind angles, making it less obvious which parts of my track were going upwind and which parts were going downwind. (In my old tracks you could tell that compressed zig zags were going upwind and stretched zig zags were going downwind.) There was a light wind zone within about 1/4 mile from shore, which is why you see my angle to the wind "pinched" after tacks near shore.



Another fun thing that I've been able to focus on more since the teaching semester ended has been some tweaks and modifications to my boards.

Tweak #1- Redoing the daggerboard gasket on the WindSUP.
The Exocet WindSUP 11'8" is a great board but it has a crappy "Allgaier" daggerboard system that includes poorly fitting, loose gaskets. I'd been meaning to rig up something better for a while, but didn't get around to it until one of the gaskets actually peeled off while I was sailing. After that I disassembled the gasket and cut a piece of flat PVC board to cover the opening. That was great as far as looks and hydrodynamics were concerned, but it made the daggerboard unusable. Phase two of the modification was cutting a slot in the PVC for the daggerboard to go through, and getting a piece of floor border vinyl to make a gasket over it. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Phase 1- Just the pvc board covering the slot


Phase 2- Making a vinyl gasket


Phase 3- Putting it all together


Tweak #2- Grafting a planing rocker onto my surf-rockered SUP.
I love my Angulo Surfa 10'4" as a SUP, but as a windsup it leaves something to be desired because it has too much tail rocker to plane. Since I first got the board I've been mentally picturing what it would be like if it had a step-tail, similar to the Exocet WindSUP. Finally I decided to bite the bullet and actually attempt to graft a flat section onto the tail. I agonized a lot about what type of outline shape the flat section should have, and I sketched lots of different possibilities on the bottom of the board. Eventually I decide to go for a "swallow tail" with moderate "winger" cut-outs, and I cut the tail outline into pink insulation foam slabs that I got from Home Depot. The height of the step in the step-tail was dictated by the thickness of those slabs (~1"), but it happens to be about right for making the last two feet of the board bottom flat. The hard part has been fairing the slabs to the right diagonal angle. I started by making a frame and using a saw, then after I expoxied the slabs to the board I used a rasp and a straight edge to take some more material off. I think I almost have it now, and I'm hoping to put the first layer of fiberglass on it today. I'll finish the modification, including dropping a US box fin box in each lobe of the swallow tail for a twin-fin, after I get back from family visits up North. Something to look forward to for the new year.

"Dr. Douglass" Blog and Facebook Pages Started

My basic goal as a blogger is to share my "work" (loosely interpreted), and my ideas and opinions. Lately, a lot of my work, ideas, and opinions are centered around marine biology research and science education at the college and post-graduate level. Some of you may be interested in that stuff, but I reckon most of you are just here for the windsurfing and what-not.

SO, I've created "Dr. Douglass' Science Network" as a separate entity on facebook and blogspot. The facebook page has a good bit of content already, but so far the blogspot page just has one post; the science pre-test that I give to all my students. If you're up for a challenge you should try it.

Thanksgiving Smorgasboard: Formula, Wavesailing, SUP

This Thanksgiving holiday has been awesome. It started last weekend with Rhonda's sister Andrea and brother-in-law Jon coming down from New England for early Thanksgiving-like festivities. We made pecan pie and watched the Patriots kick butt in overtime. Jon learned to windsurf with a 4.5 on the WindSUP 11'8".




We also divided forces one day so the New Englanders could do craft-fair type shopping and I could test a new formula windsurf fin. The fin is a 72-2 cm F4 "xs" (extra soft). Compared to my older, cut-down Curtis fin the F4 has a more curved outline, which hides the fact that it's actually more upright (less rake angle) than the older fin. It's also more flexible, which is supposed to help generate the "foiling" effect that gets the board planing and helps it go faster with less of the hull touching the water. My maiden voyage with the fin was with an 11.0 sail in offshore winds around 5-15 knots. I definitely felt like the fin improved my planing threshold and my ability to coast through lulls. Upwind angle also seemed better.



A nice treat at the end of the session was Dr. Alex from Naples showing up with his 9.0 and 90 cm wide FreeFormula board. I was about to quit but instead went back out and filmed some with my helmet camera. It's really nice to have someone else to windsurf with when you're used to windsurfing alone.

Formula with Alex 11-24-13 from James Douglass on Vimeo.

Rhonda's family had to leave and I had to go back to work on Monday and Tuesday. But the two-day workweek was a cinch, and I was back on vacation just in time for the FIRST BIG WEST WIND OF FALL on Wednesday. While the rest of the country was freezing cold, we had sunshine, 75 degrees, lots of wind, and respectable waves up to about person-size. I was able to use my 83 liter waveboard for the first time since last spring. I rigged a 5.5 sail with minimal downhaul to give me some extra power for getting through the whitewater, lulls, and longshore current on the inside. The board/sail combo worked really nice and I caught lots of waves to practice my turns on. The song in the video is "Lola Montez" by Volbeat.

Evo sesh 11-27-13 from James Douglass on Vimeo.

My folks arrived in town on Wednesday evening and we had a joyous reunion with Thai/Sushi dinner. Some cold air blew in overnight and it was in the low 40s this morning. BRRR! That's frigid when you're used to overnight lows around 70. We watched that giant balloon parade thing on TV in the morning, then did bbq and coleslaw for Thanksgiving lunch. By then the sun was warm enough that my thoughts turned to the surf conditions. The forecast said 2-4' waves with side-offshore wind, so I convinced the family that a long beach walk would be nice while I SUP'ed. I used the Angulo Surfa 10'4" and had a blast. The wave conditions were comparable to a good day back in Nahant, Massachusetts. Actually, they might have been even better because the waves were "peakier," meaning they peeled in a somewhat predictable manner as they broke, so you could get a long ride staying on the shoulder of the wave.

My dad took some pictures and video. Of course he missed my greatest moments of glory, which were later in the session, but from what I saw I realized two things: 1) That I'm still a kook at SUP waveriding, and 2) that I'm starting to get a "not in my twenties anymore" midsection. I think I need to work more on my fore-aft weight distribution; I'm sinking the tail too much. I also need to work on my wave knowledge; sometimes I go left when I should have gone right, etc. One thing that was cool, though, was a close encounter with dolphins.

Dolphin SUP from James Douglass on Vimeo.

Strong Offshore Winds make Weak Waves Fun

Windsurfing yesterday gave me flashbacks to my former life in Nahant, Massachusetts. The weather was a bit chilly (I had to wear a shorty wetsuit for the first time this year), there was sand-blowing wind (side-offshore gusting 15-25+ knots), and I was able to plane on a shortboard to get frontside rides on knee-high swells.

Five Five 11-13-13 from James Douglass on Vimeo.

Small waves are a lot more fun when you can come at them already-planing and at a frontside angle. The waves don't have to be big enough to carry you along; they just have to be big enough to reflect your energy when bank a turn against them.