BigWingBart
Log Started:
Sunday October 1, 2023
Total Records: 3
This Year: 2
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Friday August 30, 2024
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Pipers Lgn, Wingfoiling
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Friday August 30, 2024
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Conditions
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TOW
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Toys Used:
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Pipers Lgn, Wingfoiling
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NW 18 - 25
Lots of tide chop
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4.00 hours
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KT Wing Drifter 130
Duotone Slick SLS 5 m2
Duotone Slick SLS 6 m2
Duotone Ventis 7 m2
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Keel hauled at Pipers. A long story. A lovely summer day for wing foiling and windsurfing at my favourite place. I started at 10am on my 7m wing and worked down to my 5m by 1pm. Sailed until 2pm. Lot's of company on the water. Wind picked up into the afternoon.
I've windsurfed/wingfoiled at Pipers for 43 years and this was the first time that I have been run over by a boat. I was foiling outside Clark Rock with big tide waves and too large a wing at 6m for the conditions. (others seemed happy with their 4's) I fell and took a while to get the wing flipped over and everything straightened up. I had on a white helmet, bright life jacket and my wing was off the water as I was on my knees getting ready. During this time a large sailboat (at least 36 feet?) was coming down from the north with their genoa pulling them along at a good pace. They seemed far off at first. Lots of other wingers on the water around me. I was certain that the big boat people could see me and this was confirmed when the lady on board came up to the bow when they were more than 100 feet away, yelling for me to "Get out of the way!" as if they couldn't steer or something. If I could get out of the way I wouldn't have known which way to go as I still expected them to turn either left or right and I couldn't guess which. I knew that I wasn't going anywhere at the time.
The big boat nailed me straight on, which is a curious feeling as the bow goes between you and your board. I did manage to reflexively get my wing out of their way, which probably shouldn't have been my first priority. My waist harness was busy doing its job as I was dragged down towards the keel with my board sliding down the other side of their boat. My foil board was more buoyant than I was, so I was pretty sure that it was winning the tug-of-war. My last words to the lady on the foredeck were "You're going to kill me" as I disappeared below the surface being dragged along by their boat at I'm guessing 6 knots or more. I'm usually a pretty quick thinker, but I hadn't yet thought to pull the velcro strap on my waist harness. Perhaps easier said than done when you are being dragged underwater against the keel with a wing leash pulling vigorously on your right arm.
Mercifully, the weakest link turned out to be my ION waist harness springy coil leash. It broke where it was kinked against the boat leading edge/keel. When I surfaced I still had a wing, but no board and it was going downwind faster than I could drag a wet wing. Fortunately for me another kind winger rescued my board and held it in place while I swam to it, saving me a very long swim home and a lost opportunity for future winging. I tied my leash back together with a triple half-hitch and winged for a few more hours. (although it is no longer a coiled leash) The large sailboat did drop their sail and turn around to inquire whether I needed any help. Enjoying the fact that I was still alive I decided to just say something like "No, I'm fine".
I think the moral of the story is that if you are about to be run over by a large boat undo all of your leashes first. Probably hard to do in practice and likely to result in considerable financial loss and a mile or more of swimming depending on the current and wind direction. When I was an irresponsible youth I might have occasionally windsurfed in front of large sailboats jumping waves to show off how high I could go, but now I'm old enough to know better and in this case I wasn't anywhere near a boat when I fell. Like pedestrians and cars, we wingers will be the loser in a collision regardless of who's fault it is. I'm going to be more cautious and not assume that the big boat is paying attention. They might be playing with their cell phone or eating lunch while their autopilot maintains heading.
It looks like the Saturday morning forecast for Piper's includes more wind.
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