All day I thought to myself that I had overdone it yesterday, constantly blowing my nose was proving this. Nothing could keep me from a session again today though. The wind was around 20-25knots south west meaning some good powered up practice with the Mistral sl95.
I spent the past few weeks sorting out footstrap positions and putting my Dakine Core Contours on my slalom kit. They are designed for wave boards but are really comfy and wider than normal straps meaning you have a better connection to the board. This seemed to tame the beast well, I did not tire as quickly when using it like I usually do and had a lot more control. Upwind they really made a difference, even when I put a 31cm fin on with my 7.0 Tushingham X15 which is a small fin for such a powerful sail in choppy Portland Harbour conditions.
It was also a good session to tweak and tune the sail a bit. I originally set it with minimum downhaul as the wind appeared to be dropping. It was good upwind, staying ahead or overtaking anyone in my path but downwind I was a knot or two off the other speedsailors. I put on more downhaul and it made all the difference, giving me several runs over 30knots and more control in the now overpowered gusty winds.
It was great to get a couple of sessions in on the last two days of the month to catch up a little with my ideal target. I am still ahead of the minimum but about 100nmi behind the ideal. April gets harder, with a goal of 250nmi, and some good winds now in the forecast.
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