The wind was out of the SW at 5-15 mph. I sailed the XS Speed Surfcat for the second time. The first outing was with my 8.0 sail and it proved to be way too big for the board. You would think that the Surfcat with all the extra volume would handle a big sail. I was planning on sailing it on the light wind days with a big sail and it would slice through the water like a Hobiecat. I was wrong. It would round up and I could not get it to bare off the wind. It was totally different than a windsurfer. The foot steering and sail steering were all foreign to me. I was very let down. I spent a lot of time fixing this thing up and was hoping it would sail well and it didn’t.
I tried again with a 5.0 and it sailed much better. I don’t know if it was the smaller sail or the fact that my small sail is from 1992 so the design my match better with the older board. It ran really well with all the extra width and volume.
I took out my Bic 293D and it did everything better in the same amount of wind except running.
Stats are messed up
Lap 1 distance is 6.72 mi
Ave. 10.2 mph
Lap 2 Distance 6.78 mi
Ave. 7.8 mph
We have 3 feet of ice on White Lake right now and huge mountains of ice on Lake Michigan. It will be a long time before I can get on the water this year. 2 years ago at this time I was streetsailing and it was in the 80’s already! I have several feet on snow and ice in the front yard. The driveway is still covered with 6 to 8 inches of ice. My boys and I skied across White Lake last weekend. We also saw many pickup trucks out on Muskegon Lake last weekend after we went skiing at The Muskegon Winter Sports complex.
