Today was not as much fun as it should have been.
It was a good 20-25 knot NW, although gusty, so I rigged up a cammed sail.
I launched from the park in front of my house and I knew this meant i would have to slog out through 400m wind shadow to hit the consistent wind.
Just as I'd fought the hard fight and had hit solid breeze i heard a sharp crack from down low. I turned straight in to shore and there were several more, although less loud, similar cracks as I struggled back in.
My immediate thought was that the board had fractured or the base of the mast was about to let go because it had that distinct "fibreglass cracking" noise.
But I cannot find anything wrong with any of the gear. There are no visible fractures, I've pushed, prodded and generally tried to stress the gear since getting it ashore but can't find anything wrong. I've even checked the camber-inducers thinking that maybe one of them had cracked and it was echoing off the board.
Any advice on what I should check? I am at bit of a loss at the moment and hesitant to head out again.
Board is a 2006 JP Supersport 100. Mast is a NP 460 and sail is 5.5m NP twin cam sail, both unknown age but similar age to the board.
Hard to explain but my 7.8 cammed sail makes a similar "cracking" sound when it hits the deck and gets caught on the leeward back footstrap & then releases on my carbon board (doesn't seem to happen on the wood boards). Always sounds like something's broken but nope everything okay.
The crack sounds may be the tack strap at the bottom of the sail flicking on the board. I've had this happen with a few of mine, tuck in any straps and see if it stops
I heard similar noise at few occasions when suddenly
1. my plastic ring on extension gave up
2.and next time possibly 2 pieces mast wasn't possibly
set properly and few centimeter gaps closed suddenly ,
3.on third occasion whole board bottom cracked across.
on all this occasions after first look everything seem to be ok and I ignored the noise. Took me quite a lot of time to realize what actually happen and I managed to sail be bit in discomfort not knowing why
I have heard a cracking sound many times but it's usually my knees on landing or ribs as I hit the boom after a spill....
I had similar noises coming from a boom during a session, it was only on a starboard tack and snapped pretty much right between my harness lines about an hour after it started. I've had another boom (both aluminium) make the same noises after about a season of use and retired that to my garage before it snapped... Cheers
