Hi all,
i recently received an early christmas present, an old Hifly 700cs, its been sitting in a garage for god knows how long and is in fairly good condition. Ive taken it out a couple of times in light wind and I've managed to get the basics fairly well sorted.
Today i was out at Shoalhaven heads (NSW south coast) during that nice NE'r that came through this arvo, it was all going well and i was just going back and forth, up and down wind, I'm not sure what went wrong but all of the sudden i found it impossible to bear away and the board would round up as soon as i tried to get it moving. either the equipment changed (became loose..) or the conditions changed?, has anyone else got any information on this type of problem?
im using the sail that came with it, a 6m hifly with the same vintage as the board. i havent had a chance to get a harness yet tho i am looking at getting one as soon as possible, any suggestions?
im only just starting out and this is my first board.
Cheers.
Upfront, I think it's great that you're having free fun with the old board. Good inexpensive entry point to the sport...
Back to your question: if it really happened "all of a sudden", then here is a likely explanation. From memory, these boards had a retractable centerboard. Sometimes the center goes up by itself, which greatly changes the overall center of effort. The net is that if it slid backwards and you do not compensate, it'll tend to go upwind.
Other, much less likely, reasons might be that the booms became gradually loose - not uncommon on those old things. Or that the clew line slid at the cleat by a couple of inches and the sail suddenly became baggy.
Condition change of course is a possibility - all you need really is your eyes to sort this one out. Conditions change drastically when you get close to land or cliffs on an off-shore wind. NEers usually are on-shore on the NSW coast, but of course plenty of exceptions around landmarks...
Cheers.
