lost my D2 REIX on my first outing

[joethewindsufa]

am glad so far no-one has suggested i am a complete idiot
when i purchased the board i remember clearly asking if the mast base would hold - he had suggested it looks good
there was NO leash system with the board
the assumption was - i knew about this issue = NOT !!
never happened with my Fanatic Ultra CAT, BIC Dufour Wings, etc

all the shoulda, woulda and coulda comments are applicable
but in the end - what happened , happened ...
for me - MANY lessons learned and i hope it is to the benefit of others as well
it has been suggested i make it a separate post on my blog in order to be easy to find and with more analysis , suggestions, etc
for me - another lesson in life
am not a religious person, but tell my Muslim and Christian friends
i spoke to the gods and they told me it was not my time - YET
thanks for all your kind words and thoughts !!

[SeaDawg]

Joe glad your ok not a huge loss with the board, live to ride another day,

My experience happened on Lake Erie in July about 30yrs ago . Brand new rig and my 1st Equipe. Rigged up headed out about 2mi off shore missed a gybe and was in the middle of a water start and the mast extention popped off the foot. Long story short the mast filled with water and the whole rig sank.

I was about 20min into the paddle back to shore when some fisherman passed by. They hauled me into there boat through a line on the board and dropped me off at my beach.

Big lesson for me check the gear. All my fault the pins weren't tight.

I hope you get the board back, best of luck!

[systemslib]

Even modern gear can be prone to this same type failure/issue. Recently picked up another used raceboard and it came with a "new" mast foot. It was an obvious offbrand and not even marked so was suspicious of quality vs say a well known brand that has been around for years.

On 5th use this past Tuesday I noticed the rig felt slightly off, dropped the sail to look closer and the rig separated from the mast foot and dropped in water! Fortunately was able to grab it right away and saw failure was in cup versus the mast foot (which was still attached to board). Managed to sail back to landing by hanging weight on mast foot pressure. Once there found it had some type of clamp pin to master pin to hold cup on and this clamp pin had sheared, what a POS! I managed to set a screw in it and kept sailing (yeah I know calculated risk) but have ordered a chinook base to replace this one as obviously do not trust it. Seems like a poor design on this offbrand.

It has made me think of tying off the downhaul line around mast foot tendon or rubber versus storing in sail sleeve pocket to prevent accidental separation going forward, cannot think of any downside doing so. This is on a cobra adjustable track so no real good place to attach line to board itself.

[jirvin_4505]

Glad your safe Joe
When I saw the video didn’t realise your new toy was gone

Had my own ‘moment’ this year when I got too excited going for a nautical mile and sail right past my landing spot. With obvious senior moment occurring when I walked for 2 hours in the wrong direction dragging my gear through mud flats and beach break trying to find the beach with people.

Lucky my sailing buddies saw me go past and when I didn’t appear they alerted the proper authorities. I was able to make contact just before the air sea chopper was deployed

A leason learnt was to carry the phone numbers of your contacts with you - I didn’t have my reascue phone with me that day.

Lucky my buddies sent out a kiter to look for me as the tide was too low to sail

Again glad your safe

Cheers Jeff

[akrausz]

Very glad you're ok, Joe.

About 20 years ago, I was over a mile out in the Atlantic on a shortboard. Long story short, I busted my mast, lost my sail, and had to swim in with the board and boom. In 30+ years, I've broken masts, mastbases, sails, fins, booms, harnesses and various lines. I guess the only components left that I haven't broken while sailing are the extension and the board.

I know some people like to explore on their windsurfer. Some people like to go to a preferred spot which may be half a mile or more downwind. Some people sail in the open seas in offshore wind. Personally, I won't sail any further than I am prepared to swim if needed. Also I tend to stay upwind of my launch. If I were to take a cellphone with me, I would be inclined to take more risks. Windsurfers are fragile and don't have safety features. And then throw a healthy dose of Mother Nature into the mix. For me, not putting myself far or downwind from my launch makes more sense...purely from the standpoint that, someday, a failure will occur again. I am fortunate that I have many sailing locations to choose from, while others may be more limited and need to take more risks to find wind.

[U2U2U2]

[systemslib]

Well that screw is my fix so I could keep sailing! It was new and best I can tell having looked around a bit is the euro pin one below with some type of US cup conversion. This are for cobra adjustable tracks (starboard phantom).

May take it apart again to confirm but pretty sure it is this euro pin one with a US cup that is held in place by that small c clip you can see on one side. At the landing prior to "fixing" I found the c clip hanging by one side, it had sheared below the c clip on other side which was missing. This allowed the entire US cup to simply slide off the master pin which now believe to be euro pin. The c clip reminded me of a glorified paper clip. I bent the one side offset and drove it down with a hammer, then drove the screw on the sheared side (opposite) to hold in place so I could make use of valuable vacation time I took to sail!


yeah, like I said calculated risk but can assure you my fix is way better than how it came new.

edit here is the conversion piece, not recommended FWIW! epic gear is the brand apparently....Not a common mast foot but would not recommend based on my limited use.