Think I'm about to make a breakthrough and foil through a jibe soon. I was extremely close a few times, including getting to opposite straps but the sail flip was too late.
Went out and got skunked by the wind, as it was more like 6kts than the 10kts that the meter was saying (it's high up and unobstructed by most of the land, whereas on the water there's a lot of streaks and the windsock closer to it was reading about 6.
Anyway, I just shlogged around and started flipping the sail a lot earlier, would pretend I was doing a foil jibe and just push it to the outside and immediately go for the flip. Before I would hesitate a lot longer. Even shlogging, it felt a lot better to just flip that 9.0 much earlier. Didn't drop it a single time for an hour plus.
Hoping to get out and try an earlier flick on the foil soon.
The thing I learned with the big sails is to slide it across my body to reduce the resistance in flipping it around. Because you're travelling so much faster than the wind in light air, if you try to flip it normally it pushes you back down onto the water. If you slide the mast across your body it slices through the wind rather than pushing against it. I don't know if that helps you but it helped me get my gybes happening.
I went through and counted my total sessions as of now, and I'm right around 75 on this kit. Most of those are fairly light wind sessions where I have to pump a lot.
Yesterday had the nut fall of the boom clamp. I didn't notice until I uphauled the sail just starting to go out and the boom came off. I managed to save the red plastic clamp bit and went back to the parking lot and found the shoulder bolt, so I was able to get to the hardware store, find a nut, and locktite it on. I'll be a bit more careful to check that. I also hear the rear pulley screws can loosen up sometimes too.
My sail will likely need repair soon at the lowest batten because it's come apart and I have it taped up. It also needs repair at the head due to being too aggressive with putting the mast in. You really need to gently crinkle it into the head sleeve at the top.
I'm still so very close to jibing all the way through on the foil. I got some good advice, but haven't been able to execute as many attempts as I would like due to light wind. I've also been running out of room and hitting shallow bits. It's often pump pump pump, get flying, then jibe before running aground, fall off foil, rest, pump pump pump. It's very tiring.
I was going to go out to a race but I got sick immediately before it, which was very annoying but hopefully I'll be a bit better prepared for my first real race.
Otherwise, a really solid session on the 650 front wing taught me a lot. You really need to have everything dialed to get things right:
Mast base position (been a lot more open to moving it far forward/back for high/light winds and it makes a big difference)
Boom height
Outhaul
I have adjusted the downhaul and the shims less than anything else. I usually put the 0 shim in and just leave it alone. Downhaul I take to the same look/spot with the sail pulley to pulley.
I have also learned to hike out more, which you can almost see in the video below. I just got the 360 cam and managed to fog up the lens protectors so that the image quality suffered. I'll remedy that next time. But, straighter legs and more hiked out with the sail making a little less power from the lean. I was running my lines longer than I've ever had before, and they were already long.
My most painful crash was because I was too upright in very similar wind and the sail pulled me leeward and my rear foot didn't release from the strap, spraining it. Hiking out this way lets me have way more control over the sail, and I don't feel like I'm going to die in a gust. And falling backwards or catapulting has been much better than falling forward and wrenching in the straps. I also have them tighter so my feet can't get that deep. It feels a lot more like regular windsurfing like this, especially with a smaller 650 front wing, even though this was with the 900 in the video.
900 front:
