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I'll tell you...
How to get the sail back to shore

by Alex Shubnyakov

(from the e-mail posted to WML)

How to get the sail back to shore??? I'll tell you... It was in Fuerteventura (Sotavento) during the World Cup...There were some pros practicing racing technique out, so I decided to go out on a race board as well to copy what they did....I was quite far from the beach sailing after Matt Pritchard and Phil McGain...then they got back to shore and I went out again for another blast...I went about 600 meters from the shore, jibed and reached back when I noticed someone sitting on the board waving hands over his head, I started bearing away to get closer and realized that was Antoine Albeau...I jumped in the water close to him...he said he broke his mast...he was sitting on the beard with already rolled sail and a boom in his hands...he said he would paddle the board back to shore and just asked me to get his sail with the boom...I attached the second boom, untied his uphaul,untied mine and fixed the rolled sail in front of my mast...I strugled to waterstart this crap and finally did...well the sail was heavy, unstable, but I managed to get on a plane and go slightly downwind...In a little while I was on the beach...when I draged the gear on the sand I was surprised to see Antoine close to the beach furiously paddling...In 4 minutes he was back and running towards me (damn what a monstrous athlete!!!)...note that the wind was side-offshore! He thanked me many times and said he would have left his rig in the ocean If I didn't notice him...later he gave me some valuable tips on technique and rigging which I think are worth the effort I did...

(4.02.01)

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