JazzyandJase said..
Hi, was out last weekend off Redcliffe and broke my harness and it got me thinking. If the mast, board or boom broke what would I do? Assuming you had access to a mobile phone who would you ring or what would you do in this case. It's a long way to drift home especially on a southerly or northerly wind. Cheers Jason

Depends what breaks:
1- sail home just slowly or sideways
2 - keep the floaty board and paddle in, if your lucky you paddle in with your rig.

Did you cover self rescue when you did lessons ?
There are a decent amount of posts on how people have rigged something to fix a breakage so they could limp home.

Cheers
Graeme

Just make sure that with a broken board and two legs bitten off by a shark that you can still rescue yourself. Emergency services shouldnt need to be worrying about rescuing us. They exist to rescue fishermen.

Simple. Don't sail further from shore than you are prepared / capable to self-rescue. No-one ones you anything and rescue services are there to save lives, not your toys. If you count on calling for help, the one time you need them they might be busy off rescuing someone who really is in trouble (eg. someone who is drowning or injured, vs you who just doesn't want to lose a rig).

If your rig is un-sailable (broken mast or boom), then de-rig and paddle in with the bits. Some-one can show you how, or look it on the interwebz. Worst case - ditch the bits and save yourself on the board.

If your uni-joint breaks, tie the mast base to a footstrap and body-drag in. You board might get a few scrapes, but they can always be fixed later. Same applies to a broken fin.

Practice both in shallow water if need be.

Dip916 said..
rescue services are there to save lives, not your toys. If you count on calling for help, the one time you need them they might be busy off rescuing someone who....

...is really stupid and jumped off the rocks and broke their neck, got swept into the sea while fishing in some ridiculously notorious spot, or is simply an ignorant muppet who can barely tread water but gets caught in a rip outside the flags.

I can confidently freestyle swim 2klms (in about 35mins), and would easily swim a few kilometers home from anywhere within, say, Botany Bay, but if I carried a phone on me (which is a good idea if you ask me), I wouldn't hesitate to call for help if I wanted to "save my gear". I might call my mum, but most likely I would get to shore somewhere and sheepishly call my wife to come collect me (perhaps many hours later).

If I couldn't make it back to land because I was sailing in the ocean, then I would use a mobile phone to call emergency services for help. There's no shame in that.

Best bet, is learn what you need to do to save as much of your gear out there, tie it all to your board and paddle in like I've seen plenty of others do.

Try and keep your gear in good condition... I imagine masts break a lot, so a new RDM every couple of years is good peace-of-mind, as is a new uni every 12 months. Also, check all your ropes... outhaul etc and keep spare rope with you when on the water.

Again, there's no shame in calling for help or waving someone down if you're in trouble.

One of the reasons I wear a life vest is so that if I do break something I can attach it to the rig and paddle the board home, knowing it will still be floating. Before the paddle home try and take a transit (two fixed points on land) that can be a starting point from which the rig recovery mission can begin. Look at sea breeze tidal info and wind info and take a stab a which direction the rig went. Offer a carton to fellow boaties etc for rig recovery etc as I have found in the past 24 stubbies can go a long way on a hot day!!!

Rule one is tie yourself to the board whilst you sort out the mess. I broke a mast and whilst pulling the rig apart lost the board to a large swell. Wind and swell took the board faster downwind than i could swim. Tide was going the opposite way to the wind. Left me with nothing that floated, and miles from shore.
I nearly drowned, as I was stuffed form hours of sailing and could not prevail against the tide.
I was rescued at the moment I was going under by another windsurfer.
I now wear a life jacket and take rope.
Thanks for the reminders re uni joint. I will buy a new one this week.

Thanks everybody for the feedback. Two lessons clear to me 1) good gear with maintenance 2) learn self rescue techniques. I hope everybody has a safe Christmas and Santa brings you lots of constant 20kt winds. Cheers Jason

ggh said..
Ring the Redcliffe VMR on 32035522 or on the radio channel 73 . they will be more than happy to come and pick you up in fact they are like the racq on water.
However if you are not a member make sure to give them a donation and if you are a member also make sure to give them a donation .

That number is worth putting in your contacts.