Hi all,

While sailing at Kyeemagh yesterday in that corker of a Nor-easter I broke the bottom half of my mast about an inch below the join. It was a clean break, and it tore through the luff of the sail and dumped me into the water doing 28 knots. I was about 20 metres away from the runway.

The sail was a NeilPryde RS-6 6.2, orange and grey in colour with AUS on one side and AUS 0 on the other side. The mast was an NeilPryde X6 430 wave mast.

With help from my mates Colby and Greg we managed to bundle it up and get it onto the board. We tied the gear to the back of my mates board and after many attempts we got it all sorted out and sent him on his way back to shore.

While Greg when to find a jet ski or a boat, Martin arrived on the scene and offered me a ride. So we began the painstaking journey of towing me back to shore. Pretty hard to plane when your towing 85 kgs off the back of your board.

Unfortunatly on the way back to shore I must not have secured the gear tight enough and the sail with mast wrapped up inside slid off the board unknowingly and was lost. The board, boom, base and my harness made it back safely.

We rounded up two jet skis and went for a look. Greg and Martin also went for a couple more runs to see if it was floating somewhere out there, but with the out going tide, the wind dying and the light fading we abandoned the search (ha sounds like we were trying to find a small child in bushland).

I'll contact the local kiteshop and Wind Surf and Snow, I'll also give the Desalination plant workers a call incase it washes in.

If any one does find it, please post on here and I'll gladly meet you somewhere to retrieve it. With an out going tide who knows where it will be.

All that I have of the mast is the spigot which i had tied onto my boom. Maybe this is enough to make a warranty claim but i doubt it. It was only just over a year old.

Thanks again to Colby, Greg, Martin and the two jet skiers that helped get me back to shore and search for my gear.

Cheers,
Russ