Like in real estate, notice the more money you pay the closer to the water you can get with more room around you!! Most of the fibros (Wally's) seem to be shoved to the back and packed in like sardines.
I was taking piccies at this event and had my first glimpse of the PanAm, it was jaw dropping gorgeous. I sold my Sailboard Free (Fun?) 3 years or so before this event, it looked like the third board down from the top right of the pic (except it was red/blue stripe). Squared off tail, twin fin, footstraps and flat top sail not too dissimilar to todays sails. I dragged (it was heavy) this down into Longy and jumped my first wave on it....and got rescued by the Dee Why rubber ducky coz I didn't know how to waterstart and I was getting perilously close to the rocks at their end. Yes I drifted that far and was buggered. It was too rough to uphaul! The shame.
Fark they were good times.
You could be right about classes, Grant or Al might remember...fellas?
Dunno if it was this event or the Dash for Cash ones but some of the boards at the front had their sails suspiciously moving when no others were just before the Le Mans style start starting gun went off. 
Hey, nice to see a pic of me and my first D2!
Stubbies, obviously, because that was the event with the triangular sail sticker, but I can't recall the year. Looking at the sail I had, it could have been '85. That mylar sail on a D2 some have commented about could have been Robert Nagy from France, multiple world champ. He won from Lach Gilbert, then Jess Crisp or Rob Howard and me.
Does the bigger version of the pic show any other D2s? Their insignia and number could help ID the year.
The Open Class went first, then the One Designs. That was why the Wallies are at the back.
"was taking piccies at this event and had my first glimpse of the PanAm, it was jaw dropping gorgeous."
That reminds me, I must clean up my Naish custom version of that board; obviously I'm biased but I think it's the most beautiful board ever made! :-)
Definitely 84. Definitely Stubbies marathon. Open class went off first, D2's, Pan Am's etc.
then One designs, Wally's, Mistral Super Lights etc.
I think the Open guys had disappeared by the time us poverty pack sailors got off the beach. I certainly saw them on their way back, sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chris, probably was a 1984 event, but definitely a Stubbies marathon was held in January 1985. The two photos are from the the 1985 event, pre race.
In January 1987 it was called the Mirror Marathon and I won that on the OD.
Looking at those pics, esp. the 1984 or 85 one, it just amazing the crowds we used to get then - Bbay, Narrabeen, Wanda, Balmoral. Those who haven't lived those years cannot easily imagine how sparse (?) the sport is now...
Nowadays, it's an event when a new guy picks it up at the local beach.
Anyhow, Rob great pics of Manly, sure no questioning where it comes from this time. 
Can small modern sails be used with wallys? Any need to use footstraps, because I've
noticed in most photos they are missing?
C249 knows better, but the modern wally - same dimensions as the old one - sells with a modern rig, and sails just fine of course.
That's the beauty of this particular old board.
Great to stumble across this photo - and funny to see Chris249's D2 right in the centre. I was in that race somewhere on his Cobra Race with a soft Gaastra 6.8 - bad choice - should have used my D2 rig with so much upwind work in the light breeze.
A fun and funny day, at the first mark logjam you could have walked 20m without getting your feet wet!
So many summer Sunday afternoons at Palm Beach looked almost like this - coming back in from a sail and not being able to find any vacant beach - hard to imagine now.
I have plans for pics like that with my kids -now 6 and 9 respectively. I'll have to track down a big old board for those light wind days for some sand flat cruising with the kids.
I recall two brothers from Newcastle(?), Marcus and Lucas(?) turning up at a Peter Jackson with an oversized D2 and a rig that looked like it belonged on a skiff. The mast had a track that the sail slid up and cleated at the top, just like on a skiff. Not sure how they got it out of the water.
Seeing the reference to 'home made' booms - we used to 'Progrip' the 32mm straight tube and lash one end to a Volkswagen front bumper, then just bend it around. I guess it was 6063 to be that soft, but they worked fine - and the ideal curve to fit our Reef ends. Making gear was normal - fun times.
There is a Porsche, sail number 34934 with the dark windows down the bottom above the Aussie flag. I think it was a Turbo.
You're right, that's the Porsche sail, can't see the board though.
I've never seen a Porsche sailboard in Australia.
The board is under the sail.
I cant believe someone tried to sail a Mistral Take Off ( centre of picture ) in that race.
Plenty of Mistrals there, M1, Superlight, Club, Take Off, Maui, PanAm,
Yeah Doug, Mylar all the rest are Dacron 3.8 oz, same weight sail cloth as a Laser sail.... somethings never change.
