Hi guys,
we'd given one of those daggy Australia coffee table books to yank friends, and they noticed an old windsurfer pic in there:
Question is: when/where/what? (am at work, so got time on my hands...). Book only says: "Race in Sydney Harbour".
Bear with me. If it's Sydney indeed, then judging by their wetsuits, it must have been summer.
Now, in them's years (not so anymore), there were only 2 kinda winds in the summer: NE or southerlies. But southerlies used to be strong winds, and the wind is weak in there. So must have been a northeaster. Also looks flaky, looking at the water ripples ahead: musta been in late arvo. They're not near shore, looking of the long wake on top of picture. The shadow is coming from dead right, it seems.
So I concluded, still having nothing to do, that it must have been a mid- to late-arvo race, taking off perhaps from Balmoral or the Spit - there used to be a shop and races there. Or rounding off Middle Head towards Harbour, although that would end up in ferry galore.
It couldn't be the south shore in the morning, since Rose Bay is crowded with boats, and southerlies didn't follow those wind patterns then.
The highest sail number is 330k, and I used to have one of those in 1983 or 4, so the picture must be that old.
Anyone remember this race? 
"Stubbies Marathon" Manly to Balmoral to Middle Harbour and back to Manly 1980 - 81.
Saw a couple of guys out on One Designs doing what must have been nearly the same course yesterday.
Similar amount of wind, just miserable and overcast......
No wait, can't be that kind of race !!
The breeze is coming some 45 degrees from the left in - look at flaggy above the masts, and the stream in the water too. But the sun is straight right, according to mast shadows.
If they were leaving Manly (bay), then the sun would be dead west, and that would be late at night for such a race.
They're all Windsurfer brand, and such races were open class by then, therefore it must be a Windsurfer comp proper, probably at or towards the starting line (they're bunched). Esp. that they all have a sponsor's logo.
Gotta be around 1983, probably later in the year too, as there were no 330 sails before, and in early 1984 there were already Mylar sails...
Now, where's that dumb blonde in CSI when you need her...
in summer they also get NW, W, and Easterly winds and southerlies can be light aswell, so i could have been coming from almost any direction..
Rick is right, its the Stubbies marathon launching from Manly Cove. First "contest" I ever entered and got a huge education. Got called on "starboard" at the start towards Reef Beach in about 3 knots, had no frigging idea what that meant and just kept on chugging towards somewhere down wind.
I think I got close to Balmoral in about 5 knots (never sailed off the wind before) and came back to realise that the good guys like Messrs Cudmore, Murray, etc had finished and showered about 3 hours ago. I heard my name called as I came about 170 out of 171 and won a One Design gear bag. Been totally hooked ever since.
Yeah, I vaguely remember that Stubbies used to make one of those jeans or jeans look-alike.
> Winds then.
No, it's changed big time since the 80s, IMO. In the 80s, summer was a constant rising NE, with the odd southerly. We used never to get any westerlies in the summer.
Invariably we'd go jumping off Wanda on south winds, or B-bay or sometimes Balmoral for the show on NEs.
It's changed big time since, as it has here on the Great Lakes.
Anyways, you guys are like an encyclopedia...
I was not around in Syd back then, but are you saying the there was NEVER a westerly in Sydney during the summer months of the 80's?
I grew up in the 80s, not in Sydney but on the mid north coast of NSW. I do remember summer westerlies and they were as hot as hell. Really unpleasant weather and often were associated with bushfires.
I had exactly the same pink coloured rip cirl chest harness as the guy in the foreground, my mum bought for the family together with a second hand one design circa 1983
Pierre, I reckon there woulkd be a few sailors of that vintage that would disagree with you. I can remember lots of good west/SW that you could do speed runs from Lugga's at Longy to DY point and back plus the westerly weirdos at Lake Dangerous. Today was a perfect example, light forecast of 15-20 max but blew its tits off all day. Hot, dry and salty, bloody good fun!!!!!!!!!!
You are right about the sea beeze days followed by a southerly buster (usually on a Sunday arvo that cleared the beach) then back to nor-easters for 3-4 days.
Sigh, bring back the "good old days"
i was in that race
the wind was light,i thought from the east,only sailed there that one time,so not 100%
it was flukey and all over the place
i was about 15/16 and even lighter than i am now
flukey and light ,just what a canberra sailor specialises in
i think i came in the first 20
i was'nt hanging around with all the wallies
i had a sailboard race,sailboard was a german brand,a detuned div2 board
i think lachlan gilbert,on a crit D2 won the race
he had a yellow fully battened sail
he was the ONLY person with a fully battened sail
Yep KA360, your recollections are probably spot on. Although the only time it's not light, flukey and/or all over the place in that neck of the woods is when it's a decent Southerly.
I'd guess it being probably ENE. The more Easterly in there the lighter it tends to get, although it rarely blows directly E. The start would have had the biggest wind shadow when the photo would likely have been taken.....
All that discussion from a coffee table book...
A couple of guys quote today or lately, and no question there: there is little or no pattern anymore. My sample of the last 10 years is a few weeks at a time, but it's all over the place now. Spent a whole summer with rels in 2001, was the worst wind-wise summer...
As to them's days, I woulda been offshore on a westerly at Dolls Pt, which was my abode. Never was caught offshore in the summer.
Back to the question: I buy the ENE, that makes sense looking at the flag on top of one of the masts. But isn't the sun coming from dead right, which makes it from the west, which means the race started real late arvo ??
And really 1981 with those sail numbers ???
Was it an open race, and if so, how come all windsurfer brand on picture? In the early 80s open races usually had mixed fleets, no separate starts...
Sun's definitely from the right, but looking at the lifejacket on the guy in denim shorts (and wondering what the chances are the poor blighter ended up with a dose of testicular cancer!) it still seems pretty overhead.
If they had a rounding mark somewhere toward Fairlight before heading off toward Balmoral I reckon that would explain the tack and the shadows. Failing that, photographic skullduggery and some sort of mirror image print of the original with everything @rse about as a result......
..... or I could just be running out of ideas
also the rainbow coloured sails were never as fast as the ones with light blue in them.
True, but you had to properly tune the light blue ones for max performance by wearing light blue Scoops Stubbies. Unfortunately Rainbow sails weren't really tuneable until Hypercolour came along and by that stage "Monofilm killed the One Design star"......
It would have been early '80s Stubbies; probably '81-'83.
The Open Class went off a few minutes earlier, which is why none can be seen. I think there may have been a mark off Reef Beach, to keep us away from the ferry lane.
It can't be a reverse pic, because the starboard numbers are higher as they should be.
I can recall the Stubbies had maybe 10-15 knots from NNE, but in one or two of them the wind direction shifted radically to the north or NNW at the start line because of the land influence. The seeded sailors from the previous year had been given a special area on the theoretical upwind side, near the ferry wharf, which put us in a serious wind shadow, so we all just moved down the beach, rather to the annoyance of those who had grabbed the front-line spots there earlier. I think it was similar most years, so the apparently strange wind angle is just a very local thing.
If that was the year that Lach won the Open class/Overall event, it would be the year that a multiple Div 2 world champ from France, Robert Nagy, was second. Jessica Crisp and Rob Howard were 3rd and 4th (or 4th and 3rd) having got past the guy who had been in third most of the race, when they came past the Bombora to the finish and had to run the gauntlet of what was (at a conservative estimate) 150,000 Hi Fly 555s and Stip Holidays, all still on the first leg and all continually either falling, veering to port, veering to starboard, sinking or doing all of them at once - and not one of them knew the rules, or how to judge the speed of a Div 2 board railing and planing upwind in 10 knots of wind. It was like a battle of Britain dogfight as we lapped them all.
Not that it's a bitter memory, or anything, to remember Jess and Rob railing past as we went through that massed windshadow 
And of course, the fact that they were much better sailors had nothing to do with it!
Nagy was a nice guy, but incredibly hyped up and vocal on the water; I still remember hearing him screaming from a couple of hundred metres behind up that last leg.
PS - I can recall LOTS of hot westerlies in those days, and earlier.
PS - Hey, KA 360, are your initials AH?
hi chris
yes ,its akim
its been 25 years
seen your name around the traps,mainly to do with windsurfer and dobroyd
that always rekindles fond memories
i thought i might run in to you this year
have been meaning to get a sail in sydney,when i visit my mother in law
thought twilight races at dobroyd is a place i might find you
i will send you a message next time i am down your way
cheers
ps have you been sitting on your butt all this time?
our people need an aussie windsurf magazine,your the man
Just love this CSI thing...
Open and Windsurfer: all makes sense now that there were different starts. That's what I reckoned.
Either NNW wor NNE, I still don't get it with the shadow though and the time of the day, but enough of that.
Reef Beach: yeah, sorta makes sense to keep away from ferries - also might explain the vintage point, high above the masts, which you couldn't get from Manly proper. Would be a nasty offshore roundabout with Grotto though.
Sail numbers and years: I still say 83, late 83 even. What do you say Chris, 330 I don't think were made before the winter of '83.
More or less as an aside, I still sailed my real old 330 Sydney sail just last September at a meet (there was no wind for the Goya). Same yellow-orange design as on the Manly picture, made only in Australia. I take it out once every 2 years, in the lightest possible winds. The real old board is signed by Stuart Gilbert from the '83 Worlds too.
They were made in Asia indeed.
Batches of numbers were allocated to different makers, hence to countries, in order to guarantee unique numbers. For instance I've never seen a 327xxx to 333 elsewhere but Oz (could be wrong). Australian sails were different too: unique colour combos, like the ones on the picture - never to be seen in North America.
The make for Aussie sails (under license Bambora P/L??) was also a bit different - not a true One Design. Mast sleeve a bit smaller, the window for the boom slightly different height. Anyhow, back then I raced in Florida couple of times my Aussie sails and all loved my very unique colours.
Back to number batches, roughly in both N.A. and Oz: 150-200 were 1981, 200-270 for 1982, etc. The Worlds Aug. 1983 had the first Mylar 400xxx, but Dacron 280+ sold from late 1982 to the end. I might be off by some months, but I doubt a 330 sold before 1983. And the pic couldn't be 1984, since there are no Mylar in it.
(wished I had given them a 6-pack'o stubbies now, rather than the book.)
