It was a great race session this afternoon with an excellent turn out from both competitors and wind. We even had interstate visitors who came up from Canberra for the event, thanks Ian and Ben. And thanks to all the competitors that turned out for a great afternoon.
The conditions were tough with the NE'er pumping a solid up 20-30 knots and some gusts up to 35. Needless to say there was plenty of excitement around the buoys, (read stacks, catapults). Particularly at the far buoy which had full exposure to the wind and really knarly chop.
We ran the full two races, 6 heats all up, 2 laps each heat. Congrats to the guys and girl who stuck it out, you'll sleep well tonight.
I'll post some results and pics tommorow. 
Thanks again Des,
Great job flying solo today as organizer, starter, beer provider, You even had to pack up your own stuff today!!!
Was great to be back on the water after so long on the the sidelines.
Picked a good day for my (soft and easy does it) comeback.
Nuclear N/east'r !!!!! The wind swatted us like flies.
Have had a few cold ones here at home and am sure gonna have trouble tomorrow getting out of bed, walking, putting my shoes on, calling the repair guy to fix the smashed nose on my new slalom board,,,,(ouch)
Well done to everyone who turned up,,, rigged up,,,,, and held on!!!!!!!
Am sure i'm not the only one who's hurting tonight.
Once again, thanks Des.
p.s Anyone care to recount some of the huge catapults of the day?
Any other broken bits? (equipment preferably)
I was very close to one or two mega slams. My crashed gybe was not so spectacular.
Duncans TRIPLE FORWARD LOOP (without board or sail stands out as exceptional)
Till next time everyone,,,,
I had a fairly decent catapault that ripped the velcro off my cps arm band. Not terrible spectacular though. I saw some beautys today!! Thanks for the racing, Des!
Good onya Des, good fun event. Nothing like race conditions to invoke a catapault - still don't know what happened to get me into that out of control state, but I knew it was coming 5 seconds before it happened. Thanks for the loan of the sensibly sized sail Des.
Almost made it home before midnight.
Yep thanks Des, water starting at every turn is wearing thin....
I am buggered today already and its 7.42 am.
Great work Des, my arms are killing me. Not too many times you get overpowered on a 5.0m sail in Sydney
i was just upwind of the far buoy during one of the races. the commitment and competitiveness of the boys was unbelievable. everyone hit the mark at full speed despite being hit by one of the very strong gusts of the day. I think they were all praying that if they showed true commitment and guts they would be rewarded by being magically transformed into Bjorn Dunkerbeck and executing a flawless lay down gybe. unfortunately this didn't happen with the wipeouts being of the very spectacular nature. Full credit to all that raced as i was way over powered trying to hang onto my 5.2 and attempting to gybe whenever i spotted a lull.
As I mentioned the conditions were tough as some of the photos show. First race went to Stephen (new entrant & Seasoned Stormriders racer). Second place going to Chris, a new face on the Fun Race scene - the tall guy with the short board (Naish Hybrid). 3rd went to our recovering invalid Jason who braved the chop on a 110L slalom board (which he later sacrificed to the wind gods). However we had Pascal another new entrant who probably would have had a podium finish if he'd stayed for the 3rd heat.
Second race...arms were getting longer, catapaults were frequent and equipment was being damaged.
1st Place - Stephen, 2nd place Chris and 3rd place Ian - our new entrant from Canberra. Sterling effort from Ian who was using a huge (115L board) for the conditions. But then again he did have my race winning Saber 5.2m.
The last heat was a little controversial as Stephen rounded the wrong in shore buoy and the rest of the fleet followed, except for Shaun who did the legal heat. Just as well we're relaxed with the scoring in our fun races.
Once again Sally won the womens category very convincingly.
Congrats to all the contestants who braved it in the extreme conditions. I plan to have one more race before Xmas (weather permitting) with a much more relaxed format and Xmas themed.
Thanks to the Desal plant construction team for the buoys - since ours was late (Sam)
Some pics- not great quality as it was quite overcast and my able bodied assistant and photographer was busy that day.
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great snaps Des! Cheers. Let me know if you need a person to do the score sheet some time so you can sail.
Yep fantastic day, thanks for organising it, and well worth the long drive from Canberra.
I was one of the many catapulted a loooooong way, but thankfully didnt damage anything, just a 200m swim back to my board. If you nailed the turns, you got a good place, it was all about the turns out at the far bouy.
I've never come anything other than last in races, so I was blown away to get 5th in the first race, and that included my biggest catapult.
Thanks again Des, and Ian for the lift up there.
BTW, if you happened to notice that those buoys say 'all vessels prohibited'. I'm sure I saw some fine print saying sailboards exempt!
