hate to say it but it may be too strong. Syd Harbour is 40 knots.
Did the BOM get a forecast correct? No, I think they actually underestimated the wind - for once.
What has grabbed my attention is the consistency of the wind. It's not gusty at all.
+/- 5% at times. 40 - 44 knots.
The 4.7 I ordered is already too big.
Its not that its to strong its the bloody lightning. sitting at valentine
waiting for it to buggar off.
light rain now so that should see the end of the lightning.
school sport cancelled, time to go out somewhere!
90-100kg guys had on 4.7 /4.9's and were at how strong the gusts were - pretty flatwater at Canton.. Me at 64kgs had my old 3.2m sail on without enough downhaul ( a 90's model) whoa! Went for the first gybe and landed still hooked in in the foot of the sail..I think I got about 2 gybes ok in a lull.. For the rest I just turned up into the wind and turned it around and went off again.. One stack I actually did a 360 roll along the water as I skipped along like a rock before I landed..Another time I was standing in the water with my gear and being the expert at survival sailing I am
I get more practise than you guys..
I made sure to hold onto the upahul. Glad I did as a gust came through and picked the whole board and rig up and tried to throw it downwind..it lifted up about 4' in the air and then ran out of leash and thudded back down.The board was flipped upside down a lot once stopped but that's normal in survival sailing
. Milsy had his 6.2m up ..Don't know how he held onto it!
Then the thunderstorm came through and ended it for most people.
Long Reef - 3 runs (very short), out and back between 12 noon and 1 PM.
Ridiculous!
Strongest Southerly I've seen there for many, many years!
I sat there for 2 hours watching lightning & flogging down rain. the wind went back to the
west for about 30min & then nothing, the lake nearly looked like glass. it picked up about
4ish again still pissing down.
I was thinking Valentine would have been a handful if it was blowing like at Canton! I'm getting old..I used to sail out in the chop on the lake in gales and enjoy it.. Now I'm a whimp and go to flatwater..
and still get annihilated..
)
Sailed Fishermans from 4-6 in about 25-30 overpowered on 4.7, Jonathon on his Naish Chopper medium and Jess on 4.2 HSM were both pretty in control pulling aerials and end over end forwards. Nice little wave off Kenny's ledge (brown water)
good to see plenty desperate for a sail. Where have the blo@dy NE gone
.
nice one Tim, btw I think it's "Lenny's Ledge". Seems like you got the better conditions.
I am pretty sure that's over near the chemical plant. They probably burned off some gas. The wind probably just gave it more oxygen.
I remember when growing up in Germany there was a factory near the lake I used to sail. You would pass it on the way from town and after a while people managed to work how good of a sail it was going to be based on how the smoke left one of the stacks. If it was straight up you pretty much could turn around and go home. If it was horizontal you knew it was going to be an awesome day. The only time I didn't see any smoke was during a winter storm... I ended up using a friends 2.7 sail. Peak gusts were around 160 km/hr. it needed 3 people just to carry a board to the water.