Lancelin Ocean Classic 2014 Stories

Pretty similar to last year and all the previous years in that I was in Queensland wishing I was there.

Reported to me:

Getting off the beach was hard as weed very close to beach.
Dan and Issac seemed to get away clean and led the race early.
Steve Allen AUS-0 was 1st to clear weed and took the lead, until he lost the last gybe and had to sail super low in the light winds allowing Peter Volwater to gybed inside him and take the lead. Steve then took the lead back but had trouble finding the new finish lane and was really worried about the next guys catching up quickly.
In the end Steve had a good win.

This is all pretty rough, but gives you an idea of how hard it is to win these races. Certainly not a walk in the park....

Congrats to Steve Allen and all the competitors for that matter!

First time for me. Stinking hot day. The water state looked very flat. My 11am check of Willy Weather was forecasting 18 knots from the south.

There was a race briefing at 12.30pm and the change hit during the briefing, it looked good. Bjorn was saying he was hoping for his 107 +8.6 combo. Being my first time I was being a little conservative and had a 6.4 and a 115 Partrik slalom ready to go. Went out for a run and realised that I was way underpowered. Grabbed the 7.5 I had rigged but there wasn't enough wind for the 115. Dilemma - 135L slalom and risk the forecast eventuating and struggle street or take the soft option and go the 190L Tabou Coolrider. SOFT! Plugged the barge in knowing that one way or another I was guaranteed to finish.

Many were making a mad dash to go bigger close to start time. I should have too - and grabbed the 8.6 but felt I'd left it too late.

Instructions were clear, when the blue flag goes down the red flag goes up and the race can start at any point then by the dropping of the red flag. Well, those Elite guys are great sailors but evidently hard of hearing 'cause as soon as the blue flag went down about 20 sailors hot the water. General recall.

Second time was a charm. I was second row from front, 13 places downwind. With the big board I had an advantage and jumped straight on. Zero wind lost balance and had to hop off. Heaps of people waiting for a puff to jump on their boards. I tried again and managed to nudge through a spot and I was away... SLOWLY. No chance of planning. Wind is super light - maybe 8 knots. We get out past the small break and the wind slowly starts to fill in and I finally get planning but now all the other boards are flying past me.

On the outside the wind is better and you can even use some swell to advantage. Many sailors struggling to go deep. Back inside to first inside mark and the wind drops out to 7 or 8 knots. I actually stop and let of 2 cm of downhaul to try and get some more power. I reckon I would have been 10 mins slower if I hadn't. Everybody is dogging out until wind fills in again.

Much the same for the rest of the race. I would pick up a few places whilst others were dogging or going way past marks just to get deep enough, then they would get a gust and shoot past me.

Hit the last mark and couldn't be arsed running up the beach to the finish arch sow dropped the centreboard and sailed upwind 30 metres to be close...just 'cause I could

1.04 final time. LOC - tick

Now I know the course maybe next time I can be a little less soft with my choice.

Hats off to Matt Holder (Reflex Films), he must be about 80-85 kegs and using a 107 iSonic and a 7.5m NCX camless sail - came in 14th. Huge congrats to Isaac for 2nd.

Third time for me. Last time in 2011 I was way overpowered so I thought it was safer to rig smaller.

Well, I struggled a bit on my 5.7 wave sail and 85L wave board. I am light but I was still way under powered.

It was specially hard near the last marks and after trying to pump a few times to get the planning, I realised I would be lucky enough to finish.

Just below 1h to the finish line, I was very happy. Next year I will probably rig too big again. :-)

Totally agree.. too light.. you did well to get around on that gear...crapola!

9m sails and massive boards are not airline friendly...put a wind limit (and or equipment size) on it then everyone can play on an even playing field...when people head to WA for a sailing holiday in Summer, most are thinking 20+knt conditions, so that's what you pack, and its also what is airline friendly, you would get more interstate competitors if they only had to travel with 1 board 2 sails.

Not everyone can have a full supply of toys on hand, and in some cases ready rigged to go waiting on the beach, like the Pro's do!

What happened to the days of being able to do a L2L on wave gear!?...I bet the original guys that started the race weren't on 9+m sails, I'm sure that wasn't the spirit of things when they first came up with the idea!

Need to be flexible with dates on these things, and make a call based on local knowledge of the forecast ...it should have run day/s before when it was windy, no one likes flogging themselves silly in no wind and hot sun....yuk! easy to say in hind sight, but pretty certain the wind did as what was forecast for that week, so call it 'on' on the windy day.

I'd take getting my but kicked and getting smashed in a 25k+ LOC any day v's no wind slogfest, vie done it bothways..the LW version sucked!

But as its under 'professional' organisation these days...they have 'ticked' the box, got some nice pictures, been paid..move onto the next event didn't we do well etc etc....yep but didn't do well for the sport or its competitors.

Already noted Kite guys saying the similar about their race.

Would have been better off running it as a SUP Race in such a fickle breeze!

I signed up for the kite surfing downwinder but headed up on Thursday and spent the lead up drinking beer and kiting and in the mornings going for a Sup. Focusing pretty much on hanging out with mates and having a good time. The great thing about weekends like these is the sole focus is on water sports and enjoying the ocean with likeminded people and necking a few stubbies afterwards.
Between the six of us we probably spent 4 grand over the time combined with renting a two story house for the period so a good injection into the local economy as well. If your a sailer or kiter its a good option for a holiday at home.
i was massively underpowered for the race. The winner flew a 19 meter kite and my biggest was a 12. I knew I was doomed before the start but had a crack anyway. After the first mark the course turned downwind and I was doomed as the apparent wind fell away to strong fart levels. I slowly struggled North as the fleet of skinny arsed kids on huge kites left me in their wake.The only angle I could sail wasn't one that led to the finish line so I limped ashore and sheepishly packed up and climbed aboard a 4x4 for a low range trip along the coast to the finish line.
Sadly even if you fail to finish you have to go and log off on the official timing mat by standing on it.
Embarrassing.

Sigh....... Still a great weekend and I could hardly sleep that night as I plotted my revenge.

The wind was heading from the North in the morning, swung around 1.30. But was sooo light. My largest kite was an 11m.

My decision not to partake was the two tacks directly downwind for about 15kms. I knew I would be a liability.

Personally, I don't call kiting in 10knot winds racing. Ill stick to freestyle.

I think the organizers need to be mindful of the heritage of the event and the reputation of the location. If they choose to be rigid about the race marathon start date over the four days, then they are placing a big advantage on the pros and kitted up locals. As an interstate competitor, I packed gear that I thought would suit a lighter sailor in 20+ knot winds and that wouldn't be a nightmare to fly over.

Isn't that why we're there - because it's windy? The Thursday and Friday were both perfect marathon days but the organizers ran the waves only on those days. The organizers need to be mindful that the world is watching Lancelin not so much for the waves but for the marathon and so I think the marathon should always be the priority, or hire more help and run both concurrently if it's windy and the forecast for the marathon day is looking really dodgy. It's common sense to me anyway but the sponsors may not be interested so long as there is a result..

I was also undercooked on a 6.6 and on one of the inside marks just found it impossible to water start, had probably planed 70% of the time until then and when planing was feeling good. I thought I was in a wind shadow but I think it was just a large dead patch, if I had tried uphauling or waited longer I might have got going but I feel if the rescue guys need to ask if you want to get in a boat you probably need to. Im not sure a larger sail would have made much difference as the 6.6 was not even "flying" just a dead weight above me. When the boat stopped again at the outside mark there was enough wind for me to have been going.

I think we participants sometimes underestimate the complexity of running this race, getting the necessary volunteers, rescue boats, cars and marker boats is a major undertaking and not something that could easily be moved back or forward a day to suit the forecast.

Many years ago they used to have Sunday as a "reserve" day and I vaguely remember that is was run at least once on the Sunday, and that Saturdays party at the pub was no less active just because the race hadnt started and was going to be tomorrow

Talking to Barry (race director) at the start his main priority is to have the race run, his worry both this and last year was that the wind might drop off if he waited so he went for a start as soon as there was "enough" wind. I think the background to that is that its up to us (the competitors) to have appropriate equipment and to use it if necessary. They were even prepared to run in the SSE with a slightly modified course which surprised me a little bit.

Last year I went for too large a sail and pulled out early on, this year I made the opposite mistake, maybe 2015 will be the goldilocks year !

If the LOC organisers or people who know them see this I would just like to thank them for all their efforts, while there are things that could be improved I still think its a credit to them all that on the day it all seemed to run smoothly (even that new finish line, not that I sailed to it mind you). Perhaps they could have a "suggestion box" somewhere where we could add our comments (just an idea), I for one find the red flags on rescue boats and orange on marks impossible to tell apart, would be nice to have another color or even extra flag (an orange and a blue or something) on the marks. Back years ago they had black Kites on the Marks, made them easy to spot from a long way away and very distinctive.

I totally understand the complexity of running such events, but if Lancelin wants to maintain the world prestige of this event they need to match other events where the start dates are flexible. The best way to run these events is to start in the best conditions, not stick to a rigid format. Everyone knew Saturday would be crap and if the organizers thought a breeze would fill in, they should have waited another hour or so.

It was a great workout and sweat session for me so not a complete waste of time and the beers were cold at the end!

I think the course is a ripper. It's supposed to be hard and challenging. If you're not up for it then don't enter. I reckon Barry nailed it on the day as far as the start time went. It's a pro am so of course the top guys are going to have all the gear needed for different winds to be competitive.

If it was run thurs/friday yeah there was more wind but also 2m plus swell. I reckon that would = more dnf's and broken gear/rescues and sunday well it may as well been a writeoff completely for wind.

While i can understand the frustration of some entrants there are some things to consider about WA , Racing and a fast freeride / Slalom set up in general.

I am 88 kg and had a really enjoyable planing run down the course on a 7.5 (no cam sail with an RDM wave mast) and a 107 litre board - but i notice that i am constantly setting up my gear very differently to most other rider. When set up accordingly you can avoid the need for a 9.0 and 130 litre board.

There are no real skills involved to make this happen- just the willingness to think outside of the box a little bit.

1, The Ledge to Lancelin race is often started early due to safety / recovery concerns - very rarely does the breeze get a chance to fill in at full strength.

2. It is an awesome course to go down!

3. WA is windy - but not quite as windy as most people think. 5.7s and even 6.2 are becoming quite common here as part of peoples wave sailing kit.My 6.2 is my most used sail for wave sailing.

4. Anyone into freeride / slalom in Australia really should have a 7.5 -8 as their basic 11- 15 knot go package. A very common wind speed in OZ - and if you are in to percentage sailing you should have gear for this wind range. If you are happy to wait for more wind thats ok too.

5. This is the most important bit

- Dont just downhaul the bejeesus out of every sail you own -that sexy laid off leech look will do you no favours in the lower half of your sails wind range. A 7.5 with less down haul and a tighter leech - set up with minimal outhaul (touching the boom in parts is fine) can give a TON of low end planing power. These set ups tend to be quite springy and respond well to pumping - which leverages all that lift we are getting these days from 36 - 40 cm fins.

Too often i see sails with sexy loose leeches and flattened profiles due to outhaul being applied to early. Fine if its windy - but awful when the wind is marginal.

6. Harness lines a little bit forward for off the wind races makes a huge difference to sail trim on a downwind race. And they allow you to weight the back of the board (as you have to lean backwards off them for correct trim) which allows you to weight the back of the board and keep the noce clear of chop - A Higher boom helps a lot too.

7. Modern 100- 110 litre boards plane up incredibly early - due to modern widths. Do you really need that 130 litre board ? Go the rig fullness option and you may find yourself rethinking any need for a larger board.

8. Adjustable outhauls - i havent got one yet - but these make a massive difference in a race with varying angles.

9. This is pretty L2L specific - i often see riders in the race trying to go too deep and coming off the plane. Your are 10 x better tightening up in a lull and staying on the plane than trying to hold your off the wind angle. Maintain your speed and the next puff will let you go more downwind. If you cant do that just oversail the boat by a few hundred meters and throw in a gybe.

While i had a good run - i am sure a top 5 placing would have been possible with more tuning time and sailing better angles down the course - all these things are within any windsurfer's power to alter and take responsibility for!

Get set up right for the L2L and its one of the coolest windsurfing experiences that you will have all year long.

I Hope that helps anyone looking for a better L2L in the future.

+1

Yes totally agree with all that and I think I ticked off most of that stuff on the day and some of it as I was sailing to try and get the most out of things - except maybe even less downhaul could have helped a bit on a 6.6 - even if this would have resulted in a wrinkly luff.

The course was superb and I can say that Barry did the best job possible given his brief and the conditions, but I still would like to see a flexible marathon start if Lancelin could get their head around it. I even shouted to a few of the cray boat people how good the course was as I went around.