Good luck to ALL, heading to Luderitz

Best of luck team. Will be egging you on!

OMG !!!
Flex a butt cheek wrong and it looks like you are into the bank.
What happens if you spin out

it's probably ok wearing a gay pride wetsuit when doing 50 knots in a 2m wide ditch with no way of stopping other than an acrimonious dismount.

but it will be a hard one to live down.

go QLD!!!!

Thnx!

First report I heard of is that the wind is more tubulent. Could be caused by high leeward wall. Aother point: last year in windward there were low sections at the start and finish with sand staying wet/moist all the time. It seemed to be sustantially windier and less gusty there than in the somewhat higher mid section. On the picture it seems overall height has been raised which is good to prevent the canal from flooding. It could vad though for wind quality. Babk in leeward could cause a problem with the wind hitting iit full force causing an upward component down low.

The guys now there have got limited time to find out and this weekend will be another solid 50-60 knots windy period so need to not only focus on their sailing but also the canal itself.

Too early to judge but it could be the wind is being mixed down low. Kiters don't have that problem. Think of skyscrapers and wind defelction. So possibility of an upward component or the windflow being deflected in leeward and colliding with the wind coming from the windward bank. This might cause the intitial comments I am reading from Patrik. It's fair to say it could also be related to the sheer strength but I think we should all pay attention in an early stage to make sure we see happy faces when our heroes return home.

Guys,

Check 2011 film footage of Anders riding the canal with 2012 footage. Then check Patrik film footage 2013.

Visibly the canal was in better shape in 2011 than in 2012 but looking at the speeds it was not. the windspeeds were there and possibly better than in 2012, but the boardspeeds were substantially lower. Perhaps Anders knows more.

To windward the bank was lower in 2012. Only in the mid section there was a dry section. The rest stayed wet because of the high ground water and low sand. The mid section was gustier and less windy. The fastest riders could glide through that section as they caries speed into it but now it seems momentum cannot be built from the start due to the high bank in windward. My two cents: we've got a problem that needs to be solved by lowering the windward bank and reshaping it by creating a much lower section close to the canal in windward. Also we need to smoothen it over a longer distance to avoid turbulence. This way the wind can fill the lower part of the sail.

The positive part is: this should be not too hard when using the bulldozer for a day or so.

Also the finish looks dead scary while Patrik is only going 46 knots. Imagine going over well over 100km an hour, speeds that seem to be the target speeds for the anticipated new windsurfing world record. I hope men close to Seb read this and come up with constructive comments in an early stage. All doesn't look good to me, however much appreciated work has been put into all of this. I hope I am wrong but I fear I am not, hence my early plead. Better to be safe than sorry....

The wall in leeward is to prevent the ocean from flooding and destroying the canal. Perhaps it's a tad too high and the shape can be less square. Patrik wrote to me Seb will attend to that.

After looking more in detail to the previous years and relying on my own experience last year I feel the main problem is with the windward bank. If we lower the soil, which can be done as the leeward side is blocked, the wind will be more laminar when reaching the canal. If Seb goes as low as hitting nearly the waterlevel under the soild we create some kind of wetland which will automatically smoothen the gound. It's not even bad to create a super tiny waterfilm to windward by lowering the soil. The main problem seems to be with the gusty winds right now.

The VSS guys are also loading video updates to their blog @ www.victorianspeedsailing.com

not a very big area to pull up after charging down the run at 50kn. Good luck to all the competitors, esp the Aussies.

Hallo Sailquick.I know that you have enough fins.If you need a 18cm Rake 30??,speak with Christian. Last year got
R??ttcher a fin from him and he was very fast. Good luck. Wolfgang

Boys are starting to crank some runs out!!! Tony and Jacques into 43 500m's. Daffy not far behind in the 41's. Wind still building, only 25-30 so far.

Not anymore! Andrew unofficially.has it at 44.5!