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Can we one day find a sponsor to dig a channel? Obviously, Australia may have the advantage of moderate climate and peaceful, safe environment.All we need is a digger and to find the best spot to dig,What would be the best spot in Australia to dig a channel ( taking into account existing natural condition, weather and winds ) ?
www.facebook.com/jacques.vanderhout/videos/vb.601737993/10152817059502994/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab
Macro
You find & buy the piece of land/property suitable and I am prepared to buy/Sponsor you a shovel to dig it out. 
Count me in. But no doubt someone Out there, to try put a stop to it 
Few places I know that'd be ideal
Then again, wind seems to be a rare occurrence here last few seasons!
The seabreeze up north here can get fairly strong, 40kts not too uncommon, it's digging the channel where the land is flat enough to get clean air, that would be the problem.
But , what I could do with a scraper
The problem I could see: The most wind have Tasmania and SA / Perth, Kato place is also good at times.But channel should be in nice , tropical location to be in use whole year.I could see that the most wind in Queensland enjoy some small islands nearby. Surprisingly on my weekender backyard outback land ( near Dalby) wind today is excelling. Cattle are flying ( almost) So if there is flat land 300 km of the sea, but windy, the speed channel could be there.
Advantage is such that land inside is cheap and piece like 100 Ha should be enough to make Windsurfing park, speed run.
How wide is the Lauderitz channel?
I am guessing about 10m?
the depth? max 50cm ?
Cold, dense wind has more energy and therefore faster. Cold water also means a faster speed before cavatiation sets in. Sorry wetsuits still needed
what if i told you
Don't know about the Perth area. We saw a couple of days where Stroppo et al. did 42+ knots, but the wind probably was 20 knots less than on Luderitz record days. Shark Bay had more wind on the two days we were there, I guess Mike was thinking that direction when he said "up north". Land should be a lot cheaper there, too. You guys should definitely look into this!
I'd say ignore Kato's comment about the temperatures. He's too used to sailing in what counts as "cold" in Oz. Luderitz is not that cold, is it? Kato would probably vote for adding a 4 km long square part to the channel so he can do 24 hours at 40 knots, anyway 
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The Luderitz set up is surprisingly cool. We were recommended to bring 4mm steamer and thankfully heeded that advice. the water is very cold in the ocean, (and bay) and the wind is off the ocean. Stand around in that wind and water all day and you need a decent wetsuit. 
it's not just strong wind that is needed for a canal, but also a very consistent wind direction. A canal is useless if the wind varies by over 5-10 degrees angle. Not many places where that is available. Shark bay is certainly one of them, but it is very remote and there are no nice 5 star hotels (or even camping parks) a few KM's from potential spots (Try a few hundred KM's!)
On the plus side, i was much warmer sailing at Shark Bay than Luderitz.
one option regarding Shark bay, is for the Windsurfing Industry to re-establish contact/relationships with Dampier Salt at Useless Loop, Peter Dans organized a speed sailing comp in the salt ponds ij the 1980's, thats a realistic option, a high wind area with a ready made wall/canal. Peter Dans can you respond if you read this.
What about some kind of floating wind chop damper that could be set up in somewhere like Shark Bay (never been there so guessing how it might be suitable). Some kind of energy absorbing artificial bank or break-wall that can be set at exactly the correct angle? Hell if is successful enough it could be moved from location to location, imagine a series of speed events in each state? I'd imagine it would be more cost effective. If you could host an event at say Botnay Bay or Port Phillip and generate media for the interest and also host events in more remote areas where the wind is strongest. Open it up to other craft moths or kites, foils etc. Im thinking something like the old Waymouth Speed Week. 500M of break wall and a launch retrieval pen couldn't be that hard to do - anyone got connections to Red Bull? If they can do an Air Race on the Danube in Vienna or Budapest this should be a walk in the park for our Ozzy can do ingenuity ???
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I just got off the phone with Keith McCulloch, who gave me the details about the Hatteras "speed tarp tube". This was an annual event that ran for about 5 years at the end of the 80s. It was sponsored by Gaastra.
The key piece was a 300 m long truck tarp that was glued into a tunnel of 6 ft diameter, with 1 ft overlap, and deployed in 2-3 feet of water. The ends of the tunnel were rolled up and clamped liked a dry bag. About 5-10 meters from one end, a 40 cm wide fill tube was added that was then connected to an aluminium tube that went around a 70 HP boat motor. At full speed, the motor would fill the tube in a few minutes, with enough pressure so you could walk on the tube. After the first year, they put a large piece of ply wood under the motor so that they would not fill the tube with a ton of sand. The tube would be elliptical, and stick about 50 cm above the water. It was anchored every 5 meters with a sand anchor, and held up in 30 knot wind. The water behind the tube was perfectly smooth. Keith's top speed back then was 40 mph on boards like the Bic Allegro, and he says he was not even a good windsurfer back then (he is now!).
Deploying the tube took about an hour with 5 guys. Packing up took about twice that long. They talked about getting a fish net roll-up thingie to make that part faster, but the main guy behind the event lost interest before that happened.
Back in the 80s, the cost for the material were about $10K US. That was with US-made truck tarps; maybe it could be done at similar costs now that everything is made in China. That's about the list price of 3 NP race rigs.
I'm curious if you guys can pull off something similar in Oz .
I actually like the idea of the water filled plastic tube. I can see it might be feasible to construct it using ultasonic welding and a huge roll of PVC.
The inherent problem with such a structure is that it is water filled, and therefore has the same density as the water it sits in, with the exception of the actual plastic film. This means it need to be anchored to the bottom securely. Not an insurmountable problem, but a complication nonetheless. because, wherever there is strong wind, the surface water will be moving with it, trying to drag you barrier as well.
1000m sandspit in a very windy western australian town. Gonna check it out this summer.
earth.google.com/static/wasm_threaded/#@-24.87600125,113.62668793,1.71728116a,4215.42681066d,35y,0h,0t,0r
www.tripadvisor.com.au/Attraction_Review-g488333-d6412403-Reviews-One_Mile_Jetty-Carnarvon_Western_Australia.html#photos;aggregationId=101&albumid=101&filter=7&ff=264913126
I had a look on one of our trips, and it does look feasible, but I didn't have a lot of time. to check it properly
Bit of a movable feast those spots up North. The one Hardie has his eye on has got better this year whilst just a few Ks further south a good run a few years ago has been completely destroyed.
2014
2017
2018
Henty has reformed - already nearly 1500m of sandbar and growing daily!
Photo courtesy of Cookie:
