2021 / 2022 Slalom & GPS Series

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AUS4 said..

berowne said..
It should be pretty clear that I'm excited.
For the NM, where is the sailable area and how large is it?
thanks

Lake Macquarie, 648km2.

It's your choice Rick - but whilst Lake Macquarie City Council is 648km2, those with local knowledge generally choose to sail within the confines of the lake which is a mere 110km2

There is however plenty of room for Nautical Mile runs. I'm not sure if the committee will define a competition area. But the area contained within the red boundary is where we generally sail NE winds. The yellow lines are 1 NM long.

Hmmm. Coal Point. 4klm from home but a 28klm drive to get there.
If only Village Bay was dredged deep enough - not gunna happen.

What a great day that was
1. 20 rego's,
2. fins, foils and wing foils
3. 9 results towards the series
Get involved Heat 2 4th or 5th December @ best spot on Lake Macquaire
Results to follow

We were so lucky to score yesterdays conditions. It's overcast with no wind today..

Thanks to Byron, Murray, James, & the Marmong Point crew for hosting the event. I'm still buzzing 24 hours later. The highlight were the gybe marks being surrounded by fin & foil without any issues. Can't wait for the next one.

Gybing that much is certainly helping alpha






Kudos to Tom C for sailing on the 9m IQ foil gear, certainly the largest windsurfing sail seen on Lake Macquarie yesterday afternoon. Had to be terrifying.

Great work getting all the results sorted out. Looking forward to the next one.

Who would have thought a few years ago that 4 of the top 10 would be on foils on a day with plenty of wind.

Windfoil Race 1 2021

On behalf of everyone who raced, a big thank you to the organising committee. we really were blessed with a great day on the water and the race plan and course setup made the most of the conditions.



The day started early about 10am for sign up and 11 for the briefing. A nice NE was building and by noon was pushing 8-10 knots. We decided to hit the water at 12:30 for a half hour gps session. Max 2s and NM speeds. Big thanks to Glenn and later Ian for crewing the rescue/start boat.


Given the light winds I opted for a small #F4foil 560 and 8.0 phantom sail. I had plenty of power and stability. The conditions suited fins and large 8.4 sails with 4 taking top speed honours (Murray pipping Byron, Ric and Dezza doing well). Boston (F4 620 and 8.0 skyblade) and me taking the next two spots for the foils. Then Ian (fin) Norm (Foil) Sue (flying on her Fin) and Mitch making it into the top 10 with a heavy 8.4.


The NM session was lead by Muzza and 2 other fins (Byron Ric) followed by 3 foils with Boston just ahead of me and Norm taking a spot on a slim AFS 660. Sue was in 7 just ahead of Andrew (foil) then Mitch and Bruce. I remember chasing Byron across the bay and he was slowly edging away but not by much :)

Muz seemed to be confused by the "Fin vs Foil" concept of slalom... he is seen here trying to fly his fin.

Me chasing Byron across the lake...


We then had a break allowing everyone to safely make it back to shore and re-rig. I'm not sure if anyone else swapped at this point but I decided to run a 7.7 loft racing blade with Exocet RS4 with a. FIN! getting 2nd place by 1km for the hour of power proved to be a good choice! The winds were now a Nice 12-18 knots and the only problem was the ribbon weed.


Blasting all over the lake was so much fun. Falling in on a couple of gybes after chasing a gust down the sandbar into a lull wasn't part of the strategy. Probably cost me a km! Dezza looked fast as she blasted past while Boston looked scared as he cut me off on a massively deep bare away trying to tame a VERY high foil. I chased Ric across the bay once and left the gybe until I found a gust but it wasn't enough and fell off the plane for under a minute.


There were 3 categories raced with Byron winning the 10s 5x average, Alpha and hour. Murray was second except I beat him by less than a km on the hour and I was third for the other categories. Andrew Boston and Norm got a few 5ths 6ths 7ths. While Dezza, Sue, Ian and Bruce got a few minor places too.


Another break to refuel and the course was set for fig8 slalom up at the sandbar. Ian sacrificed his own race to join the safety boat and help mark the finish order.




I remembered last year the outer mark was in rough water and a wind shadow while the inner mark was deep down the speed run and also had either a strong gust or big hole. Give this and my recent falls attempting a few gybes up at the sandbar gave me pause, so I decided to foil despite the increasing winds now 15-20knots. I also remembered the MASSIVE wind funnel mid-course so dropped the 8.0 in favour of a modified 6.3 MS TRXi with high and long clew. Boston also dropped down to a 5.8 (skyblade?). Tom still raced on his IQ set and was joined by Ric in survival mode on his big slalom gear and 8.4 duotone. Byron seemed very happy on his 7.7 S2!


This time the course was set well, with less waves at the outer mark, and the inner mark set in a good location with strong winds most of the time....



Standing on the shallow sandbar gave the fins a lazy advantage, just beach starting 30s before the flag and powering towards the start line but the timing machine glitched on the boat making it look like Byron was over early but later review showed he wasn't.



I got a good start a few seconds behind Byron, Muzz and Ric, who was hot on my tail. I could hear his noisy slapper bashing the ripples as we rounded the first mark. I took a wide line on the gybe as we tend to on foils and Ric came out above me and powered past to be ahead by the next gybe mark. Ric then took a wonder off in the wrong direction as he spun-out early into his gybe and went straight downwind giving me an easy overtake back into 3rd ! I didn't let up, nailed the last gybes and headed to the line with a decent gap ahead and with Norm on my tail followed by Ric, then Andrew and Boston on foils. Mitch beat Bruce to the line, with David made a top 10 finish on his windwing.





Race 2 saw another blinding start by the 3 "semi-pro's" Byron claiming the start line but Muzza ultimately pipping him by the finish and Ric finishing 3rd. I started my run a few seconds late and Norm and Boston below but ahead of me. I'm not sure if they changed order mid race but along with TomC we made the next 4 places on foils. Bruce TomP and Mitch made the top 10.



Race 3 and the front of the pack was again dominated by fins . including newcomer Mitch riding a G10 fin and my old TRX 7.7 (probably my most used and loved sail) beating me off the start.

This time he nailed all three gybes did well to make it to fourth behind Byron Ric and Muzz. I followed with Boston, Norm and Bruce (Fin), TomC and Tibor (Foil).


The final race was a disgrace. I started well, close to the front running fins with a few foils close in front or behind. as we started closing to the first mark I got high, held it through the gust or so I thought, only to get lifted again and thrown high but backwards. Luckily no one was following close behind and I managed to regain my gear quickly. I have no idea how it played out in front but Byron Ric and Murray got top 3 followed by Boston Mitch and Norm. There must have been a lot of carnage because I made up a lot of places and by the last mark could see Norm and TomC (temporarily) ahead of me on foils. I had nothing to loose and held my sail hard, ecking out some nice speed and overtook Tom with a metre to spare followed by Bruce and Dezza (Fin) in 10th.




It was a great day and now we race a mixed fleet it was really interesting to see such a diverse range of equipment and gear ages. A lot of guys and girls went out with just one board, one fin or foil and maybe a large and medium sail. A lot of the boards were a good few years old and the sails ranged from 2021 models, some 2020s a few from 2016, and some 2014s or so, and a few circa 2014, such as my TRX 6.3 that I used in the slalom races.

Look forward to seeing you at the next event, whatever gear you can bring...




Berowne

p.s. photos are a little out of order and may not match the commentry.

Until it decided 10 years service was enough

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Dezza said..
Until it decided 10 years service was enough

Yes it was a sad moment. The sail is still languishing in the garden, I can't bring myself to throw it out.
I did a bit of a dodgy repair on that broken mast, It seems ok now. I sent the chopper out foiling on it today.

Saturday or Sunday for round 2?

Heat 2 is go for Sunday 5th December at Dilkera Avenue Valentine.
goo.gl/maps/4kZvyZUiDbTWWErN8

Good looking forecast of SE - ESE of 14 - 18knts

Rego: from 9:30am

First Start: 11:00am

Based on forecast and shifting breeze we plan on going straight into Slalom followed by GPS sessions in the afternoon

www.windsurfingnsw.com/classes/slalom/

Updated google map link for those who haven't been there before. It's the same spot we raced in late 2019.

goo.gl/maps/HL4qDDnKoXb36Tz57

Challenging day for competitors and organisers with a highly variable breeze shifting in direction and strength constantly.

It was in for about 20 - 30 minutes and the course was set, this ended up fading out to almost nothing eventually returning however now from the south (opposed to SE), with a glimmer of hope we commenced a 30 minute GPS session at 12:!5, with 2 results to be extracted, 10 second average and 500m alpha (250m/gybe/250m). Fins and foils were utilised.

Following a short break and in a breeze that was still up and down in strength, however now settled in the SE, we elected to keep the fins on beach (due to minimum wind not being reached) so the Open and Foils returned for 3 figure of 8 slalom races, which most elected for 8m with minority on 9m sails. As luck would have it the wind now increased to a gusty 8 - 18knts which kept things interesting.

Results to follow in coming days.

Thanks to Glen and Trent on the start boat for making the racing happen.

Yeah that was me... overheating in the sun before we hit the water... then forgot to zip up the life vest when the call to action went out.

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tbwonder said..
Berowne, you have clearly breached clause 9.1 of the sailing instructions.
"Competitors shall wear as intended a buoyancy vest"
I imagine the committee will be meeting soon to decide the penalty