Another great day on the windsurfers.
Riding the serenity compensates for my weight but magnifies my skill issues. (riding a toothpick)
Serenity is similar to foiling in many ways, the way it slips quietly through the water with so little drag that it seem to make its own wind.
I explored the short speed run at the woy woy oyster racks. Ive done it before and it can be very good. On google the very flat bit is about 450m long with moderate long flat bits at either end.
Ive drawn up the markers as best I can from memory.
Always check it out before doing a speed run.
The more southerly channel is longer and flatter, but at the eastern end the entry is only about 20m wide. the western end is very wide.
The Yellow star areas are shallow rest areas, however the western rest area is very muddy. The eastern one is fairly deep at high tide.
Ok peel st is better in most ways, BUT this is nearby, and it allows a pointer fin
.
Plenty of room to gybe on flat water towards the western end so could be good for alpha, although the return would need to be a fairly tight reach to get back through the gap.
Good morning all,
Well the forecast early in the week was looking great for tomorrow morning, but the most recent update shows the southerly arriving earlier than originally predicted so it's looking like t fading southerly early tomorrow morning.
There is some discussion with the regulars about some speed/slalom runs between the old oyster leases at Woy Woy early tomorrow morning (see Heavy1's post above for the location). We probably won't decide until early tomorrow morning, so if you're interested in joining us so my a reply here.
Otherwise we'll be racing from Gosford tomorrow afternoon, from song 12:30pm on the southern side of Gosford Sailing Club
See you there!
Good morning everyone,
With work, travel and other commitments our regular Sailboarders have this Saturday (4-May-2019) there will be no racing at Gosford tomorrow.
I will be away for the next 2 weeks, so one of the other guys will post their plans for the next two Saturdays.
Remember that this Sunday 5th March is the Peter Loft Marathon at Bayview Yacht Racing Association (BYRA) it's a great event and the forecast is looking like senatorial Raceboard conditions, I'm disappointed I'm going to miss it! More details can be found on their website.
byra.com.au/notice-of-race-for-peter-loft-marathon-sunday-may-5/
See you all again in late May.
Tried the kincumber broadwater accessed from Saratoga via Broadwater Drive.
Works well in anythig from wsw to S, but great for SW
Wind 8/10 for sw. More steady than gosford but not as good as Canton or Budgie
Chop 8/10 where budgie is a possible 10 and oyster racks 9/10 and gosford in A sw is about 3/10
Muddy shallow launch ,tide dependent, Not bad for regular boards but very average for foil.
But once launched all deep for foil 100m away from edges.
So launch is better than Green point for regular boards, Gosford 9/10 (wind shadow) , green point 4/10 kincumber 5/10
For foil due to soft mud further out for foil launch Kincumber 3/10 green point 4/10 saratoga 4.5/10 gosford 10/10
Weed 8.5/10. Saw two clumps but almost zero free floating strands.
Definitely no need for weed fin
Rigging area 9/10 (no fresh water wash down) but otherwise great
Parking 5/10 (plenty and Very quiet, but need to walk in between houses)
Locals 10/10 extremely curious and very very friendly, One guy offered and let me store gear in his yard while I was sailing
Conclusion: Something different, Great option for short board free sail if prevailing SW.
Also would make a fun place to have a long board race day if SW predicted.
Area 1km wide by 1.5 km top to bottom. No interference if we wanted to set up bouys etc. saw 2 boats in 4 hrs. Thats it.
Nice report Lyndon, sounds like a good spot in a SW. Launching could not possibly be any worse than Tascott
Hello, Any new people out there.
John is away representing us in Europe. Go John.
I will be sailing from the Saratoga sailing club from about midday
I will check my seabreeze email before I leave.
Let me know if anyone wants me to bring some gear.
Plan. ...
I'm really thinking foiling will be the thing for the day for me, but I will bring a short board and as soon as its too windy to foil I will swap the same rig over to the short board.
Feel free to join in with long board or what ever you have.
If the wind suits we might try the oyster rack speed lane.
There may be some action up at Buff Point too, but Im staying local.
Not too bad. 8.5 EZZY AND 155LITRE sb Go
it was gusty hence the reason I wanted the extra volume.
Would have been much better at kincumber broad water.
Too much west in it for the racks
Guy at saratogasail club says they are thinking to put the gate key in a combo lock safe so we can get into the club parking area
Went to green point around 1.30pm , way to much for foiling, in hindsight not sure why I didn't take my slalom board.Good news re being able to acess the gates at the club, much better than lugging gearacross the oval
Select to expand quoteHeavy1 said..
Not too bad. 8.5 EZZY AND 155LITRE sb Go
it was gusty hence the reason I wanted the extra volume.
Would have been much better at kincumber broad water.
Too much west in it for the racks
Guy at saratogasail club says they are thinking to put the gate key in a combo lock safe so we can get into the club parking area
Great news if Saratoga could do that with the gate access, would make it much easier to access the water.
Forcast tomorrow is terrible for windsurfing but great for SUP surfing. Really good beginner conditions at Umina tomorrow at 1PM . Meet under the pines or as near as I can park , corner of Esplenard and Barenjoey rd umina. Im in the old white 100 series landcruiser with boards on roof. Two of us confirmed. Ill bring one extra board in case someone turns up. Can bring more if you let me know before 9am tomorrow , either seabreeze email or post here, before 9AM saturday. All welcome.
Hi Lyndon , not sure if Viber is working properly but would you be able to throw on a board for me to use that might be suitable for the surf. mine is very narrow so not ideal, thanks
Well I'm back from a very exciting and enjoyable trip to Europe, including competing in the the 2019 European Raceboard Championships where I placed 32nd overall, 10th in the Masters Age division and 11th in the Heavyweight division, during which I endured the coldest conditions I've ever sailed in (4.2C windchill on the Wednesday). They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and I met some incredibly talented sailors that were very generous with their tips and tricks. Which I'll be happy to share.
We are planning on racing at Gosford this Saturday. So I should be at the club by 12:30pm.
Once again anyone is welcome, the more the merrier, regardless of what style of board or rig you have. Come down for a sail with us.
Saturday saw no more than 5 knts NW fading to zero rather than building. With lechner ready I was hoping to capitalise on AUS817 foolishly choosing an RSX as his weapon. Ha ! I still got caned . BUT one of the best sessions for me as I really learned some points about pointing higher without stalling. Thanks John!!!
I think the serenity would have been a touch faster in those conditions but it is so hard to get it right. Im also keen to try lechner V rsx with 4 to 8 knts rather than 1 to 5.
A pleasure Lyndon, if we can get you pointing consistently higher you'll be surprised how much quicker you'll be around a course.
Good morning everyone,
I hope you've survived the arrival of winter this week. Looks like it's time to break out the thicker and longer wetsuits though, as tomorrow's forecast is looking like a cracker! 18-25 knots from the SSW moving due S in the afternoon.
The Gosford boys have decided it's a Budgewoi worthy day, so bring your slalom/speed gear and your GPS and let's see who can go the fastest.
Planning on launching from Buff Point, I should be there about midday. Looking forward to seeing you.
Good luck to Aussie Raceboard competitor Richie Reynolds (AUS-368) who's competing in the Defi Wind event in France.
Good morning all,
The forecast for the long weekend is looking very light, and all my regular windsurfing companions are otherwise occupied tomorrow, so I'll be going for a social sail from Gosford sailing club tomorrow.
I should be at the club around 12:30pm, anyone wishing to join me is more than welcome.
Good morning all,
The forecast for tomorrow has improved slightly since early in the week and it's now looking half decent.
We'll be at Gosford Sailing club (southern side carpark) from around 12:30pm, so if your interested in joining us, for a chat, to check out what racing at Gosford is about or to sail with us, come on down and say hi.
See you there.
So the forecast for yesterday didn't really come true, but we had a fantastic and very interesting day out on the water.
Peter, Lyndon and I arrived at Gosford Sailing Club to a very light breeze, we had decided yesterday that we were going to put the past and present Olympic boards to a test. We would rig one board each with as close to its original rig as we had available. We would then conduct 3 races, swapping boards after each race. We would rank the boards on placings, and then each of us would write a short review of our verdict on each board. So here is our 1st attempt at this, keep in mind it was extremely light wind 0-5 knots.
Race 1
1. Lechner A390 with 6.8m BIC Techno rig - Sailor JD
2. RS:X with RS:X 9.5m rig - Sailor PS
3. Windglider with Mistral 6.2m dacron powerhead rig - Sailor LB
Race 2
1. RS:X with RS:X 9.5m rig - Sailor JD
2. Windglider with Mistral 6.2m dacron powerhead rig - Sailor PS
3. Lechner A390 with 6.8m BIC Techno rig - Sailor LB
Race 3
1. Windglider with Mistral 6.2m dacron powerhead rig -Sailor JD
2. RS:X with RS:X 9.5m rig - Sailor LB
3. Lechner A390 with 6.8m BIC Techno rig - Sailor PS
Individual verdicts
Lyndon Bauer
Windglider - 5/10 comfort. But quite surprising in performance.
Lechner A390 - Slippery and tippy with too small a sail. 6/10 for comfort but would be entirely different with more wind or bigger sail
RS:X 9/10. Encouraged hard work dur to security . Grunty sail. Only draw back is lack of feel and direction when wind really fades.
John Doolan
Windglider - 7/10 comfort. Astonishing performance for a board from the early 1980's with a small floppy dacron rig. This board really glides well through the water and tacks and gybes very quickly.
Lechner A390 - 9/10 comfort and speed. This board effortlessly glides through the water, upwind and downwind. The small rig was the only downside, in really light air it needed more pressure.
RS:X - 5/1-0. The 9.5m rig being the only saving grace. Unresponsive, and feels like a bathtub would with a sail on it. This is possibly my least favourite board of all time to ride.
Overall I was surprised how close each board was in speed, it'll be interesting to see how each boards performance changes with wind strength.
Peter Smits
OK here's my report on the test event at GSC on 15/6/19. Conditions very light, 0 to 5 knots, flat water, minimal chop. High cloud, 90%sunshine,minimal traffic on the Water.
Windglider - The Windglider really susprised me. The soft sail was easy to pump. The board itself had room on on the front for a picnic table and the scoop at the rear would be handy for catching water in a down pour if you found yourself stranded. The mast foot connector needs some attention, have a nice bruise on my forearm when it separated from the board during my freestyle routine. 6/10 for comfort, non skid let it down. 9/10 for performance super easy to tack and quite nice performance up and down wind.
RS:X - Second board is the RSX, visually it looks great but unfortunately it seems mediocre in everything it does. The 9.5 helped in the light but in those conditions you should be on something way longer. Comfort 5/10 and performance 5/10.
Lechner A390 - Finally the Lechner felt very underpowered with the 6.8 twin cam sail. Either a bigger sail or more breeze would boost its rating. Comfort 5/10 and performance 6/10.
My recommendation for world sailing is that we need to go back to the future and put forward the Windglider for 2024. Winglider One design with a 7.5 m soft sail, unlimited pumping and no harness. Let's make it a man's sport again, especially now that they have thrown out the Finn. Ladies could use a 6m sail.
Ok perhaps I'm nuts, but gosh I enjoyed our sup sail session Friday arvo at umina. Thanks Pete
Why nuts??? - well it was freezing and cross onshore, but more on than cross, the wind never really broke an occasional 10 to 12 knts but was mostly about 8 or less, and the waves were big enough to cause some concern about broken battens and masts. I got tumbled twice and took 10min plus to drag myself out of the breakers.
BUT I caught two really nice sized waves and one small wave clew first and gibed on the face (all be it small face).
I realise now that the only way to approach light wind on shore is to give myself plenty of space to set up and to make sure I am fully perpendicular to take off. So often trying to start partially across the wave , the wave accelerates the board and the wind vanishes and I fall in. so the set up is virtually fully surfing for the drop in then turn backside once under way. And when I do fall, dont even bother trying to recover unless a quick water start is on. However so often not enough wind to water start. (try to wash in as quickly as possible)
I always tended to have a terrible time in onshore light winds , but now I'm keen to try again as soon as possible.
Thanks again Pete for keeping me company and catching a few yourself. I probably wouldn't have gone otherwise.
Look forward to catching up tomorrow after work. I'm thinking the conditions probably with be right for foiling.
Good morning all,
Saturday is here and the forecast appears to be much lighter than expected. However the sun is shining and there is more breeze than this time yesterday.
So we are still a little undecided about what to do, Shortboards or Foiling??? Decisions decisions!!!
It's most likely it'll be foils, so if you're keen to see what all the fuss is about, come down to Gosford Sailing club (at least that's where we think we will be launching from today - could be elsewhere, but if it is I'll try to post here later).
Foiling is pretty amazing, a very unique experience and rather challenging, even for those experienced in windsurfing. So come down and check it out, if you want to give it a try, bring a wetsuit as you will be getting wet - that I can assure you.
See you there.
Not exactly windsurfing ,but training for windsurfing. Sup paddle 830pm to 10pm. Saw an awsome really green shooting star. Surprised a did 9kts over 100m. Pretty fast , but it was down wind, 14ft fanatic falcon.
Come join me some time.
5x10 Average (kts):6.936
Top 5 5x10 speeds: (1)10.293
Top 5 5x10 speeds: (2)7.716
Top 5 5x10 speeds: (3)6.014
Top 5 5x10 speeds: (4)5.558
Top 5 5x10 speeds: (5)5.101
1 Hr (kts):2.768 Alpha 500 (kts):1.091 Nautical Mile (kts):3.289 100m peak (kts):9.464 Total Distance (km):9.989
Also had heaps of fun on formula on saturday.
Formula is fun, but it really does need more wind than foil. For me id say 8.5 on foil = 12m on formula and 9.5 foil = no go on formula. in fact 8.5 foil is probably even a bit earlier planing for me than 12m formula.
Still formula power is fun, in a muscle car sort of way.
Good morning everyone,
The forecast for tomorrow is looking potentially OK (definitely warmer than last Saturday), although it seems the breeze is shifting to later in the day, so keep your fingers crossed it arrives earlier than predicted.
I may need to head to Sydney (unconfirmed yet), but the other guys will be at Gosford from around 1pm.
Come down and join us at Gosford sailing club for an afternoon out on the water or if you've never windsurfed come down, meet the guys and find out what it's all about and we'll arrange a lesson or two for you.
Good morning all,
The forecast is looking on the light side and rather messy, which leads me to believe it will be much lighter than predicted :(
So after a couple of weeks foiling it might be back to longboards tomorrow and I have a new (old but new to me) Mistral Competition SST to debut (if I can get the mast 5 track working in time). So it might be yet another retro day tomorrow.
So come down and join us for an enjoyable afternoon in the water (even if it's raining).
We'll be at Gosford Sailing Club (south side carpark) from around 12:30pm. See you there.
Ill bring my equipe and an old mistral competition. Should make some nice photos even with no wind.
Not much wind as demonstrated by an initial SUP Vs Windsurfer race being won by the SUP. Well I have to take any win I can get. Good day to get the old boards out for Mistral day. Johns new (old) competition sst from a virtual time capsule was competing for best in category with the equipe. Nice sailing in light winds. The other boards are one design 2000, mistral supervision 161litre , and mistral slalom 138litre .The supervision has tons of volume for a heavy weight, but does literally feel like sailing a barrel. The 138 is great in straight lines, but i can't get it to gybe as nicely as my futura or isonic.
Saturday is fast approaching and the forecast is looking great (25 knots), let's hope they finally have it right.
So if the forecast holds true, the Gosford crew have decided to head to Budgewoi for a day of Speed.
So come and join us for a day of high speed runs. Bring your fastest board and rig along with your GPS device and lets see who can pay the fastest speed.
Good morning everyone,
Another weekend fast approaching - wahoo!
After a fantastic Saturday afternoon at at Budgewoi Lake on Slalom gear in the strong winds last weekend, we will be returning to Gosford Sailing Club this Saturday.
We have new learner coming for a lesson on Saturday, so if anyone else is keen to learn to windsurf, come down and check it out, it's really not that hard. Better still let us know ahead of time and have a lesson as well.
We'll be on the waterfront side of the carpark on the southern side of Gosford Sailing Club from around 11:30am starting with lessons, followed by some social sailing and maybe a few informal short races.
Everyone is welcome on any class of board, so come down and join us for a sail.
The weather certainly turned it on for or new beginner Sam's first windsurfing lesson on Saturday and he did great! Not a single fall in his first lesson which went for well over 1 hour. He's already turning (tacking and gybing) and sailing in both directions. He'll be out sailing on his own in no time.
Well done Sam, we hope to see you back again very soon.
