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I believe that Max was second to the beach but first to the gate after Ado wandered around aimlessly around for 20 seconds 
. I was third after sailing past Daffy 20 m from the beach and he refused to run. Justin was near the back of the field but managed to score the over 45 yrs gong despite an elder statesmen finishing 4 th 
. I do believe he has a pension card 
.
Just a little bit of kaos , still fun. They must do better next year 
The Slalom race wasn't even funny , embarrassing would be a better description. Figure 8 course, but the leg was too short and top mark was so high that you had to tack around it. The bottom mark was in a wind shadow, so you planned in and floated out. Gave up after 1 lap.
They only ran that 1 race
Yeah well done Max with the Steven Bradbury technique! No seriously, good racing there!
I had to reel the front five sailors in from about 1km back after that dreadful start....made for quite the handicap....
Still loved it all. What a lovely place for a water sports festival. Doesn't get ANY better.
Let's get a bit more serious with the organisation and assistance next year (starting now).
See you all there next year!
Great to meet the Victorian crew, thanks for coming up guys. The event has huge potential, perhaps as a stand alone weekend coordinated into the Windsurfing NSW schedule to maximise attendance.
Unable to make it on the Sunday I only saw the downwind event.
Anyway, here are my unsolicited suggestions for next year:
- Hold the race between December and March to maximise the chances of a favourable forecast.
- Set a pre-planned Race-Briefing location and time. The race start can be flexible to conditions of the day but getting everyone together to explain (not brainstorm) the course layout and start procedure would be of huge benefit.
- Increase the distance of the race by either putting in a series of broad reach marks (L2L style) and/or moving the finish line to either Plantation Point or even Hyams Beach
- The rabbit start has potential (I really wish I hadn't followed the wrong boat) but Calalla Beach also lends itself to a Le Mans Start which may be less chaotic.
- Finally, my last and probably most controversial comment......invite the tea baggers, they're not all bad people and sometimes they're nice to look at, plus more attendees just puts more dollars in the kitty to make it a ripper day out.
Agreed on all points - especially moving the finish to Hyams Beach. No need for marks although I'd make the Plantation Point reef marker a race mark for safety.
That would create a proper downwind marathon with about 10 legs and strong winds in the middle of the bay. About the same length as Ledge to Lancelin.
Hyams Beach is a stunning, wide and safe beach to finish off on and would make for great footage and promotion. Potentially as good a race as Ledge to Lancelin but safer and closer to a major international city and not likely to get 40 degrees with 5 knots offshore race starts! 
If it's run late November that's actually the windiest time of year for north easters - believe it or not. It also doesn't clash with Christmas or school holidays or any other public holidays. The second last weekend of November is my tip.
This has been my standard advice for 25 years as a veteran sailor here and I'm sticking to it - whether anyone's listening or not.
