Hi all,
I am looking for some speed/slalom kit suitable for sailing in Albany WA.
Could anyone advise on a board size and maybe a two sail quiver to get me back on the water as often as possible?
I am 90kg and was a competent wave sailor 10 years and 15kg ago!
Cheers Euan
Fox 105 and 120 litre. Turns without technique and smooth as butter.
5.5 to 5.8 for the stronger days and 7m for the 120 on light days, any brand.
There was a Simmer 106 going cheap. A Patrik 115 as a light wind board also.
If Speed sailing down in Albany near the distillery, pretty much any of your "go faster" boards will do the trick.
Easterly is the prime direction there
What makes Albany work is the weed, so a good weed fin is quite important.
The weed down in Albany is dense so a 45? rake is your starting point. You can sail with 45? or less but it makes starting interesting at the town end and is a bit more draggy going down the run even higher raked fins are still draggy
The weed down there is also quite abrasive, if you do a full days sailing there and you can expect the leading edge of your fin to be munted requiring some love with an orbital sander to return it to some semblance of normality.
You don't need a long fin, the weed makes the water mostly very flat, when you send it of the glass into the lumpy part of the run you are only looking at chop <80mm, on my speed board I use 16 &18cm and 21cm on 71cm wide board.
The choppiest bit is the return run which only run mid shin height at it's worst.
One thing about the boards is because the speed run is so smooth the boards feel like they stick to the water with normal settings, you end up having to bring your mast foot further back possibly shift footsraps further back.
Re sail sizes.
I use from 7.8m down to 5.8m (on the 'ken windy days) but I'm not an efficient sailor prefering the brute force and ignorance approach (Tim the toolman) my (personal) approach is to rig bigger than what you would normally, it is better to be stood up a bit from a gust than having to stand up a bit cause you've run out of power and the run is that smooth that it is essentially just a rig balancing job (please note this approach has worked well often but also bitten me on the arse a number of times)
Board I use
JP 54 speed 74L
RRD xfire 102L
Tabou Manta 71cm 116L
My weight was +98kg(for way to many years) dropped down to 82kg last season current 87kg generally sail with a 3L camelbak which gets lighter as the day progresses.
trust this helps
yep, the important thing with speed sailing Albany is the fin!, standard 45s aren't ideal. Too tall an aspect ratio for a start, the deeper the fin the more weed it's in. Unless it's very high tide, your better of with a low aspect ratio 55deg.
What you need for PB speed conditions there, Is a strong high in the bight, a deep heat trough over the west coast. 40+ degrees in Perth and high 20s in Albany. There's the possibility of 30+kts wind and extremely flat water, may even get some glass patches if you're lucky.
All my speed PBs were done in those conditions. I'm 70kg and in those conditions I'm on a 44 or 48 Cm wide board, and 4.7 to 5.2 speed sail. But if you want to get time on the water this time of year, take something big.
and if there's a good easterly forecast, get there early because there may be no parking left! there's a whole bunch of us from Busso to Perth itching to hit the Lilac's speed strip in a decent 20+ easterly 
There's a few vids on Youtube. Here's one by Woody
