5 categories

Peel Inlet, Liptons

Super fun afternoon - good team turnout.

The wind was too light (18 to 20) to bother with speed on the inside but Point Grey was great fun. Used the CL 28 speed weed - the fin is just awesome, heaps more lift than a regular weedy and nice and slippery.

NMs were fun down the swells into the next bay, though the wind did get a bit gusty in the lee of the land.

Mistral 91, KA Koncept 7m, CL SW 28

Melville Beach, WA, AU

Tradies were due between 7am and 8am; first one arrived at 9am the second at 10:30am. So got to the river a bit late.

Nice wind when I was rigging up, then it started to drop to about 8 to 24 knots. At least the water was flat and was deep enough over the sand bar.

Xfire 98 then 114 with Koncept 6.6.

2 categories

Underpowered and grumpy!

Got my backside handed to me by speedy.

Time to give up speedsailing!

Loft Blade 6.3, M SL91, Choco weed 27

Peel Inlet, WA, AU M47, 5.7K, 17delta

An interesting session. I really wanted to try the delta in the Mistral board at Liptons (that's what I bought the delta for) so although the wind wasn't really strong enough that's the combo I used. I was a bit worried about negotiating the choppy channel but all was OK except that I ended up a long way downwind. I would have liked to have changed to a gruntier fin but it took me half the session to work out how to get upwind efficently enough to get back, and by the time I had that worked out, I decided to stick with the fin. Pluses - no worries about bottoming out in the shallows and no problems getting started in the weed. Minuses - the board could have used more lift given the conditions, and that fin needs quite a different technique to point well.

Big breakthrough - first time I have manged to gybe the Mistral 47. I even completed multiple gybes. In fact I completed all that I tried, but I didn't try many because I didn't want to lose ground downwind, as I was having enough trouble getting upwind anyway. I spent a lot of time down at Ward Point with just the petit crabs to keep me company. They are so small and cute at the moment!

So, a successful session where I finally gybed the Mistral, I worked out a lot about the delta fin, and really improved my upwind technique.

I think the nm and distance may even be in my top 5. Edit: nm is #4, distance missed my top 5 by 1.2km

Good to catch up with the Pinnaroo crew and CST and Mandurah Mob via a brief foray to Coodanup on my way to Liptons. I was tempted to stay but thought I'd better join the team at Liptons.

1 categories

Peel Inlet, WA, AU 103 Axis and later 105 rocket, 26 jp weed, 7.5 easy. My body was not into it but it was a wonderful sailing spot. My fastest run was the first run when I followed the captain. After a while I changed the slalom board to Tabou Rocket and it felt comfortable but the speed was a fraction slower, except in the gybes and taking offs. There was not too much chance of doing a record on 7.5m sail. Wind was not that strong. Great fun in the flat water.

Peel Inlet, WA, AU

90 X-fire, 7.0 Overdrive, 23 Tribal Speed weed

Really fun session today, pity I had to leave at 5 to get back to Perth, it would have been nice to get a couple of more hours on the water.