Melville Beach, WA, AU

Great wind, if gusty.

Started to rig Koncept 5.8 but pulleys on the downhaul broke.

Rigged 6.0 Gator, 80 Xfire, 19 delta.

Enjoyable sail, fin worked well over the shallows, but disappointed not to get higher speed. No cam felt a bit unstable off the wind. Saw three stingrays.

1 categories

Melville Beach, WA, AU

Aaaaawwwwsome. As good as it gets for Melville. Still gusty but enough to play with the toys. Third time on this board and starting to feel comfortable. Really liking this combo. Hooked onto one gust early which gave me a 36 going out and a 36 coming back. Seem to spend the rest of the session chasing gust with no better speeds. Good to be out and a river PB as well.  

SB i87, NP RSR E5 6.4, Tribal wsp23

Safety Bay, WA, AU M41, Koncept 5.4, 21 Tribal WS

A mixed day.

Bigpond would send but not receive today, and thinking my team had all given me the cold shoulder I headed off to Safety Bay expecting to sail on my own. I was pleasantly surprised to see Craig and Ken as soon as I arrived. It turned out the team had been replying to my emails but I had not received any of them.

There was plenty of wind so I headed out on the small gear, which felt perfectly trimmed from the first run from in the pond which gave me 31+ on the GPS. I headed outside the peninsula to our usual speed run. First run I got tossed off in the chop in the channel. Second run came unhooked in the chop in the channel and had to round up to avoid a kiter who was just down wind of me. 3rd run - 33.8 and a 33.4 10 sec Whoo hoo! Just short of a PB. 4th run - 33.84 but got catapulted in the waves on the far side of the speed run. 5th run - wind cut out just as I was about to bear away and only managed 32 knots. 6th run - my arms could hardly hold on and I only managed 32 knots and got slammed in the swell on the other side. I decided that for safety I had better call it a day. All that waterstarting in the waves was too much in my unfit state. I felt I was close to a 5X PB if I could do one more run - the 5X were 33.45, 32.79, 32.2, 30.49 and a 29.41 from that first run in the pond, but I had no energy left and it would have been dangerous.

That one more run would have earned me a PB as I was only 0.09 of a knot short. Pity about the lack of speed sailing fitness. Conditions were close to ideal today.

My 2 sec was the fastest I have been since Feb 2014, and I did two runs which were second best for me today. Couldn't quite make 34 knots, again, but close.

It was great to see Ken enjoying his first real speed session, and scoring a PB. Yay Ken! You were really going for it!

The main disappointment was I lost my spare fin in one of the catapults. Obviously it is not a good idea to carry a spare fin in the back pocket of your flotation vest. It was a lovely fin too.

5 categories

Carlisle St, Safety Bay, WA, AU

Started out at carlsile st but ended up staying in the pond. Pretty decent wind with the best speed early on when the tide was low enough to feel the fin tickling the weed. Good arvo with the Pinnas Ken & Anita, saw a skinny version of the CST's Adam too (almost didnt recognise you Adam) 

Mistral 91, F2 Missile 49, Reflex6 6.2, Tribal ws 27, MXR speed 23 (fastest on Mistral/tribal)

4 categories

What a session. Nice ramps, great wind, catapults, more catapults, but plenty of great crew out. Awesome. 

I threw in a couple of speed runs just for you Anita, but it was choppy as hell (and scary!) and those ramps were just too good to pass up, so didn't bother trying more. 

Stoked 

Iso 90, RB6.3, Goldwing 32

Melville Beach, WA, AU

Just enough water for the 29 to not dredge the sandbar, but I think the gusty wind helped whip up the chop.

Reflex 6.2; M91; Tribal WS 29

1 categories

Safety Bay, WA, AU

What a wiid day at the pond. went down to Carlisle st and saw the rough conditions so decided to launch from the pond. sent a few emails to the captain which didnt get through. I thought i was being snubbed. 

Went for my first run over the sand bank and remembered Lunny saying that you will clear the sand bank if i dont slow down. As I was going over the bank I looked down at all the shallow parts and anticipated a massive crash at speed. To my relief I got through unscathed but turned upwind straight into the waves in Warnbro sound. It was an experience gybing in the swell which came with mixed results. 

Thanks for lending me the 23 weedy Lunny. I would have been over finned and possibly would have hit the sand bank with the 29.

Also had a go on Lunny's 47 speed board. I had trouble keeping the nose down so I put the mast track right forward. Didnt have the guts to take it downwind though. 

5.5 Trr7, 97iso, 23 weedy.