1 categories

Boombas with a heap of Peskys, Swindy and Cap’n Calm. I thought I was going to be there early, but as soon as I opened my bleary eyes this morning, there was a pic from Swindy of the sunrise at Boombas. Even worse, CrimsonSplash was there even earlier and must have rigged by the light of his van headlights.

By the time I got there, it was well infested with Peskys. The air temperature was 20 degrees on the drive in, but the water felt like minus 50C. 

Put together, it was still a very chilly session.

The next dilemma was what to rig. When I got there it was low twenties wind speed. I was just about to pull out the 5.8, when the breeze dropped back to the high teens. I changed my mind and rigged the Koncept6.6 and spent the next few hours alternating between very overpowered and just overpowered. At one stage, I went back in to change down, started to rig the 5.8, and then of course the breeze dropped a bit. I packed up the 5.8 and decided to downhaul the 6.6 some more instead. That was a little more successful, but I never got comfortable and didn’t get the power down on to the deck at all. By the late morning, I was totally spent and struggling to hold on. My asthmatic old lungs were seizing up with the smoke haze and the cold wind, despite being well dosed up before I hit the water. On top of that, cold fingers and numb toes, made things just that little more of a challenge. 

Despite the disappointment of rigging wrong and sailing like a gumby, there was a stack of things to like. I got to use my Windtech SB64, even though I never got it out of second gear. My newest mod FF 24 was well behaved in the chop, in the weed and felt like it too was only in second. But at the top of the pile was Swindy making the most of the day and smashing out a century before lunch. Great job T2! Top Ten Fangy Day right there :-)

Liptons Bay, Got it very wrong today, tried to fit too many things in, really happy for everyone that got a good sail at Boombas

4 categories

Point Grey, WA, AU   Pat SL92, SCR 6.3, TWS27

Headed to boombas at sparrows fart thinking I would be the first one there and was greeted not only be a spectacular sunrise but also a pesky in the form of Dan. Bugger me a couple of minutes later Boz turned up. I decided to rig the 6.3 and a 5.8 just encase so was third one out on the water. I thought it was on for a good hour today but sadly my gybing let me down and was suffering serious arm pump. After the first 50km fangy appeared round the point. He seemed to be struggling with vertigo or something as he kept falling over. He then dissapeared back round the point so I headed in to investigate. Struth he fell over again. Turns out he was just a bit overpowered. Got back and Mike had arrived and was nearly ready to go. After coffee and a chat headed back out determined to get 120km. Good to see so many underemployed out enjoying the winter wind. Ross spent the rest of the session not falling in so much. I think i upset him during the break when I told him i thought he was one of them yellow bouys out there untill i saw it was attached to a sail.

PS Slugger, you picked a bad day to get some sort of work ethic.

No great numbers today but it was fun fun fun and good to catch up with everybody. 

3 categories

Would you believe, last one to arrive at Boombas, all out except windxtassy who was just about to launch. Boz, Swindy, fangy and crimson flash all came in for a break before I launched. That confimed my choice of the 5.4 on the 48 with the 20cm 40/60deg fin an OK option.

Worked OK except in the chop, should have gone with the 25cm 40/60, or even the 24cm @45.

The big weed burg at the Eastern end provided some flat water, but it wasn't quite long enough, a couple of times I was tempted to keep driving into the chop beyond, but almost came to grief with a big spin out, so abandoned that idea. I was hopping to match Swindy's 36kts, but forearms were pumping up. this combined with a useless thumb on my right hand, (due to a teenage adventure it looses all grip when cold). Made me wimp out and give up. Probably a good job because getting back to base was a real scary effort.

Here's my tracks around the weed bank.

The bright red dot is where I spun out, you can see it wasn't a sudden crash, a rail slide and final bum first dump in the drink.

Fangy has told us how to get rid of the development only junk, but at the moment it's too much stuffing around.

And here's GPSspeedreaders view of the crash.

This was my second fastest run. I can't work out quite where the spin out started, but I can see where it finished!