Sailquik (29582km):
5855 days ago Not an epic speed day but WOW, what a day for NM's, Alphas and 1 hours!
Wind SSW 20-25 with the odd gust to high 20's is my estimate.
Had half the Pit Crew team out there doing a 1 hour run. Too tight for Starboard Tack speed runs after the first hour so I switched back the iSonic 87 and Time Machine Speed 26 symetrical fin for a 1 hour attempt. '09 5m Koncept pre-production sample sail. I had a go at some Alphas in the middle of the course before the 1 hour but could not get the Gybes just right on Port tack at 35 knots!! Just a tad fast for that board! I need to get a slightly smaller symetrical fin to run on the iS50 for that stuff. Later when doing the 1 hour the wind had eased and I was gybing at slightly lower speeds (32-33 knots) and I was able to pull off the odd nice one until I started getting tired. Best 1 hour for me. No stops and no fall-ins. Did not stall off the plane in even one Gybe! I did have a lot of trouble getting my front foot to stay in the strap, even afer I tightened it one notch. I might have to narrow it up so I can get a better grip by twisting my foot sideways.
Spotty was absolutely flying on the big Starboard Kode wave board!
Craig says he was a bit uncomfortable but he was going for a 1 hour on a 40cm speed board! Doh! Just to make a good 1 hour was a great effort on that thing!
Mat and Adrian were also hammering back and forth in fine style! A great day!!!
An Alpha aside: There is still a serious problem with the GT-31 and Alphas. I had two on for testing but I posted my GT-11 speeds. The Alphas I got from the GT-31 were rediculous and obviously erroneous when you look at the speed graph. One GPS said 27.980 and the other said 28.952! I was pretty startled by the numbers at first glance but one look at the graph showed all sorts of strange bumps in the wrong places. I thought Tom had taken smoothing' off in the newer GT-31 firmware but it certainly does not appear to be the case. On the test firmware with 'smoothing' OFF the results were extremely good and very close to the GT-11 trackpoints with no starnge bumps in the graph. These results done with the latest firmware were just plain wrong. If you are using a GT-31 for Alphas, the only thing I can suggest is that you use Doppler for the Alphas but that will be handicapping yourself with the current firmware. If you are serious about Alphas, please use a GT-11 and trackpoints, or even a Garmin for that.
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Went chasing one hours with Daffy and Matt all good fun.Suprised to get a few pbs ,must have been the better wind direction for Alphas and 1 hr,s