Swan  River downwiinder. What a day. Got to PP and its blowing its rocks off. Everyone is coming in changing down. HHmmm. Rig the new CR5.9 but in two minds when Ado strolls by and say nah, go big. Wind picks up more. Set off for Wally World with the 5.9 and its windy and really choppy with the boat traffic. Getting a pasting with the wind and swell. Eventually make it to PW and then the wind drops. Race starts and sail into numerous holes, falling in the drink several times and just not able to plane much.

Checked out the Seabreeze graph which shows wind averaging 23-26 knots on the upwind leg (perfect for the 5.9), then dropped to 15 ave to 20kt gusts as soon as the race starts. Could have easily used a 7.7. 

No wonder I was completely underdone on a 5.9!. 

Congrats to the boys who finished fast in fading wind and thanks to the organisers again for the day. 

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nice sess at hardies not sure if its going to contribute to the months numbers but fun all the same.

started on the ca sp 50,rssmk2 6.2, weedy 25

switched to the ca sp 40 with a weedy 22

but the wind dropped a little once i got back on the water and continued to drop

prob 18 to 22 at first (maybe 25 in the gusts) lots of floating weed causing some nervous moments

data from the gt 31, alpha from the gt 11 was over half a knot faster...

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Swan river downwinder, headed up to Pt walter with 6.5 and overpowered so back to Peli and changed down to 5.9 , not a good move , wind dropped for the race , JC summed it up very well , lesson to be learned here always go bigger when racing.

ISO 86, 5.9CR, 32 Choco later back on 6.5 after the race.

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Windforce Swan River Downwinder - that was fun!

Weird wind; I had intended to rig 7.0 & 6.3, and then go with the 7.0 unless it was just way too big, as I knew there would be big holes along the course even on a windy day. I really wanted to use the bigger board (Manta 69) for the same reason. When I got to Peli Pt though, I was told that Matt Langer had just come in and changed down from 6.2 to 5.5! So I just rigged the 6.3, on the Manta 59 and cruised out. It was super rough, and really quite windy - 25 knots easy, and the 6.3 felt magic - fully powered up and as I made my way up to Pt Walter it really looked like this was going to be a fun windy challenging race.

Well it was challenging alright, as the wind dropped by ten knots by the time the race started. I got a shocking start but managed to plane past enough people to make my way to 4th. Fortunately there were plenty of poor punters like me who had rigged small.

Congratulations to Jesper who picked the right sail and blitzted it, and well done to Dan who somehow made it into 2nd with a 6.1!

Thanks also to Steve from Windforce, Ian, Benny, Garry and all of the other helpers. Good course, great event, see ya next time.

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Just to be different ! Woodies 12-2 had family stuff so had to miss down winder .

to shallow for speed run so did down winder to Freo sailing club, then back had a ball.

iso86 rsr6.7 gw 34