2 categories

OK. Sandy Point. What we exerienced was 30-50 knots and possibly more at times  - and given I hadn't sailed for two months or speedsailed since Christmas, the conditions came as a real shock.

A stunning, beautiful shocking bitter wind, hail, ultramarine skies, lead-grey clouds, broiling water and sand flying about 10m in the air.

Matt, Rupert and Brad from Brunswick joined me. Rigged a 5.0 Koncept and the Mistral 41 with a Tribal 18 Assy, strapped on an Aldi 10kg vest and off I went.

First run - 43 knots. Freezing. Second run 44 knots peak. A couple of 42's and a bail out at 38 knots, then a quick break during a 50+ squall with hail, then another 42 and then, I sailed beck to base with Matt. Matt took off and I thought, I've got another run in me. Must have been blowing a solid 40 knots, perfect angle, flat. The board was rolling on ball bearings and I peaked at 44.786.

That was enough for me. Mat had a 4.0 and so sailed a few more runs, then we finished off with a burger at the cafe!

What an awesome session! That's what speedsailing at Sandy Point is all about. Great to hang out with some of the crew again!

2 categories

Shallow Inlet, Sandy Point, Vic, AU

Got to the Pit about 8am - just as a big squall hit... looking pretty epic ! There were signs of "the big day" ... *lots* of sand blowing everywhere.  Lots of wind - today was a day for walking back up the course... and when you do, you know it is windy when there is enough sand blowing that you cannot tell where the sand finishes and the water starts.

First run was using the 5.0 - it was quite a bit windier than it looked - and I was wearing 6kg of lead.  Good wind strength and reasonable wind-angle, but had some of the roughest water that I can remember.  The chop was about 4-6 inches, with a period of under 1m.

Went back for the 4.0 ... persevered for the remainder of the day, but ultimately the wrong choice. Water got smoother until the last run, the wind had swung slightly North of west, so there were little wave breaking on the shore and there was the incoming tide pushing in the rolling swell.

The small sail did have quite enough power - but more importantly not enough apparent wind flowing over the sail.  During a few runs the where the gusts swung 30 deg causing the sail to back-wind from the clew and thus a quick dismount [ beforerounding up into the sand ].

Not too many runs due to all the walking.  Having just walked through a sand-storm and made it to lee of the dunes, looked back at Ado to see him dissapear in a cloud of sand. 

Good day.

Note to self - dont sail for so long that I can no longer hang on to the boom. In the middle of winter.