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Mackay, QLD, AU

Early morning sail, off the water by 9am. Ugly to begin with, rain squalls and rough water. Then flattened out and settled into a steady breeze. Unfortunately not enough breeze to be properly powered up. 6.5 Ezzy Lion, Fanatic FSW, then CA58 and Weedspeed 25. Great way to start the day.

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Ellis Beach, QLD, AU

Fun session out from Ellis, stopped at Holloways to sail there but it was already a washing machine on half tide!

Used  Isonic 107, Overdrive R8 6.2 and C3 Sting 34

Port Douglas, QLD, AU. great sail with the PD crew, started on the Isonic 117 with severn 7M Gator and ended up on the futura 90 with an old north 5 M and Tribal 32 WS. I am certainly feeling the lack of sailing over the past month or so

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Port Douglas, QLD, AU..Some 'clown' suggested going to the beach early to beat the angary tide..yer actually i think it was me... Wasn't one of my better ideas,wind was crap and i wasted an hr playing around on big gear...wind finally came in so i decided to road test new 6.6m Stype north.on 97lt isonic with big fin to fight strong current..New sail had plenty of hp and has great potential, but felt like it could of done with a little more down haul even though i had it cranked down hard,battens seem to be cranked up to tight as well so i will have to spent a little time dialing it in to exactally how i want it..You can run it with 2 or 3 cams,It may of been spot on with the 2 cam set up. because it was rough and windy,But i couldn't be bothered stopping to change it as i had already wasted heaps of time playing with rigs..Had to spend the last 2hrs just playing catch up..It was nice to see so many boards on the water today..Cheers Ed..

Port Douglas, QLD, AU

Starboard Futura 122 Severne Convert 6.7 Drake 40

Fun day had at 4 mile beach.  Great to see so many sails on the water!  Initially planned to sail Tinaroo- looked at the forecast this morning and felt very dubious.  Called Billy to discuss and thankfully we decided on PD (just checked the Dam readings, we would have been really disappointed by the looks of it).  

Brought a couple of mates along - Johnnie and Nick.  Johnnie had a ball first time back on the water after recently getting back from sailing his yacht up the East coast of Australia for a year.  Nick had his first try ever and was very persisent, top marks for effort- I think he is determined to progress!

My first time on the newly acquired Futura board today (a huge thanks to Billy for the repair work done before putting her in the water. I owe you one mate!).  She felt pretty damn comfortable & easy to get on the plane.  I am thinking there will be a bit of a future between us!  Only downside was she sank a bit under my weight when I had to uphaul- which signals 2 obvious things. 1/. Lose some podge & 2/. Nail the deep water starts every time...

Big thanks to Simmie for lending her harness to Johnnie so I could use his (his harness is very retro, made sometime in the 80's I am suspecting).  Bloody dim wit I am, in all my haste this morning I managed to leave my harness at home.

Was great to see Billy's boy out on the water today.  Although, it might take him a little while to catch up to his ol' man!!

Wind was a little up & down with squalls coming through.  Felt it was more consistent towards the end of the session.  All in all a great way to spend a Sunday, or any day for that matter, with good company.

"Long May our Big Jibs Draw!" 

Port Douglas, QLD, AU

Turned out to be a great arvo on the water with a heap of the lads...Ian, Simmi, Andrew, Ed, Mark, Ben, Nick, Johnny and finally Boxy. Thought the FNQ coast line was dissaperaing when we first arrive, mid morning. It was howling - real terminal breaking gear weather. Then the squall's came through and the angry ocean was pacified to the point of being a millpond for about an hour - incredible. Had most of the lads second guessing gear combinations. 

Send Boxy out for his first sail in 13 months and did the proud dad thing. Like a duck to water. A couple of sub planing runs out into the deep green before the breeze kicked back in with avengance. Then he really got smoking. Poor bugger, I think its time to get him a harness!!! Pretty much sailed for 3 hours straight.

Finally hit the water with the rest of the crew and was quite uncomfortable. I had really de tuned my sail to help me through the massive bullets rather  than the majority of the session which severely impacted on my gybe returns and general hour. Really struggled at times to get up an on the plane. Should have spent the time tuning but just decided to lower my boom hieht by 2cm, which made it a lot more comfortable and bearable. Was great to see Johnnie back on the water and Benny the Lad with his front foot in the strap with a grin on his dial.

Missed ya Freddo...Used CA SL108, 40 C3 Sting 11, 6.5 T4