Lake George, SA, AU

Lake George, SA, AU

Port Melbourne, Vic, AU. Sandridge Beach.

Wind big South Easterly 20-35kts. Nice swell/6ft chop rolling in.

Goya 92 Quad, Goya Guru 4.2m.

Wish i was at Lake George!

lake george      fun sail     

5 categories

Lake George SA. 

Fun day at the Weedy Lake.

LOT's of sailors with big smiles on their faces. 

The wind was here early, but being old and wise (or is that decrepit?) I chose to wait for the wind to fill in after midday. It certainly did, to a solid high 20's to 30 knots for a while.

I used 40 degree fins all day! 

I actually went to try Maree's BP Kestral late in the arvo, but just as I tried the wind died put and I was nearly marooned in the middle of the lake. Lucky to get a slight gust to get back.

Nice to get some faster peaks seeds today, but even nicer to get a 40 5x. I seemed to have hit a wall where I was doing 40.9 peak speeds and 40 10 sec averaes. At least it was consistent.

I gave the 16cm Lessacher Duo rake 40 a good workout today and got my best peak speed on it. Solid as a rock! Not the slightest hint of letting go or misbehaviour.  Agter a couple of hours I changed to the Tribal 17 but by then the wind was past peak. The sightly bigger fin was crabbing less upwind, but very similar speeds.

I had to change my start/launch spot becasue if the shallow water and tick weed, Needed to get planning before I hit the thick weed, but then the fins cut right trough it. otherwise i had to drag weed until I came to where it was just below the surface and then I could clear it and go. As long as I did a big arc at speed, I could gybe in the thickest weed.

The 2018 5m Koncept worked a treat. Magic sail!

Again I found a fin line between going too broad and running out of wind on the speed runs. That is not so much of and issue when the wind is over 30 knots.

Looks like that is the best of it for a week or more, but we might get a mellow session today.

CAsp40, 2018 KA Koncept. Lessacher 16cm LW Duo rake 40 and then Tribal 17cm.

3 categories

Lake George, SA, AU

Part 2...

Dawn arrived and no sunrise and very little wind . Disapointed not to a sunrise but I had an awsome sail the the cover of stars with some great speed runs on the CASl 66. I'm goning to claim the fastest speed 2 and 5x10 sec runs at night . Great fun zipping along the the dark with just a faint glow to see by. Ever caught a fish while adjusting the boom, the light attracted it to the sail and it swam up and onto the sail. I though about catching it and putting it in Matt's car who was having a snooze back at the start point. Just couldn't carry it. 

Wind kicked in by by dawn and got some realy consistant 1 hrs and started to rack up some quick Kms, getting back on schedual to brake Denis's record. Wind still incresing and moved down a board and sail and maintained great speeds . Body at this stage was feeling fit, left hip and bit sore but sore before I started. Feet a few holes but hands great as I rested one a bit each run. Kept eating the Gels on the run.

The wind kept increasing and I ran out of rigged sails and small boards. Had my first rest at 2pm as Matt very genoursly rigged my 5m sail to sail on the speed board.

The idea of sailing the last 250kms on the speedboard didn't really appeal to me but as the wind was now 25/30 there was no option. Ran down to the speed course and had a ball but my reaction time was a bit shot and had a few big offs. One of the offs removed the GPS pack off the camel pack.

I'd just lost 2 GT 31 

Managed to snag a few fast runs but the kms were slow, a bit less wind please Huey.

Now the wind was dieing quickly but still had 4 hrs to go. Back up through the gear and sails trying to get through the kms as quick as possible. John had generously offered to pack up the 7.9 when I was on the 5mt.

The last 80kms where done in a dieing breeze on the 6.6 and the 111Lt ,got to the point where I was dropping of the plane and having to rerigg the 7.9 meant it was time to call it.

Last night I said "Thats it ,no more distance stuff. I'm retired"..........In the new light of today - Maybe not. 700/800km is achieveable in  the right conditions, so........

Mistral O OD

Carbon Art (111) Sl 66

Carbon Art (87) Sl 53

Carbon Art (87) Sl 52

Carbon Art (63) S 40

KaRace 7.9

Koncept 6.6

Koncept 5.8

Koncept 5.0

Fins .....Lots

Thanks to Daffy, Matt, John and all the wonderful crew who provided fun, food and encouragement at our LG Base camp.

Another thanks to my sponsors who with their support much of this would not be possible

Martin Love, Peter Weitenberg- KaSails

James Dinnis- Carbon Art boards

Andrew- Ion wetsuits

Lake George, Beachport, SA

5m Koncept, F2 Missile, 30deg KA 20cm