Princess Royal Harbour, WA, AU Quaranup Desperation sail ! Due to work always getting in the way. Wind was a little inconsistant but had a go anyway.

Three encounters with stingrays kept it interesting at least.

Used old gear exocet 93l , np evo 6.4 ,delta 24 due to not much water

1 categories

Liptons seriously windy, overpowered on 5.9m. When I got off water Wind on shore was gusting 25 to 30kts, must have been more on the water.  After I cracked my 40kts the wind just picked up, and instead of going faster I started sailing slower tried many adjustments and always felt on the edge of a catastrophe, left me feeling panicky on most runs.  Had a choice to go in and changed to a smaller fin and sail, or call it.  Given I have to be at East Perth Railway Station at 6.30am to put my car on the motor-rail, and travel with the Indian Pacific to Adelaide, I thought, call it quits, not worth risking an injury and stuffing my holiday up.  Alby and Lunny were going faster than me

Gear mistral speed 55/95 TRXI 5.9m, Pepefoil 23.5cm 48rake (fabulous fin)

2 categories

JP Speed 54, NP RSR E6 6.4m, Pepe weed 23cm (slightly munted)

Wow, did that forecast deliver!!!!!! Haven't sailed that wind strength in a Long Long time

First run I shat myself with a 39.6 on the dial, perhaps experimenting with the mast base further back wasn't such a bright idea. That and trhe line I took was a tad lumpy.

A run or two later shifted the mast track forward a touch and that kept the nose down a bit better and lifted the speeds.

Talky must have been a bit pissed with me as she wasn't whispering sweet numbers in my ear, which wopuld have resulted in more yeaharghs than fcukfcukfcuks which I was letting out trying to slow down the board.

Sailing back was a hand full with the 6.4, only two runs back with the back foot in.

In the end the chop was getting tooooo exciting and the risk reward just wasn't there (Though Slowie or Stropp would've murdered it).

Great fun sailing with the Pinnas crew, who should be posting some wicked PB's

Best 2 sec, 41.729, 41.244, 41.132, 40.447

Well happy to get PB's in my back yard.

1 categories

Fantastic Day at Fangys, It was forecast for the last few days, but late morning forecast down graded almost 10 knots, so didn't bother including the small stuff in the wagon!

(except for the 39cm speed board for Nina to try if it got windy enough)

Started rigging the 5.8, but changed my mind and swapped to the 5.4, plugged into the 48cm board with the 19cm weedy @55deg.

Started off really nice, tried a couple of alphas, then the wind started to build a bit more. I became just a bit to powered to worry about gybes, so just went for speed. I think that's a PB for the new 48.

Nina was getting used to the 39cm board very quickly, looks like I may have to say good bye to it!

Coodanup, WA, AU

Wow ! that was windy. Never comfortable with too short harness lines on my new boom.

Hit a weedburg and managed to smack the nose of the board with the mast. 30cm crease on top and 20cm underneath. Ouch!

3 categories

Coodanup, WA, Missile 49, Kestral 18, TRXI 6.3 Epic conditions at the swamp today! Great to see so many out and by the size of the grins I knew there were PB’s being had. My boom repair held up great and only did one gybe that resulted in the Alpha. Just a great day to be a speed sailor.

1 categories

Coodanup, WA, AU

Late charge up to Mandurah after work, Yes it was worth it.

Happy days.

big congrats to all who got pbs

Novara Beach, WA, AU   Pat SL 115 Sonntag SL R 39, Pat SL 100, Lockwood SL2 carbon 34 Simmer SCR 6.3 and briefly 5.8

Followed by Coodanup Pat Speed 53, Trib WS 22 custom, Simmer SCR 5.8

Well I wasnt expecting that. Got down to Novara Hoping to get myself a distance PB as its been over a year since I had one. Things started off a bit light but kept planing all the time. After the first couple of runs it was geting great fun going hard and flying off the pointer. Decided to come in and change down to the 100. Bob was standing in the water with his long lense on so had a bit of a chat while I changed. In that time it had picked up another notch and made the 16 km on the 100 very exciting. Came back in and riged the 92 and 5.8 but in that time the wind had realy kicked in so a couple of short test runs and I packed it in. Then came the decision whether to go to liptons or fangys.

Turned up at fangys to find the whole end of John st packed with cars.  Quickly rigged the new speed board and the 5.8 and got out there. First run was 37.7 which is not far off a pb for me but I thought I needed above 38.86 for a new 2s, turns out it was only 38.3 . So the next run was 38.81 on the dial and was bummed I was so close. Little did I know. By the time I came in I knew I had a new 5x10 and was stoked to find I had a new 2s when I got home.

Great to see so many people out there enjoying the conditions and im sure there will be loads more PBs.

3 categories

Coodanup, WA, AU. F89 then CA47 / GPS6.0/Vector WS23.  Fantastic Fangy sesh!!! great to see so many people out and smoking it!  Lachy came up with me and had his first try on my old TushX15 5.8 and also first time testing his speeds. He coped well and clocked 27kts - 30 wont be far away.  Myself, didnt really get my shit together today, felt like I should have got more out of the wind, made a stupid rigging error resulting int 2 broken cam battens, which made for a less than stable bear away. Pretty annoyed with myself, given its off to LG next weekend.  BUT, it was absolutely a great day

A big day and a mixed bag. Today was my first day on my brand-spankin' new Windtech 64. Being the caring guy, I had organised paramedics on standby for all the Moobers that suffered a severe shock seeing a board that is worth more than $50 and from this millennium in my hands. It was a very nervous day for me. I could not quite relax knowing I had a bit of kit that was worth more than my car. Luckily I spent yesterday going through the Windtech 64 owners guide with a fine tooth comb and committing it all to memory.

For those who haven’t seen a Windtech 64 owners manual, I will describe mine. It is a seriously top shelf. You get a leather-bound manual embossed in gold paint with the Windtech logo and your name. It is hand stitched by villagers of the H’mong tribe in the Vietnamese highlands. A cow blessed by the village Elders is sacrificed under a full moon and the hide is then used stitch and bind the scripture of the owners manual. This task is performed only by the village virgins and only when there is a full moon. The book comes wrapped in a silk cover, once again hand woven in the same village with the silk from the sacred silkworms.

The Windtech 64 Owners Manual is steeped in holiness and divine light and when you open it for the first time, you are close to transcendental. The manual itself is short. In fact, there is only one line from the Rock God of Windsurfing;

“ Go you fat bastard

  Cheers

  Neil. ”

I had studied these wise words and decided that although I had woken up with an annoying head cold, today was indeed the day I was going to ‘go’. Huey then proceeded to play silly buggers and by the time I arrived on the scene, about lunch, having finished domestic god duties there was enough breeze for the Windtech 64 FF22 Koncept combo. By the time I had done a couple of ‘getting to know you runs at 3/4 throttle, the winds cranked up several notches and I was hopelessly overpowered and over-boarded. I tried all the tricks to depower but simply could not get the power down unless there was a lull. With 34 knots without even trying to give it full momentum muscle, I was pretty happy with my SB 64. At that point, I decided to come in and rig a 5.8 and see if I could get things under control and have a slightly misguided crack at being how fast I could get this board to go. The sensible thing would be to break out the little board instead, which nearly everyone was doing as the wind approaching nuclear.

Back on the beach, it was getting crowded. There was a full meeting of the Lake George BrokeBack Cowboys team discussing the logistics of sleeping arrangements for the trek across to SA. They had sorted fluffy everything, pool toys, cocktails and flamingos in a short time, but the sleeping arrangements seemed to be contentious. Still, if they aren’t good friends already, they will be very close to a civil ceremony by the time they get to LG. Of course, they will be close to a civil divorce by the time they make it back, and I guess the van will be sold on Gumtree with no questions asked after a solid wash out and decontamination.

Back to the safety of my trailer, I got out my 5.8 and bent overdo de-rig the 6.6. My head just about exploded with the joys of a decent head cold and for the first time, I wondered whether I should just call time and survive for another day. But every time I looked out at the fellas charging down the inside, I was motivated to be stupid. 

Which why it’s massively ironic that Remery was the one who provided the common sense. He suddenly appeared next to my trailer, all hair and John Howard eyebrows. Having seen Woody front for a sail in attire straight from the Golden Triangle Western Suburbs Shopping Guide, and Flatchat spending an inordinate amount of time in front of the mirror using sunscreen to highlight his angular and masculine features, I  knew that the Peskys placed a high value on preening. Seeing Remery in this state, I felt concerned that the Wicked Wench of the North might drop a house on him if she could see him now. 

 It transpired that with foresight far greater than his foreskin Remery had decided to sail his fin in very little water with only a very little bolt. He was telling me it was his life lesson that he didn't like long bolts because they cause damage if inserted too far. For fear of Remery explaining to me in detail what he meant I bolted for the safety of the Fangy Estate,… but to no avail. 

I was forced to examine the protrusion of Remery’s bolt. It wasn’t a cold day so I suggested he go for more depth. We made progress, but were hampered by his desire to twist off each bolt two dozens times. I got bored watching Remery twist off a lot, so I sanded his eyebrows back with the angle grinder. Perhaps unconventional but in the end a good result. 

By this stage, social engagements were looming quickly, and my head was deteriorating just as fast. Oh, joy.

 So a quick summary of the day. The Windtech 64 is just such a sweet bit of kit and never felt like it was going to kill me when things were getting out of hand. Dialling up the tail flex made traversing the small chop sections almost unnoticeable and certainly didn’t cause any sphincter moments.  (Having said that, the Windtech SB 57 would have been super sweet today.)  But for my first real foray in challenging conditions, Defo a Top Ten Fangy SB64 day. 

Post my results in morning, I gotta sleep now.

Peel Inlet, WA, AU

Liptons at it's best!  Sunny, super windy and my speedo.  Just happy to take a few runs and walk away safely.   4 runs, each one much faster that the previous, even with the throttle only at about half to three quarters.  You know when it's not the conditions or the gear holding you back...

f2 Missile small, HSM GPS 6.6