Flex (17936km):
1179 days ago Glory Holes, Australind, WA, AU. Since we so close for hr thought I'd try again today but highly aware of burning much fossil fuel for essentially a frivalous activity plus to add some variety to the drive thought today I'd do it emissions free. To complicate matters the wifey wanted the EV to go hiking with her mates in the hills in the morning but the agreement was I got it in the afternoon. Got the car around noon with only half a tank of electrons. Luckily whilst not windsurfing I am involved with emission free/carbon neutral EV racing and am the owner/creator of the worlds first and fastest carbon neutral (mainly emissions free) portable fast charger (at least as far as we are aware... and up until 2 weeks ago the fastest EV charger in Perth). Unfortuantley the portable bit is currently ICE powered but working on that.
Essentially is a junk Tesla M3 battery trickle charged on solar with backup waste cooking oil generator (waste deep fryer oil kindly donated by Maccas) and a DC coupled 80KW EV charger bolted on. This charger is really designed for remote roadhouses to get them off running diesel generators 24/7+ instal a EV fast charger as a bonus.. On top of that also can provide 30KW AC off grid (for the non engineers out there it = lots).
Short term use is competitng in the open class Targa West rally, the car (stock Tesla M3) beats all the ICE cars but the tricky bit is charging the beast in remote areas. Short story is I got back to 90% tank (about 300km range at maximum possible legal speed) in about 20 minutes with zero emissions as battery had been charging for 5hrs a day at 3KW on solar (just the excess unneeded solar..can charge at 35Kw at present if a source available).
Took off and arrived at about 2:30 to see Reg, Waricle and unknown sailor fanging along in a nice breeze. Rigged up asap with same gear as yesterday, headed out and wind seemed to die..was way worse than yesterday and everyone except the Bantam struggling. This went on for 45 min and stopped a few times to try tune the sail more but basically just ended up dredging the fin or chugging. Then of course a squall came through which meant detuning sail and was great for all of 5 min then back to the chugga chugga. The others gave up, didn't realise Reg game up because of broken mast till after rigged down and a bit of wind came in but was so inconsistant was a real struggle to even maintain a plane. Once off the plane was all over due to the tide so low. Got maybe 20 minutes in the end of sort of nice wind and pushed Cinderella time as much as I could but the wind dropped completely and almost (would have been faster) had to walk the last km back to base...better it turns out than Reg's walk of shame it appears. Since wind was so intermittant/non existant my hr is lousy...should have been so easy. Should rigged the 8.6 as other than the 5 min squall at least would have kept planing.
Once rigged down, a chat with Waricle and in nice dry clothes Reg turned up to tell his story...he left and then the wind turned of course near perfect with a good 18knots, had it been local would have gone out again. Fanged home, was surprised the big board on top didn't hurt my efficiency much (average 220WHr/km for the boffins at 118km/hr both ways).
120 Tabou Rocket, 7.8 Severne Overdrive M2, FF22
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