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Albany, WA, AU Was never gonna be speed for me today with only two big boards and a pile of 3D printed fins to try.   Was mainly test of V2 canards and a few other variations.  Woz gonna set the alarm for 5:30am but Boz assured me the sun doesn't get up till 6:30 so killed the alarm.  However, heard Boz get up at 6 and start the power up sequence.   Looked at the charts and tide was looking good and wind at 18kts so slamed a couple of coffees and got moving too.

Had to faff around with camera's for a bit a but conditions looked optimal for my big gear and perfect test conditions and piles of flat water.   Ran the V2 rotating canard first and that seemed to perform really well...., my on the water adjusters however turned out to not be good for cold fingers so had to do with a fixed setting at around mid range.    Of course had to come in after a while to remove the canard to make some meaningful comparison. First win was action camera V2 was still alive and recording so hopefully have some footage of that.  

Ran the blank fin for a while then came in to change to the foresail canard V2.   Again that 'felt' like it behaved well and was my top speed of the day.  On stopping though it had accumulated a pile of weed at the foresail/mast interface so some further work needed on this design (plus should have gone much faster).   No one else seemed bothered to rig, all waiting for the big wind forecast but the tide was rising fast and chop increasing quickly so I think I got all the flat water.  

Decided next test was the rotating canard again but this time as locked as possible (there is some slop in the pining so still a couple of deg of rotation).  In my haste to get out again, whilst installing the action camera I dropped the board with only the canard installed and the little 3d printed canard trailing edge snapped off.  This meant it would probably rotate the opposite direction required but decided to go try it anyway and hopefully get something on action cam.   To my surprise it performed well(ok?) so played around for sometime before deciding to try another fin variation.  Action cam V2 however had died somewhere here so hopefully got some footage of the half canard.

Tried the Chevron fin again before changing again to the Eagle fin (the Magpie variation bought it after I stepped on a cobbler a few days ago and managed to dredge all the 'feathers' off.)  The Eagle fin had more flex in it as I had spiked the epoxy with maximum cotton flock and milled glass.    This however proved to be rock solid in the chop so stuck with this fin for remainder of day.   Wind was getting brutal for the 7m so came in and changed to 5.2 as the forecast was scary.  However, this was a bad call as was mainly a chug fest and it was appearing we were all getting skunked with many deciding to head home due to wind or injury.  Boz seemed to have about 5 nasty cuts on both feet when he called it before the sharks got him.

I stayed rigged but decided to charge up the EV and pack up in order to get home if wind had indeed died.  However, wind soon booted so decided to stay.  Went out for a few laps but now on the big iSonic but bounced around like crazy on the big gear so thought I'd fly the drone and get some footage of others instead.  By this time 'others' was only Rondog left with Cliff rigging and chatting.  Got a bit of footage of the Dog sending it through the chop but the wind was pretty brutal on batteries so that didn't lasty long.  Since I'd decided to stay, went out again to keep the Dog company and hung on for dear life.  Sort of got into a rythym in the brutal chop with the Dog zooming past making it look easy so decided to keep going.   The Dog called it so with no one else out came in too.

102 Brutalised RRD Xfire, KAR 7, multiple 3D printed FF22 clones with various canards and flexible trailing edges.   The iSonic 97, KAR 5.2 with 3D printed FF22 Eagle.

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Albany, WA, AU

what a day!! never thought i could send it thru the chop without spin outs. shows you what a good fin can do.

wind booted a bit more when some left but also did the chop.

over all  happy days

5.6Ka- 26weedspeed- 54 wavewands and last 50km incl alpha on  Jaydens CA 52.

Lilacs, Albany WA

Another good day out with the crew (boz, Rob, Ronnie, Woody, Cliff). This time on the Windtech 57 SB with 5.7 Loft RB + 29 Tribal SPWD. Good times. Was going to take the CA48 and/or Tribal 53 for a spin but got too knackered. Next time! Good catching up with everyone. Been a while (since LG in fact).

2 categories

Albany, WA, AU

A few quick laps then back to Perth after a fun couple of days back in Albany.