3 categories

Carlisle St, Safety Bay, WA, AU

I wasnt expecting it to come in as reasonable as it was, great arvo out. AC1 displaying a nice fancy bit of kit with JJ and Lao Shi showing us how its done on the speed run. Had to call it quits as the fin was hugging a bit too close to the bottom. It feels like the water might have dropped a tad in temp too. Good times

Mistral 91, ReflexIII 6.2, vector ws 27

4 categories

Safety Bay, WA

Late team session at SB - good fun with Lao, Allan and Lunny.

Wind was about 20 to 24 knots, not really enough to bother with the speed board.

Tide went out pretty quickly, hit the ground and had a massive spin-out on my last run at 5pm.

Mistral 91, Koncept 7m, Vector DWS 22.5 (cut down 27)

Pelican Point, WA, AU

Mistral Explosion 103 litre, NP 6.5m2 V8

A brief celebration of what must be close to the last of the sea breezes for this season.

1 categories

Safety Bay, WA, AU

Speedy kicked our butts today!

Tried an extra 2cm extension on the Powerex mast which seemed to improve the upwind performance but on reflection didn't help the depth of the sail.

Never really felt powered up fully. Impressed with how well the small fin hung in with a bigger sail even when doing a few alphas at the end. The sail really does gybe nicely and it was interesting comparing the profile to the KA 7m at the end. The Loft is definitely more boxy with a longer foot batten. Reserving judgment on top speed until I have done a bit more tuning.

Shame the tide dropped too quick but there were some great flat water runs. Just needed more power.

Good to have the strip for a team session!

Loft switchblade 6.8, MSL 91, MXR 22 weedy.

Melville 91M, 32 vector, 6.5 T4

Had commitments early this afternoon and didn't think I could get to Safety Bay in time to catch the speed run before it got too shallow. Pity, because it looked really windy down there. I decided to go to Melville and work on gybes instead, since I did so dismally at gybing last weekend. I had hoped to use a small sail but as the wind was a bit light I went for Leon's freeride sail instead. I really liked it. First time I have enjoyed a freeride sail. Much lighter and easier to throw around in the gybes. I still did not manage any gybes that I was really happy with, but as my best alpha was the same speed as my nm (which had no gybes in it) I guess that's not bad. I did make progress, but whether I'll remember it next time is completely different. It usually takes me about half an hour of gybing to rediscover all the things I should be doing. I missed the flat water of Coodanup and had a lot of problems with the board bouncing until I realised I had set the boom too low. I know where to put it on my Koncepts but this sail wasn't a Koncept.

A fun session and a bonus for this time of year. Good to catch up with Chris P. Saw GS on the water but didn't get a chance to chat.

Pinnaroo Point, WA, AU I wanted to go to SB too but my board was not fixed, not even started. The guy offered me his Tabou Speedster 100l to use. I was pretty happy as I heard they go faster. I was tossing, river – could not even see whitecaps, the board had different fin box and I did not have a short fin for it for SB. I was left with home spot Pinnaroo Point. Rigged up 6.5 Easy that became a handful later. Speedster is faster but felt harder in the chop. Rocket is more gentle for Pinnaroo point. I had over 30 on the dial. That was pretty hard in the moguls. I hope to try that board again in the flatter water.

Melville - IS101, CR7.5, Volt 36.  Awesome day sailing.  I started early just before the breeze picked up and had too big a sail.  Legs were extremely sore from hiking over the weekend.  After moving the mast track forward a couple times, things improved.  Managed to finally make the distance to the other end (Freshwater Bay Yacht Club) which I have been trying.  I think I got a top 5 for distance, hour and 5x10 so am happy with that for end of season.  Gybe attempts were terrible though.

Saw Anita near the end, but had to rush home as I was freezing so didn't hang around for a chat.

Quick blast at Melville in between commitments. Felt like this could be the last session in boardies. Good to catch up with Anita and the regulars.

M91; Ram 7.0; Tribal 27 weedy