Valentine, NSW, AU

Falcon 113 KAR 7.9 Venom 38

Quick sail after work. Always dodgy here in a NE and no exception today. Mostly off the plane but nice to get wet.

Coal Point, NSW, AU

Another great NE at Coalie, not as strong as yesterday, but possibly a little better at the islands

CA70 and 7.0 Overdrive, then CA59 then isonic 107. Fun sailing lots of different boards - thanks to Hugh and Steve W. But peak speed on my eight year old Carbon Art.

Coal Point, NSW, AU RS4, 7.0 R7, {31 Vmax} Sweet day on the lake. Don't know how I managed but used the wrong fin should have been a 37, wondered why I was spinning out for the first time ever on that board. Anyway happy with that speed - Andy, Hugh and I tried a crazy NM in the chop but I bailed 3/4 of the way it was too choppy for me.

4 categories

Budgewoi Lake, NSW, AU

RS1, 7m, 23 fin. Smaller fin than yesterday was good. Nice arvo, Wayne, Mike, Mick, pete.

15-23kts ENE Coal Point, NSW, AU

7m NCX - 90ltre RS2 - 33makani weedie

 then 6m OD - 79ltre falcon - 28cms maui ultra weedie

Pretty nervous about sailing Coal as last big day I'd sailed there  I'd had to self rescue when it came in and they had a big day yesterday so I was worried it would come in today. Rigged the 7m with the Rs 2 but it was at the top of it's range ( 15-19kts). Went out for one run and I was ok but a few more knots of wind and I would have been in trouble. The ankle is still dodgy so I didn't want to risk a big catapult and came straight back in. Needed the 'new' 6.6m of course( on it's way) as my next size was 6m which I figured wouldn't be enough. I half derigged the 7 then it seemed to drop off a bit so rerigged it and out for one more run..bugger - its' come in.. Rigged the 6m on the 79ltre.

Felt Rs as underpowered in the lulls and only good in the gusts and the harness lines were wrong.. not like Budgy where you can stop and fix them easily. Headed over to the sand islands where the rest were. The board was a bit too small so it was tiring as I had to get in and out of the harness and straps for each lull. The boom cam also wasn't popping so I'd start with a sail foiled the wrong way. I'd have to somehow get going enough with the gutless sail so I could get in the straps and harness to free my hand to bash the cam around.. Very tiring. I might take a spacer out and see if that helps. I've been putting up with it at Budgy but it's not as big a problem there.

Got the lowdown on the 'speedrun' from Lyds and had several attempts..couldn't seem to grab a gust in the smooth and there was a lull in the middle which with the small board meant I'd lose speed and then have to get back up again. Still it was fun. Much stronger over there - hanging on with the 6m at times.

I felt safe standing around with about 6 bods for the shark to choose from..

Got a great tip that should help future sailing there. I usually head for home by keeping really high which brings me into the choppy strong area near the channel and I then have to bear off to come back   not good if the winds kicked in..Found out the best way to do it is to bear off in the lee of the sand islands until when you hit the 'heavy' stuff you can work more to get back..

Still a bum clench ride back! Kept thinking don't stop concentrating or this will be messy..

I can understand why the guys who can sail chop well love it. I'm pretty nervous but boy what a buzz! scariest 24kts I think I can remember..

Amazing watching Steve W + Hugh skittering through the chop at warp speed and doing full on gybes Andrew looked like he was smoking coming back too.

 Ankle got stirred up and I've been limping since but worth it.

 Andrew , Steve W , Lyds, Craig , Hugh , Rus & Gert

2 categories

Coal Point, NSW, AU

9.6 and course board