4 categories

F2 SX XL,8.4m RSS, 48cm Grim reaper weedy

Hardies SSW 10-20knts

Left home at 5.45am, arrived at hardies at 7am to be greeted by a 5-8knt southerly.

hung round listening to the SRM talk Sh%t for while and then it filled in bit.

Could have rigged smaller but thought i would try and see what speeds i coud get out of PONG and the 8.4.

First run  i had 30 on the dial and then a 32.  Was getting consistant 31's and 32's all day. Ended up with a PB display for the sail/board combo of 34.3knts.

One happy Bender, the Pong continues to give me WOOD

Woke up to no wind, wndered down to hardy's mid morning, all the crew going but didn't look very inspiring, and was COLD.

Had lunch, packed light wind gear and headed down again, every body's starting to leave.

Binny arrived but was also having trouble convincing herself to go out.

Every body left so went home again, just unpacked and put the kettle on when bendyman rings to say Elmo's going out to try for an hour and nautical mile, would I like to join him.

Nothing like so I drink my tea while reloading the waggon, arrive at hardy's to a nice wind, almost wished I'd bought the smaller gear.

So rig give the old lightning plenty of downhaul, by the time I'm in the water Elmo's already had a couple of nice long runs.

First run was nice nautical mile thru the inside, not well powered up, just effortless cruising.

As I worked my way back up wind it kept getting lighter, until I was off the plane and grovelling, so much for trying for an hour.

Any way got to unrigg in daylight, that's some consolation.

JP Slalom IV 104L, NP RS4 6.7m, JP Slalom +10 36cm

Same as everyone else down there bright and early only to be struck down by the CoS (Curse of Slowboat). Hung around for over an hour then had to go back home and defrost.

Resorted to doing odd jobs around the house as it was getting distracting  watching the trees move for a couple if mins then nothing, around 3 the wind came up so thought buggerit lets go have a butchers, saw Bendyman driving home lot of teeth showing through the windshield so I assumed he was happy, got down there expecting to rig the 7.2 but found white caps so rigged the 6.7 (could have sailed with the 5.8 for a while).

Decrep came down to keep me company in an hour attempt, unfortunately the wind only lasted for 20 mins from the time I hit the water, shame the hour was ticking allong nicely, burn't myself out trying to waterstart when the wind droped to sub 10knots.

Great litle session well happy to wash the grated cheese scum of the kit

4 categories

Cold, often underpowered, gusty session at hardies with few MMs and SRMs guys.. all I had is 5.8, CA50 had to do with it

changed 3 time fins and bagged the sail, good fun overall .. nice one Bendy for Pong PB!!

CL26 carbon/slim profile, 28 choco, 34 Gold wing - 5.8 RSS - CA 50

Edit: I rushed yesterday filling my data and left... just read Snides comments.. I found my data a little high on the hours too! (I restored my PC few days ago with a VO over a year old) so went checked RSpeed again and my real speed's division was on track points! so my apologies for the mistake which I rectified . Good call Snides.. old Nbs was: 32.804, 30.659, 19.644, 19.818, 29.166, 74.715

ps: still happy with my nbs concidering the conditions and been on 5.8! Must be my lost of 4.5 kgs that helped (now 74.5!)

cold day at Hardies but nice on the water,a bit underpowered for most of it but glad to get a sail in.

7.0 rss,127 jp,40cm weed

OK so I left my GPS at home and when I realised I could not be bothered to go back and get it. That was partly to prove to myself that I can still sail for the fun of it not just to get #s! Would have done more than 1 km but cannot claim it.

Isonic 105, JP weedy 36 and X15 7.7

Have been feeling crook for days and went to Navarra to see the guys: told my wife I wiould not sail unless it looked really good,

Saw Bender on arrival and we discussed the poor state of the wind. going 10-20 knots. He helped me rig his X15 which he has very kindly lent me. Once rigged the wind had picked up a bit and I decided to have a go on it. I was a bit sceptical as I had seen Matt L and Slowy fanging along on 6 and a bit sails. It will be ok says Bender as the sail has a great wind range.

Boy is he right. As soon as we launched the wind picked up to a point where Sam was often flying on his 5.8 but the X15 was always great. And much to my surprise it also gybed really easily which iis important as my technique is still very wanting! In all winds 10-20 the X15 was comfortable, I am very impressed.

It is a pity I did not have my GPS as I am interested in both my top speed on this set up and also I did a lovely feeling fuly planing gybe One very happy Evets. I only sailed for about 90 minutes but had a ball. Thanks Bendy, I shall look after it!

As for Benders speed on Pong: I was way off his pace across the wind and he must have flown tog get the 33kt 2 sec. That is really moving on that size kit