1 categories

Glory Holes, Australind, WA, AU.  ISO100, X15 6.4m, Choco 30cm weed speed

Sailing in moderate declining winds. Left work a bit early and glad I did or I would have missed out all together. Cracked 35 instantaneous - my best speed yet on this board, which I picked up for $300 a few months ago.  A good sesh, hopefully more tomorrow  

4 categories

      Point Gray, WA, AU.

   Wet Dreems custom 52,  6m Lightning,  Decrepitspesial weedy.

A very FUN day out, lots of smmoooth water and heeps o weed..!!!  also very shalow, not just me that is.

      Mgenta = fast,    Red = slow.

Ay Caramba Cay!

Just let me say at the start a Top Two Fangy Birthday session. For me it was just an epic session of both epic win and epic fail.

So I started the day at the school assembly spending more time looking at the swaying gum trees than the backs of the headsof the other tremendously proud parents. When a Paleontological Era had passed the assembly finished and I dropped a line to Cap'n Calm to make sure had managed to get both slippers off today and join us for a splash. Turned out he was already halfway there. I had to hang up on him because I was in shock and couldnt think straight. So i didn't spare the horses and raced home and chucked most of my gear in the chariot and left for the weedy goodness of Boombas.

I got there as Pas and Cap'n Calm hit the soup, leaving me and Pepe to make some decisions about what to rig. n the end Iwhacked the Koncept8.5 on the QEII  and Delta 24. At this point I discovered I hadnt quite chucked all the things in the chariot that are required to go sailing. But Pepe comes up trumps with a whole heap of virginial kit that has been the result of too many evenings surfing the net finding gear that is seriously good value. Thanks Pepe!!

We hit the soup a little while later and not much happens for quite a while, but then its starts to build to mid teens and we are away. Acres and acres of smooth with just one small reef to worry about. The reef is now pretty well marked by DOT yellow buoys. You cant miss them.

Except when you are travelling a close to the speed of light. Then its easy.

I have got the big girl up to the high twenties which is an brllliant speed for this heavyweight cruise liner. Its not often i get to use all my Momentum Muscle (blubber) to hold down a sail but i was with this run. I was well into my second nautical mile and all I can see is smoothy goodness. There are yellow buoys off to the left in the distance. Everything is getting a blueish tint as I approach the speed of light but oddly its only me approaching the speed of light. My board and rig have suddenly decided to cease to be mobile. But I am now seeing Dambusters bouncing bomb test films running through my head as I bid farewell to my kit. I can do this because I am facing backwards flying.... For what seems an age I log up hang time points before doing justice to the bouncing bomb. I end up in water 10 cms deep lying on the limestone.

All parts of my body slowly start to login that they are still present. Some parts are a little more vociferous than others. I begin the trek back to my board. It takes a while. Time to check the damage, fully expecting yet another boom to be trashed. Sail still looks better than Pepes kids trampoline version,boom is in one piece, board in one piece. Fin smacked big time. 28.136 knots of bargearse vs limestone never ends well...

24 Delta is split longitudinally and now 19 cms.Fangy is still in one piece. Fair enough result.

I limp back and Cap'n Calm is a little bit delirious with the weedy goodness and a little unwisely offers me his board. I jump on and marvel at the lightness and speed of this featherweight compared to the QEII. However a combination of Cap'ns efforts on the Cay with his own fin, and a monstrously overpowered and tired pilot meant that I had to call it a day shortly after.

A wonderful day with speed and spills and great fun, sharing the stoke with Pepe and Cap'n and Pas. I cant remember if the QEII has ever gone faster but i reckon today was a PB day for that board. Birthdays just dont get much better. Top Ten fangy Day

6 categories

Fantastic fun at Boombas with Fin, Fangy and Pepe, Square kilometres of very flat water, and some small areas with light weed on the surface, giving a mirror surface. Trouble was telling the difference between light weed and solid burgs. You didn't know until you hit it, whether you wouldn't feel it at all, or if it would give a substantial tug. Fortunately the substantial ones I hit weren'tvery big, and although they pulled me downwind, in the start of a catapult. I was out of them in time to recover.

started with the 65cm board, 6.6m sail and super 20cm weedy, launched just after 1100.

Found Narimba Cay again!!! Was lulled into a false sense of security by a flock of Pelicans aparently standing on the water about 150m downwind from me, thought they were on the Cay and ussumed the yellow patch coming up was just a sand bank, WRONG!!!! However on the way out diverted to a big yellow buoy and saw it was marked, "Austin Cove nature reserve, speed limit 5kts"

Wind lulled out a bit after noon so I went back for lunch. Told Fangy and Pepe to stay clear of the yellow buoys and they'd be safe. Unfortunately Fangy somehow missed seeing the closest buoys, and was confidently aiming at the ones on the far side of the reserve, I'll leave Fangy to describe the result!

Trying again for alphas on the big gear, but I find the extreme rake fins are slow to accelerate, you can't load them up until they're up to speed. The confrontation with the Cay certainly didn't help either! So when the wind picked up a tad more, I changed down to the 53cm board, that imediately gave me another 2kts on my top speed, but only 0.3kts on the alpha.

Bit dissapointed I didn't try for an hr, didn't even occur to me, but if I hadn't stopped for 3mins for a drink, it would have been 20 or over.

Fin looked very happy with his 55/60 deg reboxed ancient slalom fin. He was flying thru weedburgs as if they weren't there.