1 categories

FW96, Volt4.5-Atlas6.2, MFC20&2*11.5@2, proper session! Atawhai, Nelson, NZ

Limited time window (<1 hour) so thought I would try somewhere new (ish).  It was a fail but I learnt a few things today. 

Nelson yacht club - high tide, SSW to SW 20 - 35knots. KAR5.7, IS60, Tribal Sys speed 27. 

• Wind is very gusty from having a glassy look on the chop to water getting lifted off the water in the gusts. The 5.7 was a handful most of the time.
• I set up my gear for speed runs on the bolder bank. This did not work at all today  as the wind was more SSW with wind angles on 200 - 215 on the harbour sensors. Even when I tried to go off the wind, I was heading for the rocks....not ideal. Look for SW to WSW for this to work. 
• Sym speed 27 does not like going slow (I knew this already) but in the large chop this was worse and spin out was very common. The MK2 would have been MUCH better in the chop. 
• After the session I drove out to the Waimea estuary and this seemed as windy and the tide looked good (1 hour after high tide).  I had another look 2hours after high (4pm) tide and looked like it would be time to come in if you were sailing there. 
• There was no wind at Rabbit island. It seemed the wind line was appprox 500m NW of the MDF manafacturing plant then good wind all the way to east side of the estuary.