The forecasts suggested this would be an Epic speed day. They were not too far wrong, with PBs and a possible new  WGPSSC 10 second record. We arrived early at around 9am to rig and prepare for the forecast midday wind swing from WNW to WSW, only to find the tide blocking access. We retired to the Daff residence for a bit of bench racing until we noticed the change come through (with a lot of rain) a couple of hours later.  A rigging frenzy followed and some of the early runs were very promising. The wind was coming through in squalls. Lulls were about 30 knots and squalls up to around 40-45.

I rigged my 4.4m and 4m Koncepts and used CA40 with my trusty 20cm assy KA-Lockwood fin.

I was strugging to find my comfort zone today. Despit wearing 6 kilos, on the first few runs I felt like I was on my tip toes and sheeted out with the 4.4m and the course felt too tight. After a while I started to pick the more westerly wind swings and my speeds improved and I gained confidence to push it. The tide was coming in most of my session, but because it was not a very low tide to start with, the current was quite mild and the water stayed very flat. My best speeds came near the end of the session. Just after my best run I switched to the Koncept 4m as I needed to test it with a new mast combination. It worked great but after two runs I was too tired to continue safely and we were out of tide, time to get out before I was trapped.

Great to watch the young blokes excell today! Very sorry that Peter smashed his face up on his board in a big crash. Get well soon Pete.

nice speeds

well done

well done guys.... JEALOUS lol

Finally the tide hung low long enough for us to make the most of a crazy windy day. Well done to all the others. Can't wait to see the posts.

Sandy Pt rocks!

Comments from GTC:

Wicked day at SP. Tuning mission for me, trying a lot of stuff. I reckon the wind was a pretty solid high 20s to mid 30s. Not much more because it was pretty easy to sail back upwind through the channel. I didnt do any walking except to get back at the end when the wind died. Sailed a few more kms than normal! No wonder I feel a bit tired today.

Sailed the 42 all day, started on the 5.5m EIII. First run was a misfire, but hit a good gust on the second for a 46kt 10 sec and 47.5 peak. I think thats a no weight jacket PB for me and I've dropped to 87kg. After that I couldnt get the power down and was hitting 45/46 peaks. Meanwhile Spotty is pulling out 48 peaks and 47 10 secs so I knew something was up. I sailed back and put the 5.1m on, did a few runs on that, adjusted the harness lines and downhaul, did a few more runs, but still was a few knots slower than spotty, my reference point :). I watched him down the run and he looked so steady and so powered up I thought the sail was going to explode, MI style.

Went back to the beach and changed to the fin I used last year to get my best times. That was even slower. So I was scratching my head trying to figure it out. New board, sail, and fins for SP so what was going on? Right at the end I decided to take a punt and stick in my old KA20 asy. The tide was racing in and the wind dropping, and I had a plane to catch. I managed 4 runs on it and 3 of them were my fastest for the day. I literally picked up more than 2kts, the board was releasing closer to where it should have been, and was praying for a few gusts like we had earlier. I waited around on the sandbar for an approaching rain squall hoping for a cracker run, knowing my window for making the last flight of the day was closing and I was already eating into the transit time margin. Its normally a 3 hour drive to the airport... The squall was a fizzer and the wind swung westerly so rather than losing time wading back to the car from the start of the dunes, I thought I could take a shortcut via the inlet and straight to the cars like I did on Tuesday. I got to the channel marker on the inside of the inlet... and the wind died.... NOOOOOO!!! Swimming for a few minutes... was sure I was going to miss my flight.

Fortunately a low 20s bullet came through and I pumped like crap with remaining energy to get planing and plough back over to the sand bar, further downwind from where I started. By the time I got back to the car the tide had raced in and it was getting sketchy for getting out. There was no time for anything other than get out of the inlet, throw stuff in bags and beeline it to the airport. Matt drove like a champion in his van, and fortunately we had a clear run with traffic. I made it with about 5 minutes to spare before checkin for my flight closed. The airline is very strict with checkin times... On the way out of Perth I was 5 minutes late and they wouldnt let me check in- even though the plane was delayed about 20 minutes. I had to sit in the departure lounge staring at the plane I was meant to be on for half an hour before it boarded and took off. Frustrating. But the flight home was the last for the day so it would have been a mission if I missed it.

All up it was a brilliant trip. Thanks Matt for your generosity and hospitality. Was great to hang out for a few days. Also thanks Andrew (Daff) for allowing us to sit by the fire at SP Central. Damn it was cold!

Awsome day -> played the efficiency game....

First on the water and it wasn't looking so windy, so went with the 5m Koncept for two runs, squeaking in with 40 and 42 peaks.  Felt a bit overdone, but I knew that I could pull a few more out for the 40x5 if need be.

Normally I'd grab the trusty 4.4m, but instead decided to go much smaller and use the 4.0m for its first outing... really just wanted to do some tuning on it, so that it would be ready for a truely big day.  Instead found a burst of speed pulling a 44 peak... woohoo!

Did another two runs, but found the Lockwood carbon 22cm to not be generating enough lift, requiring a quite severe "unloading" just to get it tracking straight.... Decided to swap back to the KA20 for a comparison.

Oh man, what a difference... The LW22 feels much more slippery vs the KA20 feels a touch draggy -> but the results speak for themselves with the top 6 runs all done on the KA.... the KA feels easier to push against. 

So how did the KA 4.0m perform?  No tuning necessary, just needed to have lots of negative outhaul.

Mast: KA 400 75% cut down to 350

Weight: 6kg

Corrected data from both GT31s' posted above.

Some good conditions today for those to PB some good averages It was windier earlier in the session and a bit up and down towards the end, but the tide did co-operate and produce some great flat long runs. Rigged the 2011 Koncept 5.0 for the second time with Ka21 fin, the sail worked really well last big session and was looking forward to using it again.

First shake down run started real slow ending up in the channel unable to waterstart as I drifted down the towards the east bank. Finally a gust and able to to get going and have a solid safety run with a 47.6 peak, 46.9 10sec sail was feeling sweet with heaps of controllable power.

Second run peaking at 48.4 with 47.7 10sec confirmed it could be a good session. Third a 48 pk 47.110 sec, Fourth 47.8 pk 46.4 10sec. Took till the 8th run to get a 5th contender for the 5x10 as the wind was starting to back off, so I fitted the Ka23 with its damaged leading edge from runing aground at Rye earlier in the year and got a 48.1 pk 47.1 10sec.

Witnessed Peter's crash from what looked like an unrecoverable spinout, was clear he had broken his nose with plenty of blood showering my goggles as he recouped on the bank before walking back and heading off to hospital, get well!!

Slowie was pushing his R&D once again to bring us more speed to the sport, this can be a sacrifice when the conditions are good, but he redeemed some good numbers in the end with some changes in the closing tide.

Expect to see some PBs from the team, good work guys, the conditions amazed with sunshine at times which is rare when your doing 48 knots at Sandy Pt..

Cheers

Spotty