24 hr part 1.

9Pm Start, No wind, no moon , time to go 

Set up the buoys and the lights before 9 by sailing out the raceboard with all the gear on the front. Very light wind but starting to fill in. Time to get everything on and start. Carried, 4lt water , 4 Gels stuffed up my wetsuit arms with a few more in the camel back, Helmet with no visor and an AY-UP light on the top which I could swivel 45 deg each way to get the light off the sail. Also had a light on the mast tip.

Off I go Koncept 7.9 on the Mistral OD Olympic race board sub planning. The lights I had set up worked great except the wind direction kept changing so I had to judge the turn point by looking over my shoulder so I didnt run aground. Didnt make one jibe at all, the wind was so light that I was uphauling !!!

Wind filled in so onto the CA 66 and the 7.9. Runs of 30Kt, great fun the the dark as I had found that the light from the mast was enough to provide a light glow over the board. Jibing by feel not by seeing 

The rest of the night was on and off each board as I got either skunked or overpowered. Very slow going so I decided to forgo the scheduled rest breaks and sailed through the 12hrs only stopping to change gear or more the lights.To be continued......

Mistral O OD, Karace 7.9, Hollins Modified fin

Carbon Art (111) SL 66 Karace 7.9

Part 2...

Dawn arrived and no sunrise and very little wind . Disapointed not to a sunrise but I had an awsome sail the the cover of stars with some great speed runs on the CASl 66. I'm goning to claim the fastest speed 2 and 5x10 sec runs at night . Great fun zipping along the the dark with just a faint glow to see by. Ever caught a fish while adjusting the boom, the light attracted it to the sail and it swam up and onto the sail. I though about catching it and putting it in Matt's car who was having a snooze back at the start point. Just couldn't carry it. 

Wind kicked in by by dawn and got some realy consistant 1 hrs and started to rack up some quick Kms, getting back on schedual to brake Denis's record. Wind still incresing and moved down a board and sail and maintained great speeds . Body at this stage was feeling fit, left hip and bit sore but sore before I started. Feet a few holes but hands great as I rested one a bit each run. Kept eating the Gels on the run.

The wind kept increasing and I ran out of rigged sails and small boards. Had my first rest at 2pm as Matt very genoursly rigged my 5m sail to sail on the speed board.

The idea of sailing the last 250kms on the speedboard didn't really appeal to me but as the wind was now 25/30 there was no option. Ran down to the speed course and had a ball but my reaction time was a bit shot and had a few big offs. One of the offs removed the GPS pack off the camel pack.

I'd just lost 2 GT 31 

Managed to snag a few fast runs but the kms were slow, a bit less wind please Huey.

Now the wind was dieing quickly but still had 4 hrs to go. Back up through the gear and sails trying to get through the kms as quick as possible. John had generously offered to pack up the 7.9 when I was on the 5mt.

The last 80kms where done in a dieing breeze on the 6.6 and the 111Lt ,got to the point where I was dropping of the plane and having to rerigg the 7.9 meant it was time to call it.

Last night I said "Thats it ,no more distance stuff. I'm retired"..........In the new light of today - Maybe not. 700/800km is achieveable in  the right conditions, so........

Mistral O OD

Carbon Art (111) Sl 66

Carbon Art (87) Sl 53

Carbon Art (87) Sl 52

Carbon Art (63) S 40

KaRace 7.9

Koncept 6.6

Koncept 5.8

Koncept 5.0

Fins .....Lots

Thanks to Daffy, Matt, John and all the wonderful crew who provided fun, food and encouragement at our LG Base camp.

Another thanks to my sponsors who with their support much of this would not be possible

Martin Love, Peter Weitenberg- KaSails

James Dinnis- Carbon Art boards

Andrew- Ion wetsuits