Arrived at 6.30am to find a couple of cars already there! Hardly any wind. Maybe 10 knots. Forecasts were quite contradictory but the wind had already hit the west coast so we knew it was coming. Meanwhile I rigged 5m, 4.4m and 4m Koncepts amid some strange looks from passers by.

Wind hit quite suddenly as expected at about 8am just as I was throwing the wettie on. Took the CA40 and 5m 2012 KA Koncept with what turned out to be a Time Machine TM50 (I thought it was a TM48). Mal gave it to me a while back with a few other things in a regects box and it was so beautifully prepped I could not resist trying it. I figured it would be good on what appeared to be a tight course. Halfway down the run and still square at about 34 knots I was really putting the pressure on it. Suddenly I had a massive spin out. I was really surprised and thought maybe the fin had snapped off. I lifted the tail of the board and it was still there. Even more puzzing?? I turned around to sail back and as soon as I jumped on the board I spun out. This is wierd! ? Another closer inspection revealed the fin had broken at the base but was still hanging down when I had lifted the board up to look. * (see note below) Bugger! Walked all the way back and changed to trusty KA 20 assy. Meanwhile I missed the first burst of wind that was slightly more Westerly.

On the next run I was really fighting the 5m sail as the wind had really picked up to 35+. I stopped and outhauled about 2 inches and now the sail felt fantastic. Very stable, light and fast. A couple a runs later it was glaringly obvious that we were not getting any broad runs in that wind. I swiched to a Lassacher Duo Speed 22 to try port tack runs but that did not help either as the run ended behind the dunes with no wind. By this time there were massive squalls smoking the water so I changed down to my 4.4m koncept. This was fine but still no more speed at the tight angle. With the tide rushing in there seemed nothing to be gained so I decided to save my energy for an afternoon session when the tide dropped again. Left at about 10.30.

Went back at 12noon to see what was happening and left just as the tide closed off the inlet at about 12.45pm.

Went back at again at 4.30 and found the tide was out more than expected. The wind had eased a bit to around 30 knots. Took the 5m and IS86 with Time Machine TM26 for a 1 hour. Was going really well until I dropped a gybe at 50 min in, and then again on the next run.

After that I went for some Alphas. The straights were fast, I had a couple of runs where I peaked over 30knots both ways but I was struggling to get the gybes right, tipping in at around 33 knots. I finally thought I almost nailed one so I called it a day and packed up and left at around 7pm. Whew, long day!!

As it turns out that last Alpha was the best. In hindsight I shold have gone for the Alphas before I did the one hour.

Great to finally have wind over 35 to 40 knots and get a real workout! With this sort of wind we would have expected a few speed PB's if  only the angle had be better, but I was great fun to just go blasting.

Oh yeah. 1 hour had 56 gybes!

* I must clearly point out: The TM50 fin I broke was an early production prototype. It was out of a box of reject fins Mal gave me to try. (This should have told me something.) It was quite low on carbon content. When Tom worked out the process to dramatically increase the carbon in them for production, they became rock hard and unbreakable. The design of these Time Machine fins has never been in the slightest question.