Select to expand quotesausage said..scottydog said..sausage said..Krusty said..
I think I'd be using a 9.5 comfortably up to about 20knots, although this also has a lot to do with water conditions, somewhere with big wind chop and waves really limits your ability to keep the 9.5 out of the water. The key to doing well on a windy race course is being able to sail fast and keep out of the water! It really depends on skill in the end though some guys could hold onto a 9.5 in 25knots plus and still be at the front of the fleet and many others will be falling off everywhere as soon as the winds hits 15knots.
75kgs + 9.5m + 20knots - I'd like to see that! I'm 90+kgs and I'm comfortably powered up with a 7.0 in 20knots.
Sausage but that's on a short board right?
Yeah short board. I'm not talking 20knot gusts here, I'm talking a solid 20knot breeze irrespective of board type.
Reaching on a short board is very different to pointing as high as you can upwind or as deep as you can go downwind. A 9.5m in 20 knots just reaching is way owerpowered but racing around a course is not reaching back and forth.
Select to expand quotescottydog said..
Who really knows, probably 30 gusting upwards which is mad enough to me! Sure looks windy on the vid, the flat water from the sheltering makes it deceptive, but does make it doable vs open ocean with swell to contend with. Be curious to know if it was warm or cold air also as that factors in a lot also.
Found a write up on it, they claiming up to 50 knot gusts! I'm sure the local weather reports could be looked up for verification or not.
$1000 Winner Takes All Speed Session as Wind Gusts to 50 Knots. It didn’t take long for the Race Committee to pull the plug on racing today. The committee boat anchored and with a few minutes their bow roller was bent out of shape as the first 40 knot gust came through. White caps transformed into vapor as the sea became streaked with white lines…The AP over A went up and racing was cancelled for the day. The forecast for tomorrow is more of the same. The medal races are scheduled for 1200hrs as usual. We’ll keep our fingers crossed on that.In the meantime, a <1000 Winner Takes All Speed Session was organized inside the sea wall. 18 guys and 6 women went out to see what they could lay down over the 100 meter course. The strongest gust registered on the race committee boat was 50 knots plus as the sailors showed some impressive board handling skills.The rules are simple. Sailors had to use RS:X Class legal equipment to make 2 runs.
The fastest run scoops the prize money.
Men <1000. Women <1000Peak speed for the guys was 31.86 knots and the girls was 25.92 knots
And the winners are
RS:X Men Speed Session
1. NED8 Dorian van Rijsselberge – 31.86 knots
2. RUS4 Dmitrii Polishchuk – 29.97 knots
3. NOR7 Sebastian Wang-Hansen – 29.70 knots
RS:X Women Speed Session
1. POL1279 Hanna Zembrzuska - 25.92 knots
2. POL09 Agnieszka Bilska – 25.38 knots
3. POL8 Zofia Klepacka – 24.30 knots
It could have peaked higher at a different time, but the point is that the quick shot of a hand-held anerometer flicking to high 30s for a second or so, before that shot is cut, doesn't prove it, and (IMHO) the water doesn't show that much wind. Maybe the vid wasn't shot at the windiest time; certainly it doesn't seem to show "white caps transformed into vapour as the sea became streaked with white lines", which it does at the windspeeds claimed.
Select to expand quotecammd said..sausage said..scottydog said..sausage said..Krusty said..
I think I'd be using a 9.5 comfortably up to about 20knots, although this also has a lot to do with water conditions, somewhere with big wind chop and waves really limits your ability to keep the 9.5 out of the water. The key to doing well on a windy race course is being able to sail fast and keep out of the water! It really depends on skill in the end though some guys could hold onto a 9.5 in 25knots plus and still be at the front of the fleet and many others will be falling off everywhere as soon as the winds hits 15knots.
75kgs + 9.5m + 20knots - I'd like to see that! I'm 90+kgs and I'm comfortably powered up with a 7.0 in 20knots.
Sausage but that's on a short board right?
Yeah short board. I'm not talking 20knot gusts here, I'm talking a solid 20knot breeze irrespective of board type.
Reaching on a short board is very different to pointing as high as you can upwind or as deep as you can go downwind. A 9.5m in 20 knots just reaching is way owerpowered but racing around a course is not reaching back and forth.
To be honest I noticed for sure on the Phantom in the way overpowered sailing that the moment I drop down the centreboard and have to sail upwind it becomes pretty brutal. You can sort of see it in the videos I made, in fact on one vid I chose to leave the board up, move track slightly forward and reach back upwind in a board manner. With the board down was almost impossible to sheet in. Funny cause I noticed comments on Facebook of one of my vids remarking how much of a wuss I was to struggle in 19 knots gusting to 30! Guess I need to eat my Wheaties! 
All that said I could have sailed off the wind for ages, the long board never stuff's the back of waves so it's pretty chill! 
True Chris pinch of salt is always good. It's like guys with 1 liter super bikes saying they can do 200 mph, just cause the speedo says so. Don't forget the air temp thing, makes a huge difference! The wind velocity is can be the same but the force much lower!
It's a shame they caped the sail size to 9.5
I used a 11 m sailworks for 10 years didn't mater what it was blowing but it was a formula sail not a ****y race board sail, such a massive difference in performance and wind range
Select to expand quotebyronmc said..
It's a shame they caped the sail size to 9.5
I used a 11 m sailworks for 10 years didn't mater what it was blowing but it was a formula sail not a ****y race board sail, such a massive difference in performance and wind range
Don't forget, Byron, you're not a small guy, and don't you normally sail in the steady winds of Lake Mac?
It's different handling the big rigs around places like Georges River or DAC, where you do a lot of short tacking and pumping through the light stuff. And some of us just have a personal dislike to heavy rigs; I don't care if a rig loads up on my back hand (as some do) but I just don't like pumping or tacking a heavy rig. It's not so much that one is ***y or not, it's just personal preference.
