Well my 6th or 7th attempt at LtoL and 3rd and by far and away best finish coming in 53rd in 43 minutes. Lost 5 mins at that blinkin 4th boat mark !!
Problem started when I had a cr++_^ start in a massive wind shadow at the start line, managed to kiss the reef ever so getly on the way out but thankfully, didn't catapult as a result (have to sand that fin back now). Once going had a good run out to 1st mark, passed heaps of people and found myself alongside some good company in 1st female and my buddy Steve from Windforce (how long can this last I wonder?). Dropped 1st gybe, no surprises there, but good run to 2nd and 3rd marks (except for big wind hole on 2nd leg where i stopped planning !). Also realised on first run that i had set outhaul way too flat which didn't let me bear away in the wind that was available and giving me the dreaded forearm tighness. arrghh !
realise 4th mark is deep, can't get there with flat sail...no problems, just sail past it and gybe out the back....uhu....reef ! who the hell put that there !!. waste 5 mins doing a zigg zaggy thing to eventually get going again.
Good run to 5th, 6th and 7th except half way to 7th, cop a nice piece of heavy chop that roles me over and waste another 30 secs getting going again.
get to 7th, fall in, get going past reef to the millpond inside and blast it home chasing murray pickering, who tells some itinerant kitesurfer heading out to the reef in the middle of the race finishers to "get out of the way!", just before i was about to say "get out of the ..... way you idiot".
so my best result by two country miles at 43 mins, knowing i can do better and having the best time i have ever had in the LtoL.
for all those guys whose stories i have read with much amusement (Elmo etc), I know exactly how you feel ! Stick with it, the high i have been on since finishing well by my previous efforts has been incredible. I'm just pumped up now to do better next year.
thanks to all the organisers and other sailors for making it a great day.
I had amazing clear air from the shore, great pressure and speed and was going along great, then I realised I was in Scarborough and was the only person there. 
After Friday’s pre-race probe run devastation, (getting completely smashed with a 6.6m) I was thinking that the wave boards would dominate if the forecast held true for a “carbon copy” on race day. At the end of the run there was a universal look of defeat. Thanks Ado, Matt, Dan and Rowan for that…
I think we scared enough people into rigging small with our tales of woe and destruction, and with the wind cranking in early, it seemed carnage of larger proportions was imminent. But by lunchtime the wind started to drop… Huey was playing games.
In the end I went with a 7.5m. I’d started to rig the 6.6m and 8.5m, but when the 1st mark didn’t show up on time and the wind didn’t seem to be building I packed them away. Turned out to be a good choice. Borrowed a Carbon Art 62 slalom board from Matt that morning (thanks maaaate) and after 2 or 3 tuneup runs it was feeling pretty good with the weed fin. I chose a weedy since the day before it was like a stringy soup- even a 30deg rake fin was not helping and I gave up clearing it off.
Got a pearler start, with only Peter and Scotty in front downwind. First leg was fun, and it took most of the run to reel in Scotty. Peter had picked up a handy lead, and then I see Patrik smoking past upwind, dropping into 2nd by the 1st mark.
The second leg started out well, and then I see that I’m about to slam into a shark having a nice sunbake on the surface. I reckon I must have shaved its whiskers. My first thought was “that’d be right- haven’t finished this race in 4 years, and I’m about to be taken out again by a friggin shark this time”.
The boys pulled away a bit but I gained some ground on that really broad 4th leg. Big mistake not cranking the outhaul back on for the tight leg 5, and they pulled away by an even bigger margin as I struggled to keep things together, with the sail folding over most of the boom. Need to put the adjustable outhaul on BOTH sides of the boom next time. By the end of the run, Dan had caught considerable ground and was challenging for 3rd.
Fortunately I got back on track with correct outhaul setting and pulled away again. Too late to be a contender, but very happy with 3rd. Happier to have finished without something breaking.
As for the chopper I reckon it was fantastic to get some pics and footage- and that hand gesture in the pic was just after I almost ate it hitting a minus 5 knot hole courtesy of the chopper… Its not just the cray lines and sunbaking sharks you have to watch out for!!!
well i had a great time, untill i jumped off my board to run up the beach and totaled my knee.
big cheers to FInny for not supporting my knee as he and a few others dragged my out of the water. i think that hurt more than doing my knee.
i was suprised to find there was no first aid on site unlike many previous years.
so yeah i spent the arvo doped up on morphine having a ride back to joondalup hospital in the back of an ambo. great way to spend the night of the best party of the year.
any chance of a boat finish next year.
just added my track layed onto google earth.
it clearly shows that pesky reef that caught alot of us out on the second in shore boat.[}:)][}:)]
[}:)]
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=8767
am curious about bender's tracks was this an all tack race upwind to Lancelin from Ledge
and how does the start go en masse or le man's style
sorry nat. Good job nebs its good to watch the race nat and i had.
that's reall cool then choppy and swelly on the outside and wavy on the inside gybes..wow must be a muscle wrenching lung tearing event..
That's pretty cool! Is there some way to may it bigger and slower so it's all a bit clearer?
If you save it to disk and open it directly in Quicktime (bloody hell its hard working with mac heads (flame suit now on)) you can make it larger.
Cant help with slowing in down.
OK for those who want to look at it in finer detail, here it is:http://www.gpsteamchallenge.com.au/temp/Lano1.2.zip (1.2 MB)
This contains the GPX file for the people who sent me their file, as well as the aerial map.
Also added are tracks for DivaMoi and Porka.
To run it, start GPSARPro (included in the download).
Then go File->Open GPX, find "lano.gpx"
Now go Maps->Open map, find "lano.maps"
Now you can replay at any speed, zoom in to your hearts content, and relive the great race 
