With increased interest in Alpha Racing and GPS-SS about to introduce the category on their new website thought I might list the Aussie rankings 9pity we don't have Mal Wright and a few others in the challenge), the top 13 are the top 10%, 13 to 27 arethe top 11 to 20 %:
Alpha Racing 500m
Rank Name Score
1 Andrew Daff 27.32
2 Snides 26.58
3 Slowboat 26.57
4 kato 26.37
5 Dan Engdahl 26.26
6 Chris Dimond 26.2
7 25 26.13
8 Vando 26.02
9 Shelby Reily 25.35
9 Spotty 25.35
11 Simon Fyfe 24.98
12 Pierre Milutin 24.97
13 Claude Lecoq 24.87
14 Decrepit 24.86
15 Scott Farley 24.59
16 Mike Nelson 24.3
17 Hardie 24.25
18 Sam 24.08
19 Sam Doecke 24
20 Matthew Robertson 23.98
21 Chris Ting 23.89
22 Sam Parker 23.74
23 anthony perkins 23.73
24 Chris Adamson 23.73
25 Brad Anderson 23.5
26 Darryl Meares 23.36
27 Bender 23.35
28 Ben Newson 23.21
29 Stuart Allen 23.2
30 Carl Macdonald 23.2
31 Phillip Nott 23.07
32 Tim Hemer 22.94
33 maximus 22.91
34 Glynn Merritt 22.9
35 Mike Maguire 22.71
36 Andrew Nestor 22.67
37 Trevor Brown 22.64
38 Bigdog 22.63
39 Elmo 22.48
40 lao shi 22.31
41 Brett Denning 22.26
42 Steve Schuurmans 22.16
43 Dave Morehead 22.09
44 Nelson 22.06
45 richi 22.05
46 qldsalty 22.05
47 Tim Stockton 21.96
48 Clint Ricetti 21.82
49 Geoff Ringe 21.7
50 Meta Sindos 21.65
51 John Critchley 21.58
52 nebbian 21.57
53 John Rohrsheim 21.45
54 Baldy 21.42
55 Paul Moss 21.42
56 Tim Lawrence 21.39
57 John Norton 21.29
58 mkseven 21.28
59 Stewart McKay 20.97
60 Firiebob 20.94
61 Izaak Perkins 20.82
62 David 20.8
63 Dave Mikanovic 20.65
64 Chris Porter 20.59
65 Anthony Hamood 20.53
66 Adam Linton 20.5
67 Norman Clarke 20.5
68 Graceman 20.48
69 David Savat 20.28
70 Windrider 20.19
71 fitz66 20.15
72 Boss Man 20.14
73 James Farrell 20.13
74 Andrew Donovan 20.1
75 Ben Kirk 20.09
76 Steve Charles 19.83
77 man of 19.82
78 Julien Savina 19.53 Half Way Top 50%
79 Gadget 19.51
80 gestalt 19.41
81 Brett Pattemore 19.38
82 Moira Desport 19.36
83 Simon Fleetwood 19.15
84 Pauly 18.92
85 Justin Harvey 18.75
86 Craig Mann 18.72
87 Bugs 18.66
88 Ian Teakle 18.61
89 oli2 18.59
90 Albert P. Jonsson 18.45
91 Grumps 18.1
92 Michael Thomson 17.81
93 Kellie Tusler 17.49
94 Luff 17.44
95 Pointman 17.33
96 Geoff Shuttleworth 17.1
97 Mickey 16.98
98 haggar 16.93
99 Julie Fyfe 16.75
100 William Ditcham 16.74
101 Binny 16.73
102 Mark MacDonald 16.7
103 Bisek Brzoskowski 16.64
104 Herb Halloran 16.6
105 Tony Cronin 16.59
106 Whitey 16.53
107 Rod Lindsay 16.42
108 Martin Royle 16.29
109 Natalie Fleetwood 16.23
110 Tony Wynhoven 16.15
111 ProperCarter 16.13
112 James Brient 16.01
113 lenny 16
114 Joanna Sterling 15.95
115 Paul MacDonald 15.9
116 Holly Bambridge 15.66
117 Owen Rippingale 15.56
118 Nick Willey 15.53
119 Michelle Sterling 15.09
120 Ray Wilson 14.77
121 Mineral 14.61
122 Glenn Kelly 14.57
123 Grant Larkin 14.2
124 Liz Storr 14.07
125 MintoxGT 13.69
126 Graham Flynn 13.57
127 David Goodson 13.49
128 Chris Reiffel 12.85
129 Peter Leversedge 12.13
130 Annie 11.81
131 Tracy Pearson 11.47
132 Frant Bucek 10.6
133 Lyn Halloran 7.96
134 Coala Bear 5.85
135 Waggs 2.51
136 Sam Fawkes
imo this categorie has the highest variation (compared to the straight speed divisions) of results across the 3 major software programs.....it will be interesting to see the results that get posted.
I'd like to know the highest "minimum speed" in these alphas. Mine's high 15's I think but I'll check.
Anyone stay over 20 right through a gybe?
Min speed on my best Alpha was 18.434, but I believe I had a higher min speed just over 19 in an earlier attempt. Just got to find the file..........
I think 20kts min. speed is doable but it will be a cracker of a gybe!
EDIT: OK I found where I posted about it here: www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=29168
Min speed 19.4 but I still haven't found the file yet............... searching, searching.........
Nope, I just can't find any files where I had a min speed at 19.4 so I withdraw that one. Must have been wishful thinking.. 
Found mine. Min speed 15.50, but the max was 25.76 so the Alpha was only 22.76. I'm wondering whether the Alpha category tends to favour speed-boards over slalom boards insofar as the fastest Alpha may not necessarily be the fastest "race gybe", ie; there is no reward for making a tight turn, as a opposed to a wide turn where average speed is maintained but serious downwind ground is lost.
I've been hitting the Alphas on my slalom board which is a Tabou Manta -it's a great slalom board as it has plenty of rocker and makes a very tight gybe with the ability to easily adjust your line on the exit, but it may be the wrong choice for flat water alphas.
Opinions?
Good point Ado, this gets back to that old chestnut the gps-ss crew are arguing over. What is speed? Distance between 2 points ie WSSRC or instantaneous speed summated? I would have thought the whole idea of alphas would be to get 250m and back as quick as possible. ie apex of gybe would be 250m from start/finish but of course the current alphas are as measured encouraging maintaining as high an average speed as posible with a 180 degree turn thrown in... quite another thing.
Doesn't the 50m deviation take that into account????
If you gybe too wide, then you have to get back upwind to make the 50m limit, whereas if you gybe very tight, you can come out going downwind slightly.
So I think the secret to good alphas is a combination, high overall speed, and a fast tight gybe.
Not sure about board choice though, I was contemplating trying a wave board and gybing on a wave, thinking it would help maintain speed thru the gybe, but I don't think that would compensate for the lower straight line speed.
I'm not convinced that the fastest Alpha calculation is necessarily the fastest journey from a particular point, to another point 250m away, and back, even allowing for the destination being 50m downwind from the origination.
In other words, let's say you and I are sailing together at 30 knots on a beam reach and we gybe at the same spot except your gybe has a radius of 20 metres and mine is 40 metres. Even if my exit speed is 2 knots faster than yours, you are at least 15 metres in front of me. We then continue for another approx. 250 metres and you are still well in front, but to complete your alpha, you have to sail past the point where my Alpha is finished. I may have the faster Alpha, but you win the race!
Having said that, it may also be that a tight gybe is advantageous because the less distance spent in the gybe, the more distance spent on the straight - and the straight is faster.
Which brings me back to my original question; are the fastest alphas done using tight "slalom" gybes, or wide "speed board" gybes?
be very afraid
One mistake I've been making is concentrating too much on the gybe, and a planing exit.
If you don't have a high speed across the wind, you're never going to have a fast alpha. So from now on I'm rigging for max speed on the reach... I think this is part of the secret to a good number.
Of course, note my position on the table so take my advice with lots of salt
I have tried a lot of different strategies for Alpha speeds. Slam gybes, wide gybes, turning upwind before the gybe, broad entry and tight return, tight entry and broad return just to name a few.
At 30 knots plus on a slalom board it is pretty hard to gybe tighter than 20m radius without killing speed completely even on flat water. A wider gybe keeps speed up a bit better but takes longer at an average lower speed and makes the return slower on the tighter reach. The gybes I do for the Alphas are at least as tight as any I have ever done in slalom comps. Actually, in a downwind slalom one can gybe pretty much as wide as one likes with no disadvantage and because of the broad and fast entry one can 'jam' the gybe a bit harder for a short distance because one can come out broader to maintain speed. An Alpha gybe is much more like a Figure Eight slalom gybe.
I have pulled a few nice Alphas in the low 20's on the iSonic 50 speed board but unless the wind is blowing well over 25 I recon it is faster and more consistent on the iSonic 87 slalom board. Wave board turns tight at speed but is way too slow in the straights.
Alpha is definitely a combination test of beam reach speed and fast gybing speed. You need to get both. Fast is fast no matter what diameter turn you choose.
By the way, the distance downwind for it to count is 25m, not 50m. 50m is the diameter of the proximity circle but, you start in the centre of it so you have to get back to within 25m of that point.
Thanks Sailquik! Your last point is an absolute revelation to me!
No wonder I get so few decent Alphas when I have a crack - I'm giving myself 50 metres! So if it's 25m, logic would suggest that a tighter gybe probably is the go, otherwise you are basically close reaching on the straights.
Give me some breeze!
yep that is interesting i have been trying to judge 50 meters to leeward of where i think the upwind track was will have to have a rethink.
Chris, do yourself a favour and download gps action replay pro..this has a 'nice' feature called gybe analysis it gives you a rating or percentage result for your gybes....not sure how it is calculated but i checked the gybe of my pb alpha and got a score of 78% but i had scores on the same day to 84% does anyone know how the score works in this program? is anyone else using this program?
as far as i am concerned any gybe you can plane away from is a good one and obviously the lighter the wind the harder to plane away from.
Andrew,
in the diagram you have posted the track is highlighted pass the point where the track hits the circle,is that circle the 50m dameter circle? and if so why is the track highlighted after that point? does that represent the end of 500meters?
woops i guess it was a port gybe
ummmm maybe it was a starboard gybe...nice alpha either way
Sailquik,
I just exported a track from RealSpeed into google earth, and put a ruler up in about the same place as the alpha circle was...
And it was 50m.
This suggests to me that the proximity distance is the radius, not the diameter of the circle.
Yes I've just done the same thing with gpsarPro
I'm sure that circle is 50m radius.
Yeah I'll have another look at it see if I can make any sense out of it, it's just when I saw 100% I lost all faith in it.
