Dangers at Novara

It's getting more risky out there so take note please. Have noted more and more near misses, in aviation terms, they'd be having an inquiry, so let's do some education prevention now.

These are the dangers of Novara:

Trees and rocks in close to shore,. winds are on-shore, walking gear to water on windy day, easy to hit gear against trees and rocks, and shredding a sail, which I nearly did yesterday..

Boat ramp and channel markers strewn through launching area, have hit both channel markers impaling a sail, and clipped boat ramp pillars. So be careful,sailing near them.

Lots of limestone reefs and rocks in the fastest area, fin destroyers, and can hurt self falling or even walking across them.

Because of so many rocks, there are a number of markers, steel pickets, and pvc pipe upheld by steel pickets, stay away from these when sailing at speed as impailing self could cause death.

Lots of weed banks and sand bars, know the tides, and the places where these are located, can be unsafe, and risk break a neck stopping at speed.

Clumps of weed accumulate, and you cannot sail through them, you come to a dead stop, and at over 30 knots this can be suicidal.

Traffic, more and more sailors are now using this area, and people are sailing very fast, look out for others, cllisions at speed could be fatal. NB. People coming out of a speed run go straight into wind to slow down, though this can be in the path of someone else speeding. Also right in the middle of the run is the best Alpha area, so be careful of each other as speedsters and Alphers have a cross-roads interseaction here.

PS. This is not a joke, please take note, prevention is much better than cure.

If you note these hazards, you can make your session there a lot safer for yourself and everyone else.

While Snidesy made a joke about crabs and devil fish they are a reality, so for the squeamish wear booties, the odd cobbler exists as well, I have been bitten by crabs regularly, stood on a cobbler (Ouchy for hours) and stood on a devil fish, very unpleasant, nearly as bad as a cobbler, but doesn't last as long.

My biggest issue is watching people coming into shore.

We have seen some pretty horrid stack's into 6" water as people misjudge the depth (or lack thereof).

When you come blasting up the beach into shore.

UNHOOK and get Your feet out of the foot straps. Hang right out of the boom with your arms fully stretched.

If you hit something which is going to stop you, Let go, Fall backwards, spread your body out "Large" so you don't sink, your sail will safely get blown over the leeward side of your board.

We are all starting to sail with small fins 23cm if these stop on the bottom the water is Furken Shallow.

If you stay hooked in you inevitably go over the handlebars, give your board quite a bit of Rhinoplasty work. Even more critical is you get speared into the bottom which could prove fatal.

Unhook a good 20m from shore peoples

i don't know what the rules say but i htink that's a universal thing.

person turning or doing tricks has the responsibility to look before hand.

the classic i had recently was when sailing with a mate and he gybed and i tacked. that got ugly.

That is great news, thanks for being honest with us, I had my concerns about damaging equipment when I heard how shallow it is there, I dont have a lot of spare cash so all that info and advise is very much appreciated.

Sincerely GT

yeh found that out the other day when sailing there, got a Jp 76 that i use as my higher wind board which has a us box, i only have the one fin and its not that flash, so i need a couple more and was just wondering if someone could point me in the right direction, PM me guys that would be cool

Low tide is around .2-,3m (lowest) that leaves 20m of beach
High tide can get up to 1m (highest)

We have recently had tides ranging from .38 @11am to .68 at around 10pm

On the lowest tides you stay away from Hardies Nm suicide run else you will be plowing and replacing fins in places when the rocks are near the surface.

But when the waters up near the shoreline you normally have a goodly amount of water to play with.

That said, Hard's and myself only run 23cm fins with a nice gentle 45º rake so you tend to bounce rather than stop if you hit something solid, we generally find it's fins of 30cm and greater which do the regular depth checks.

It should be noted that even on a low tide the weed bank is that large that you just sail a bit further out and a bit further east and it is still relatively flattish.

For tides we normally refer to Peel inlet, It's kinda accurate.

The other option is get on the telefonken device and cal one of us up for a weather report, our wind can vary a bit to what you would have locally as well and the Mandurah station is outside the mouth of the Mandurah estuary on a channel marker.


Just remember

Sail with your eyes closed

If your eyes are closed, You can't see what you are about to hit.

If you can't see it, it doesn't exist (tree falling in a forest principle)

If it doesn't exist, you cant hit it

Sailing with your eyes closed, also gives you a clean line on the run

as nobody wants to sail near you

Yep, at the moment thats what I run on the Windtech and the JP, for the amount of fins I carry around I only have that one a speed weedy.

Yes, it was a JP slalom fin originally before Mr hacksaw came into play and I re-boxed it.

It's lasted ok considering it was a lazy re-box. it's just the weed, sand, wildlife and constant refinishing is starting to take it's toll as it's gradually getting smaller and thinner (not necessarily better).