Anyone know what the dates for Speedweek and Al Green's fortnight at SP will be for this year?
And are these definite/confirmed?
Reason being, where I work, you need to submit requests for Annual Leave well in advance to be assured of getting the desired time off.
The recent midweek green arrows and mainly red arrows on weekends are driving me nuts.....
.... serious speed-withdrawal.
If I ended up getting stuck in the office while these events were on due to being late submitting the Annual Leave request... well, the consequences would be ugly for all nearby.
I haven't heard from Al about Speed Fortnight yet but I would pencil in September 27 to October 12 as I think those are the most likely dates.
SpeedWeek is more up in the air with options for its form and future still being discussed. If it is on again this year it will most likely be in the week leading up to, or the week following the Melbourne Cup weekend. I would personally favour the week leading up to that weekend so there is minimal overlap with the SHQ Melbourne Cup Event.
I had some quick discussions with Peter Hands (WV president) regarding SpeedWeek this year...
It appears that there maybe the "Slalom Nationals" being held at the PiT, coinciding with that time of year. It could be a possibility to run the SpeedWeek the following week.
There is a current proposal to have a 2 week speed event (27sept-12Oct) at Sandy Point, with the Slalom Nationals being a side event from the 8th-12thOct.
Basically, the idea is to have an event that attracts all the guys who are into speed, and get some quality Slalom racing in during the down time.
Hopefully some of the speed guys from other states will be interested in doing the Slalom racing also?....Thoughts are definitely welcome?.....
Hi Brett, My first suggestion would be to contact Al Green (from Caloundra City Sailboards) to find out what dates he has booked for his holiday, as quite a few guys come from locally & interstate to have some fun.
Depending on who you talk to, that time of year is either good for wind, or bad...! Based on past experience:
a/ The "good" is that the wind has generally always switched on with about 5 of 15 days being 30-35+ knots and another 5 being 15-20+.
b/ The "bad" is that generally speaking, the wind direction is usually from the NW (which is not the optimal speedsailing direction) with only a few (maybe one or two?) from the optimal direction.
Previous years have shown that the day after the event has always been the best wind 
. Some people suggest holding off until November or even December as the likelyhood of getting a good SW wind is quite a bit higher (although this last season wasn't so great...).
My experience is that late September - early October is definitely the most reliable for the best, strongest winds. Wind stats for the area tend to confirm this. Later on in Nov-Dec there is just less howling Nor-Westers but no more primo Sou-Westers, and on average they have a bit less energy. At least if it is Nor-West and strong there is good speed sailing on the right tides (always assuming you don't find the sand bars with your fin of course 
)
Of course, nothing is a sure thing.............
HI Matthew,
I spoke to Al about the dates a couple of weeks and he has penciled in the 27/9-12/10 and I passed this info on to Brett. Al's keen to get down there but is up for a bit of help in getting the event run this year. Less management, more sailing which more than makes sense to me. He also had no objections to the possible running of the slalom titles in the second week which could could an even bigger draw on the event. If a good old front came on through that allowed for good speed conditions then it looks like speed would have priority.
At this stage there are around 8 people from Sydney verbally committed to being there for the second week with a few looking at both weeks. Hopefully more will put their hands up in the next month or so but at this stage these guys will be there event or not.
Cheers,
Sam.
Hi Sam, sounds great. That puts his second week, into the first week of Victoria's (and NSW's) school holidays.
In previous years someone has put their hand up to pay for a house, with the proviso that they get enough people to put in to share the final cost. Last year I did this, and so I'll probably do it again this year - so if you think there might be enough people coming, I can start to look into accommodation.
Last year I did quite a bit of the "speed results" and had help from Al, Mal, Andrew and a few others -> I would happily volunteer to do it again this year. The hardest task was to collect the results at the end of each day - which usually took some time as each person wanted to mull over their results (fair enough too...). We used Mal's RealSpeed software to do the calculations.
One point to think about is having the Slalom Nats so early in the season.
Its doesnt give much time to prepare just a thought.
Also any ideas what the cutoff limit for the slalom will be before changing to speed.
Ta Vando
[}:)]
At the last two years SpeedWeeks we used a 33kn 5x10 as the min, before the day counts. This equates to about 18-22kn windspeed and 6.6m sails - big guys could probably get away with 7m+ and still do those speeds.
Likewise for the Fortnight speeders, it was 30 5x10 to count towards the giveaways -> this "rather low" limit was the cause for much celebration when only a few guys bothered to sail.
Mathew said
"Likewise for the Fortnight speeders, it was 30 5x10 to count towards the giveaways -> this "rather low" limit was the cause for much celebration when only a few guys bothered to sail."
Yeah 15 minutes of fame. "rather low" ?? C'mon Mat.
Is that one person achieving the speed to qualify the day or does each person need that to get in the results?
Only one person had to achieve a 5 by 10 above 30 ( 30.01 I seem to recall on one occasion ), it was then deemed a competition day and Al would be handing out prizes hand over fist. You had to have just been out on the water and handed in your GPS to qualify for supplementary honours.
s
Haha they didnt want to make it too hard for u Desperate Victorians.
As I remember it was a group of u guys last year that sneaked a sailing session in while us Bananah benders were sleeping only too come just under the required avs
And it still didn,t help us
yeah - we just missed...! From memory I think it was 29.9 kn...
Having a 35kn minimum is probably a good min value - that's probably equates to about 20-25kn wind or 6m sails.
Stop bragging about how slow you all are 
and get back onto the topic at hand....
.... better strap on the flame-suit and pads on after that comment eh? 
Al Green (from Caloundra City Sailboards) - if you're out there reading this;
- can you confirm the dates of your event will be 27 Sept -> 12 Oct?
- if you need some help with the "management" I'm happy to bring my laptop and help out crunching the numbers (mind you I take no responsibility if I process my own data and come up with wildly optimistic speeds whilst all others speeds end up being conservative to a fault).
Mathew:
- if you're booking a house again this year and are willing to include near-strangers I'd like to put my hand up for a bed.
- also know of someone from Adelaide who is interested in coming to Speedweek this year and might be interested in a spot at the house too.
Daffy:
- who makes the call on Speedweek? Is is SHQ? From what I recall they didn't bother with it last year and instead a bunch of enthusiasts banded together and just did it themselves. Would this mob be making the call on it again this year?
Thanks to all for your interest in Speed fortnight and in a short reply to everyone's questions.
( HELL YEH IT IS ON AGAIN, 27/09/2008 to 12/10/2008. )
I had been waiting for conformation on some stuff however it will be on as usual..
I will post all the details when everything is sorted out and finalized.
Allan.......
Sweet. See you for at least the second week with the pick of the Cockroaches and St George boys.
Sam
Hey Sydney speedsters
I'm looking at the dates of the Al Green extravaganza and I'm thinking that it'll clash with the first event of the Formula season, especially if it's at South West Rocks like was talked about. From the list I've seen that are going down most of us are formula guys. Big question is, where do the allegiances lay? Any chance of a juggle so we can do both?
Jethrow
P.S I was thinking more of the NSW formula weekend as it is also somewhere near the Slalom nationals as well.
