HOW MANY SPEED SAILING SPOTS IN AUSTRALIA ?

In SE Queensland from the NSW boarder
The Train
KFC
Couchiemudlow banks
Wellington Pt
Golden Beach
Burrum Heads
There may be others

And another for Queensland, you locals don't seem to sail.



Taylors Beach. Here's Mal and I having it all to ourselves.

This thread could be a wonderful resource for travelling speed sailors if you could post a link to a google map (especially one with a GPS overlay) with each location.

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izaak said..
Johnny has set up and we are gradually filling in and building up our spot guide here in Tassie... So far very successful and useful for all!

www.thespotguide.com.au/TAS/index.html

THAT is freaking SENSATIONAL!!!

At a glance, any chance you could maybe please expand the wind field with some seasonal info to help non-Tasmanians plan trips to all your awesome spots? Eg. Port Sorell Sandbar, winds NNW (most common in X season/month) to SW (all year with approaching fronts) etc? In my ignorance, I would have no idea what time of year to expect certain wind down there.

What a fantastic and generous tool. Huge thanks and congrats to all involved

NOT ENOUGH

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vando said..
So makes a spot a speedsurfing spot. flatwater, windy or maybe speed (40knots 5x10).
speed would be a good indicator for what's a good speed spot

I have the same question. What defines a speed spot?

There are a lot of places that under very rare and unusual conditions might be sensational 40 knots + places. But few have been sailed in those conditions.

Also,if you have a place where you might crack 40 knots in a big Sou'wester, but there is another spot nearby where you will most likely crack 45+ knots, which one would you go to? The other spot/spots don't have the results. So are they real speed spots?

Is a 'speed spot' just a place for top speed? What about a place for a good one hour, Alpha or nautical mile?

I was thinking just spots were you can just send it in general any other gtc categories is a bonus the more spots the better i spose not every body is into hardcore speed the WA spots i have mentioned have nearly all had 40kts done on them but any thing over 30kts is going well hey!

NSW, spots were forty has been achieved

Narrabeen lakes,
foreshore drive,
taren pt,
canton,
peely,
lake illawarra

other places were forty is achievable

Harrington,
queens lake
botany, runway
lake macquaire, sand Islands
occas, north entrance

I would say speed strips are better for 2sec potential then weed banks, ha, both are good, just basing it on the fact you don't have to drag through thick weed on a speed strip, making it potentially faster

Harrington, and taren pt are the only real speed strips on my list, not foreshore drive which is simply protected by a wall making it a bit flat,
both the mentioned speed strips have a lot of potential, especially Harrington, its like a mini sandy pt

To me a speed spot is anywhere you can windsurf where you can get high wind and flat water at the same time. Some will have large expanses of flat water and be suitable for hours etc, others will be only a small patch good for 2sec.

back in the day late 90 ties before the dreaching & what the council did .SAFETY BAY (the pond) use to be good in a cranking south westa.l was only new to the sport but guys like robbie radis neils Rasmussen were doing long downwinders beside the weedbank lm sure they were posting times of 40 plus .

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decrepit said..
And another for Queensland, you locals don't seem to sail.



Taylors Beach. Here's Mal and I having it all to ourselves.

Maybe because river mouths in far north Qld tend to have some very friendly Salties

Harrington nsw 42 knts
Peel st nsw over 42 knts
Sand islands Lake Macquarie 39.9 knts

For me Harrington is by far the flattest and no weed a short sandy point.
Like so many have said before good speed needs a few elements to align at the same time. Wind,wind direction, tide, location flat water, the rest is up to the sailer and his equipment.
This is why it is so hard in nsw to get that perfect day where every thing lines up.
I love the idea of showing people the speed spots this might help determine holiday location.

Yeah right!!!
That's a big saltie doing 30 kts in the right hand bottom corner - they grow them big up there!!!

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sailquik said..
Victoria:
Sandy Point-Shallow Inlet:
(All of these have produced over 40 knots):
- Main run speed bank
- Easterly Bank
- Sandy 'B' near the entrance
- Yanakie channel (best NM spot?)
- Boat Hole
- Car Park NW bank
- Long Arms

(High Tide runs good for NM and 1 Hour. Mostly flattish):
-Eastern sand flats on Westerly, Sou'westerly and Easterly
-NW sand flats, boat hole to Yanakie.

Inverloch-Andersons Inlet
(Town/Entrance area runs , names?)
Area 45

Swan Bay

Lake Coonewarre

Point Henry

Westernport Bay: Daffys Mile, Corinella.

Mallacoota Inlet

Rye sandbars

Yet to be proven/exploited:
Metung weed flats
The Grange weed flats
Marlo Lake Entrance
[b]Port Albert and Entrance
Manns Beach Entrance
Corner Inlet channels
Westernport North end channels: Warneet-Tooradin

Others?



[/b]

Corner Inlet is five channels and so far I have investigated the Foster, Toora and Franklin channels and see heaps of possibilities.
at low tide most of Corner inlet drys out or comes close to it, sort of a huge version of Shallow Inlet. but save highish tide access from Foster beach all of it is only accessible by boat.

all winds directions will have a spot where at low tide there will be runs, some in the Nautical mile+ long.

I have been just using my 3.6m 15hp inflatable and towing board out the Franklin river find a spot on flats and rig up and go.
the Lee of Toora island is fun at thigh deep is an easterly as the vast expanse of flats at this depth give a slight ripple chop is 20ish kts that you skip along.

Westerlies here rock and the Franklin river entrance lets you rig and tie boat to Mangroves for shelter. lift sail above mangrove height and bang you're off.
High tide you can run down the river is glass flat water, low tide lets you run the flat water out.

easterlies or westerlies the Foster channel looks most promising for big runs. and the Toora channel in westerlies looks real good for long runs. In the Kraken (7.8m twin rig Rib) it's 20+ mins at 26kts running along bank of shallows on one heading.

I am looking for some fellow speed junkies to share the cost of using the Kraken to hunt even more spots.

When you go to google maps and bring up the satellite of Corner Inlet and zoom out or in so that shallow inlet is in bottom left of picture.
you can see the five ways or channels into corner Inlet. The middle channel takes to the centre of Corner Inlet and the Franklin Channel.
It then splits into the Doughboy, Foster, and Franklin channels.
Now when you look at Shallow inlet and compare to say the Foster channel, there are some very similar sections. Also the franklin channel.
At low tides these areas dry out making them like shallow inlet when the tide is out. So think the east bank of SI in an easterly but runs like the main speed run.
The nearest usable boat ramp is Toora so a tinnie trip would be insanely long. You can launch a tinnie from Foster beach but its a lift in at very high tide only.
A boat fast enough and big enough to carry some gear needs 3/4 tide min to track straight there or it's a 45 min 25kt cruise in the channels.

We are running boat tours from Port Franklin down east coast of Wilson's Prom to Refuge cove with Kraken Tours so after about 30 trips across Corner Inlet. I am just starting to get a feel for the waters. The pro fisherman say that "western port bay has to types of boaties, those that have run aground, and those about to. corner inlet has just one type."

Port franklin has access to corner inlet at all tides save maybe the very low ones. But no boat ramp. We launch at Toora at high tide and follow a careful GPS route along shore line to Port franklin where as a commercial boat we can use the jetty to berth at.

the point is having a group and a decent boat will make Corner Inlet a great speed spot.