Hi all,
This is my first ever post here so bear with me..... Recently i have the urge to sail from my home town to the next (200km), directly downwind. Normally i've only been interested in waves and get out quite a bit trying to belt the lip, however recently it's been howling with very little wave action which makes me think i could be doing something a little more interesting than trying to tear apart the tiny 1ft waves on offer.
So a few questions, (i expect you guys doing the Ledge to Lancelin each year will know the answers i seek)
1. generally speaking what sailing gear to use in 20knt winds, board, sail, fins ect.
2. protecting knees from the jarring
3. safety gear.....GPS, mobile phone, walkie talkies ect.
4. other gear to carry.....camel hump, spare rigging gear, backpack, food, waterpfoof casing ect.
Up till now i've done a couple of 20km runs on my wave board..(on the way home from sailing outta town). I reckon doing the trip will take 2 days....if i can sail as fast as Robby Naish in "Windsurfing The Movie" then maybe less 
.
Any thoughts would be great,
Cheers
TAKE A LOOK HERE:
www.hugedomains.com/domain_profile.cfm?d=vmgevents&e=com
a list of records in long distance sailing also google and you will find reports of people doing that kind of thing
200km is do able in a day, if you have wind most of the day, but that would mean you'd need back-up, so you can change rigs with the wind changes. But I guess you're relying on a seabreeze, in that case 2 days is probably about right, if you have 2 good days in a row.
The GTC record is about 500km in one day.
www.gpsteamchallenge.com.au/rankings/individual?country=1&year=2009
And I think that wasn't downwind, it was fairly long runs back and forward.
Sounds like a mission. As far as timing goes, if you need to head dead down-wind, then it's likely you'll be reaching out and back and having to bear-off to lose ground. If you were reaching at 120 degrees off the wind, then to get 200 km downwind would require you to sail 200 km on one reach and then gybe and sail another 200 km at 120 degrees off the wind on the second reach (a total of 400 kms to get 200 kms down-wind) - not that you would attempt this with only one downwind gybe!!
As a general rule you can cover 100 kms every three hours, so 400 kms would take around 12 hrs.
Most difficult thing with distance sailing is getting the right conditions (consistent winds of the right strength and from the right direction). There are a lot of people competing in the GPS Teams Challenge and many of those have given distance a crack and of the 700+ sailors invovled, only 50 have managed to cover 200 kms in one day and only 5 have sailed over 400 kms(http://www.gpsteamchallenge.com.au/rankings/individual?country=&year=&month=&state=&team=&age_division=&gender=).
A good starting point would be to get a GPS, join your local team in the GPS Teams Challenge and start doing some practice runs to see how you're going. You can overlay your GPS tracks on Google Earth to get a feel for how far you go in a single session and how far you'd need to go to get to that nearest town! By way of comparison, Bass Strait at it's narrowest point is 200 kms and on a single reach I reckon it would take 5-6 hrs and that would be quite an effort (a few have tried and a couple have have made it)!!
Goodluck!
Thanks for the info guys,
As a wavesailer i am used to sailing upwind so having to bear off as much as possible is definitely going to be a challenge for me. AUS02 you state a value of 120 degrees off the wind, i take it that this is generally the maximum angle able to be sailed comfortably downwind? (i will use this to map a path....cheers)
The part of the coastline where i live has a series of long rocky headlands so will be able to tack back and forth along these on the way. The actual route is from Esperance to Hopetoun (165km in a direct line, direction 267degrees)....the prevailing seebeeze is from the ESE (112degrees). So correct me if i'm wrong but i should be able to sail at 230deg. (heading out) and 350deg. heading in.
I've mapped a route (google earth) using the angles above.....it roughly equates to a leg of 82km(166km tacking) , a night at a sheltered bay with plenty of food and beer
and rest, and then 84km (158km tacking) to Hopetoun.
Any ideas on how best to set the rig for downwind sailing....plenty of curve or flat?
The angle you can go at depends how powered you are.
As you bear off you start to loose wind pressure, so it's only when really powered up that you can go a long way off the wind.
It's best to have the sail as full as you can comfortably get it, for 2 reasons.
1, refer above about being powered up.
2, a full front end helps to stop you stalling if you over sheet. This can happen easily when you go a long way down wind, wind drops a little, you slow down, apparent wind moves back, and if you don't sheet out quick enough, sail looses all power, and you're in the drink.
And if you have one of those wave sails that switch off hard when depowered, that's going to make it even worse.
I'd definitely encourage you to do some practice first, build up to it.
Try an hour downwinder for a start, that'll give you an idea of what angles are comfortable and what speeds you're doing. (especially if you're wearing a gps)
exciting idea but if I were considering this I would think about how to prevent bad things happening!
What would be your plan if you: A) break a piece of kit (boom, outhaul, mast etc ) or b) hurt yourself or cannot sail due to cramp etc.
in the event of any of these getting washed onto a rocky shore or laying in the sea would be unpleasant!
I agree with the comments from Aus 02 and Decrepit, training runs to establish what you can do are a really good idea. I can sail distance on flat water generally square to the wind but open ocean and 120 deg ff the wind is a different proposition.
Hope it goes well if you attempt it. You could be a pioneer of a new event
Haha ...might be able to rival the Ledge to Lancelin, we've certainly had better winds this season due to El-Nina 
I hope to do a 30km run thursday if the waves are crap....i think i can get hold of a 100l JP Freeride and i'll use my 5.6m Zone. It should be interesting to check my GPS track and the distances sailed vs a straight line....i'll go for as much belly as possible.
Safety wise i know this stretch fairly well as done plenty of fishing and surfing in the area, the coast can be accessed by 4wd about every 10km so intend to have backup at every point along the way. there are plenty of protected calm bays along this stretch also so coming ashore isn't really a problem. At this stage i will have to wait until spring for good wind so maybe oct/nov before having a go.....also need to convince others to come along as well
Also intend to carry radios, epirb, GPS and maybe even my mobile phone (it's got google earth after all...)
Did a downwinder today, but on speed gear not wave. (but the other guys keeping me company were on wave gear). We were adjusting our speed and line to keep together.
www.gpsteamchallenge.com.au/sailor_session/show?date=2011-03-20&team=2
Only 8.8 km in a straight line. Took 35min and traveled 22km doing the downwind part of the session.
Not sure if it's valid to extrapolate this to 200km, but it may be an indication.
Seems about right Decrep, the Ledge to Lancelin is comparable to what you did in both time and distance (except for the angle of some of the legs up there).
Of course a longer distance will take its toll in terms of endurance and energy...
