GPS Freerace Day - Botany Bay - Sunday 19th

G'day everyone,

Tomorrow sees the first NSW GPS Freerace day for the summer. Forecast is for a 15-20 kt seabreeze, filling in throughout the afternoon. A classic Kyeemagh day.

Even if you don't have a GPS or don't want to enter the competition, come along for a fun sail (no cost unless you want to race) and help make this a massive day of fun and socialising.

For those who are keen to be part of the freerace competition, the plan is to meet at the top carpark around lunchtime for registration (look for the YELLOW STORMRIDERS trailer) and rigging up, then hopefully run at least two 30 minute freerace sessions during the afternoon. The actual start time will depend on the wind.

Each session will commence with a "le-mans" beach start with everyone standing with their gear on the waters edge, before the start flag is raised. Then its a scramble as everyone sails away and tries to go as fast as they can for the 30 minutes. A big flag will be on the shore to show when the session is "active" - when the 30 minutes is over the flag will be taken down, so everyone will know the session is finished.

Please leave your GPS turned on and running all afternoon - the special KA72 freerace software will take care of splitting up sessions etc.

At the end of the day, I will copy the files off your GPS memory card then process them once I get home.

The course area is shown below. Please stay upwind of the line between the end of the runway and the "South Ramp". You can still do speed runs down the runway if you want to, but for safety we have restricted the area past the runway. Please don't sail to Kurnell during the race as it won't count. This boundary has been set up on the KA72 Freerace software so if you go outside this area, you will get a zero speed until you sail back into the course area.





Remember its just $20 to be part of the competition. All the money raised goes to cover the costs of the event (boat fuel, maritime permits etc) and any leftovers gets invested back into the clubs that make up WindsurfingNSW. Looking forward to a great day!

Thanks again to Dylan from KA72 for the assistance and provision of the Freerace Master software.

Cheers
James

What a great day.
I counted 60 windsurfers on the water, with about 30 registered.
2 x 30min GPS sessions....Results will be up soon enough, but the whole day was a great experience.

I know there will be some great photos also....

Thanks to all the people who pulled the day together....A really positive day which sets the bar for coming events....

Awesome day. I saw a variety of gears today...can someone post the photos in somewhere so we can all see ..thanks..

Yes that was a great day; blue skies, wind, relaxed, good company and some great sailing to take in from both young and old. It was particularly awesome to see so many new faces rock up and give it a go. On behalf of Storm-riders, thank you to all those who were able to make it. Stay tuned for the next one in Gerroa, for what should be, a wk end of fun competition. We’ll have more information to come on what and how we plan to run things down there.
In the mean time make sure you put into your diaries all the up coming GPS/Free race events ahead:

2nd Heat - 1 & 2nd of November(Gerroa). 3rd Heat - 6th of December(Botany). 4th Heat - 18th of January(Lake Macquarie)

A big thanks to James and Murray from Marmong, Brett from Windsurfing NSW and all those that assisted with the pack up and success of the day. And cheers to the guy on the boat with the camera. Very much looking forward to seeing those.(sorry man i missed your name)

Congratulations to Remi Dunoyer for taking out the win in the first NSW GPS Freerace event for 2014-2015.

Preliminary results shown below. I will calculate final standings and post tomorrow. The speed is the sailors average speed across the 30 minute sailing window. Calculated using KA72 Freerace Master software.

Race #1 (2:30-3:00pm)



Race #2 - 3:45pm-4:15pm

Great video and congratulations to Remi well done mate.
I thought the criteria was all disiplains were included is what was stated, as people were trying to get high results in all catagories ?

It was pretty cool seeing all the kids out sails for a good hour before and after the event.
Even cooler to see a couple of them choosing to compete...
Alex Halank (13yrs) who is no stranger to competing (world freestyle champ at 10yr) and Grae Morris (11yrs) finishing his first organised windsurfing event....
Bit of a proud moment... Thanks to Dean for the photos...
here is Dean's email if you want to grab some from the day - 5oceanphotos@gmail.com

It was also great lining up with so many of the guys that I see flying around Kyeemagh every weekend.. Can't wait for the next won....

Excellent pic's, great spot for a FR, looks like you guys may have been bitten by the FR bug!
Now you just need to extend it out for the hour!

here are two photos I got from Dean Pizzol, Thanks Dean