Airlie Beach / Bowen

There are a few around Airlie and several Townsville. I rarely get down to Bowen but it is a great sailing spot!

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STUMP said..
Hey whitsun,

Im windsurfing in Mackay after moving from Perth.

Jp superlightwind/ ncx 9.0 seems to be the only combo that gets me out there most days, only met one other windsurfer in 18 months!

Im still learning to deal with tides and fickle s/e winds but would love to have crack at Bowen, I haven't been there yet, where you sailing from?

I just had an awesome 2 hour session off Far Beach on a 121 and a 6.7, didn't see you out there . Where are you looking for windsurfers in Mackay?

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STUMP said..
Blacks and harbour beach seem to have the deepest water regardless of tide.

Between work and all those other inconvenient commitments i would never get out enough if i had to sail around the tide, not with a 60 cm fin anyway!

Mostly i,m launching from East point and sailing past the break wall to Slade rock and back.

So Orange whip, what size fin you getting away with at far beach on a high tide?
I can see from east point that it is very popular with the kiters.

Yeah mate, to sail Far Beach/Town Beach you're at the mercy of the tides. I'm just a weekend free rider and I can mostly structure my weekend around the high tide times. I really like sailing off Far Beach, it's worth the hassle for the flatter water. You can generally get 2 hours each side of the high tide even with a big fin, especially with a neap tide. You can use the gutters between the sandbars to get in and out to save a bit of walking if you want to sail outside of that, to an extent. The biggest fin I use is a 56 when the wind is light. I normally only sail for 2-3 hours, I'm pretty much shagged by then because I sail non stop.

The far beach windsurfing population these days probably maxes out at about 8, but you won't see that many there unless it's blowing at least a solid 20, generally there's only 2 or 3 of us and today and yesterday I was solo with about 20 kiters. I found the wind today better than yesterday, used my Carve 121 and a 2 cam 6.7 again, 36cm fin.

I've heard the wind here isn't as dense as in the southern states, but I reckon it's pretty consistent and it amuses me how the guys down south refer to a 'sailing season', it's pretty good up here all year round.

Hope to see you out on the water one day.

Bowen's great. Sadly It looks like I won't get to come up this year. I had a great time last year sailing at Queen's beach every afternoon.