Select to expand quoteHenley Beach to Semaphore Windsurfing Event
Race from Henley to Semaphore.
This is ~8 km direct line and expected to take 30 - 60 mins, depending on the conditions.
Prize - one years subscription to Windsurf magazine
When: Saturday or Sunday in February with SW'ly 18+ knots forecast
Event called Friday before at around noon.
Registration - Marlborough St, Henley Beach, from 3 pm
Briefing - 3:30 pm - you need to be at the event briefing to participate in the event
Car Shuffle - Organisers will leave transport at Semaphore ready for the car shuttle.
If you have a buddy coming then organise to leave a car at Semaphore
Eligibility - competent wind surfers who can water start, gybe and plane comfortably in choppy conditions.
Comfortable sailing for 1 h in changing conditions.
Equipment - Floater board, PFD and mobile phone in waterproof case mandatory
Event entry fee - $10, must be WindSurfingSA members. Join online at
(windsurfingsa.org.au/
Windsurfer definition: (Wikipedia) It consists of a board usually 2.5 to 3 meters long, with displacements typically between 60 and 250 litres, powered by wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and consists of a mast, boom and sail. The sail area generally ranges from 2.5 m2 to 12 m2
before the event.
Cool 
. My boss is threatening to send me away in the middle of Feb (he knows I like to keep Oct to Feb clear 
). We'll see. Definitely keen again. Would be good to see some of the fast guys compete.
Select to expand quoteJacko51 said..
All the fast guys will be at Lake George 
Yeh LG is pretty good at the moment can't see anybody leaving here .
Do the lake guys even get on the ocean?
I'll dust off the slalom gear and come and race.
Ok - Calling it for this Sunday, BOM is calling SW 15-20 knots N of Grange- here's hoping they got that right!
Select to expand quoteasdmuzak said..
Do the lake guys even get on the ocean?
I'll dust off the slalom gear and come and race.
Yeh some of us sure do.
Select to expand quoteSlim Jim said..
Ok - Calling it for this Sunday, BOM is calling SW 15-20 knots N of Grange- here's hoping they got that right!
That was a really bad call!
BOM has downgraded forecast to 10-15.
Switching it to today is impossible because I used up all my brownie points making space on Sunday?? -DOH!
Nevermind we have another 3 weekends left in the February holding period
With relentless SE this week - the old sellicks to myponga beach and back would be a good challenge and a down wind thigh burner on the way back- just gotta cross your fingers the wind doesn't drop out
Thanks Russell, that'd be fun - i'll add it to the suggestions list, which currently looks like this:
No support boat: Seacliff to Semaphore marathon, Pelican Pt to Outer Harbour Black Pole, Foil race (left the definition loose for Hen2Sem so if anyone thinks they have cracked the secret foil formula they can enter....?), Lake something
Support boat: Sellicks to Myponga, Semaphore to Norma wreck, Backstairs Passage, Semaphore to Port Victoria (some of these mightn't see the light of day??).
Right now waiting for some solid green SW arrows on Seabreeze so we can get Hen2Sem happening.
Just have to wait for one of those front backed seabreezes to occur for a guaranteed 5 hour time window. Back stairs passage (Cape J to KI ?) looks interesting. BOM always forecasts wind there.
We've almost reached the end of the holding period, Saturday frontal looks better than Sunday seabreeze at this time.
Event on this Saturday 24th February - race briefing at 3:30 pm, Marlborough St - plan to be rigged and ready to race straight after briefing.
Congratulations to Richard on 1st place - his winning strategy was to head almost dead off wind on his long Kona board, although going slower than the zig zaggers he had less distance to cover - crafty!. I came in 2nd on and off the plane on 150 L Starboard Go and 6.0 in marginal conditions. Jason came 3rd - an amazing effort on short freestyle wave and 5.5! Thanks guys for the competition! Thanks Jenny for saving us the car shuffle.
Thanks James for organising! A challenging set of conditions for everyone. Yep, I went for the tortoise strategy. Max speed 11 knots, best nautical mile at 7 knots but went (almost) straight there. Out of the harness, so invigorating for the forearms!
Kudos to Jason for slogging it out on a small board.
Unfortunately the wind did not pick up as expected. My gear selection was poor. Freerace sail + free style wave board + slalom weed fin. Sail would not talk to board. I gave up trying to plane after the 2nd-3rd tack. Probably wouldn't have done much better on my 5.3 wave sail, but would have been hell of a lot more comfortable. Well done Richard for 1st place . Some pics courtesy of my parents, and my track below.
James (organiser) tuning his gear before the race:
The start (photo taken from Grange jetty)
Me at Grange Jetty:
Richard at the finish line:
