Hi I'm new to the sport and currently sail in melville, but its a bit far away from home. Where is the best place for beginners to sail North of the river. I'm at the harness / footstrap stage and struggling with water starts. Or am I just better off sticing to the river?
Eggy,
u NEED to nail those waterstarts,,,
put it on the top of your list.
spend a whole day, just practicing in chest deep water.
once the are nailed, hello ocean - goodbye river.
lots of mellow L places north of the river...trigg upto mullaloo, (so long as there is not a massive swell running)...pinaroo point always flat except for big winter storms.
1 waterstart tip:
rest the boom on the tail of the board to help you float and fly the rig
Thanks for the tip. Last time i went out I spent the whole time trying to waterstart and I nailed it a couple of times in the end. Have not had a chance to have another go yet to see if it was a jag or not. I found that once i popped out of the water I was way over sheeted and had to sheet out quite quickly and lost balence a few times. I guess its just trial and error. Might get a few hours in this arvo if the wind picks up
Pinaroo is good for learning, start off well downwind of the kiters. If you park in the northern end of the carpark there is a path that leads to the beach, which ends up about 100m north of where the kiters start.
In a normal seabreeze the wind is sideshore, slightly onshore so if you get into trouble you'll just end up drifting back to the beach. This is a good thing!
Good luck
I'd also recommend using Pelican Point as a water start learning area. It's chest deep for about 800m along the NW-SE line. It means you can practise the water starts without worrying about drowning.
I've found Pinaroo not flat when there's any kind of sea breeze. The first time I went out there (after spending many a session at Pelican Pt) I spent most of the time attempting to not drown. Water starting in stiff chop is very different to starting on flat(ish) waters. Though, that said, it did feel similar to water starting in the middle of the Swan, where the waves and chop do grow.
Handy hints:
Use the board to lift the sail out of the water. Resting the boom, or mast on the front or back of the board will raise it to flat, or slightly out of the water.
Get the mast perpendicular to the breeze, and use the mast to lift the rig out of the water. About 2-5 feet above the boom you will find a sweet spot to lift. Lift at the top of every wave, trying to catch the breeze under the sail, which will then help lift the rest of the rig out.
In that line of thought, once the leading edge is in the breeze and the sail is starting to throw the water off it, twist the rig around a little, that will rotate the sail out of the water a bit too.
Thanks for all the tips Guys it's much appreciated. I will stick to the river for another few sails untill I can waterstart a bit better maybe 3 outta 5 or so. Keep an eye out for me I'm on a humungus 175ltr Bic board with a 6.25 Tushingham Sail. I'll be the fat guy swearin' his ring out in chest deep water all the way down wind . All tips would be welcomed as I don't have a clu what I'm doin!! hope to see you out there and meet some of you guys as none of my mates are into it. They don't know what they are missin if ya ask me.
