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
Whatever set up you get make sure its as comfortable as possible.
If its not you'll get tired pretty quickly.
You should be able to sail at about 40km an hour. so you could conceivably do 200km in a day depending on the wind.
Get a board thats floaty in case the wind dies or something.
I'd say a freeride or freerace with a bit of Vee so it handle the chop a bit better.
Also if its 200km directly downwind you'll have to sail a lot further and gybe back and forwards.
Its quite different sailing really hard downwind if your not used to it
Claude did around 350km's in one day.
guy from tassie did record around 500km's in one day.
5am till 7pm, hardly any rests.
500 km IN ONE DAY yer right i find that hard to believe.
Make sure the board floats you that way your covering any wind issues i.e if it drops out and or you have to throw your rig.
Watch your tides and times up and down the coast and out to sea........... 200km as the crow flys is a fkn long way and if you get that wrong you ll go backwards.
Good luck doods
yer had a look and it dosnt tell me much .............what he drove down the coast with it on 
we all do that
HOAX
500KM AT 100KM PER HOUR TIME OF ARRIVAL 5 HOURS
500KM AT 50KM PH TIME OF ARRIVAL 10 HOURS
soo at 37.5 kmph 12.5 hours
500 at 25kmph 15 hours
511km divided by 1.852nm =275.91792 nm
speed equals distance over time
275.91793 nm divided by 12.5hr = 22.07343 knots or 40.88kmph mmmmmmm dont know
275.91793 div 10hr = 27.59179knts average sustained for 10 hours? mmmmmmm?
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm believing is seeing
where from and where to ...........is this the record Blender
we all do that believing is seeing
511km divided by 1.852nm =275.91792 nm
speed equals distance over time
275.91793 nm divided by 12.5hr = 22.07343 knots or 40.88kmph mmmmmmm dont know
275.91793 div 10hr = 27.59179knts average sustained for 10 hours? mmmmmmm?
bull**** if its fact thats a soild performance
ok seen the tracks
shallow water he must have rested heaps ? still a lot of nautical miles
I know it is off topic but there absolutely no doubt in my mind that Dave did 511. KoTP you should try it.... some enjoy it
back on topic: I recommend you wear a wetsuit suitable not for the sailing alone but for being in the water for hours. When all is going fine and you are doing 20+ kts all seems good. If in the water and 3 or 4 kms off shore you will be swimming for a long time. Hypothermia could be an unpleasant end to the trip.
I once surfed around Singapore, back in the days when this was still allowed. It was a three day marathon of non-stop sailing. Our biggest enemy wasn't lack of fitness perse, or the long hours of continuous surfing as such, it was our muscles seizing up from the seemingly endless tacks, i.e. lack of switching sides.
Whenever we free-ride or wave-surf, or whatever, for fun, we tend to switch sides, tack, gybe, quite a bit, never staying on one tack too long. Long-distance windsurfing however, is all about being able to staying locked in for considerable durations, without cramps etc. setting in. So yeah, having a balanced rig is crucial, allowing you to maintain your "auto-pilot" posture, almost letting the gear surf itself.
We're setting out from the East coast of Malaysia to an island offshore called Tioman this spring. It's not that far, 50 clicks, but it's open ocean, so a bit of a challenge all the same.
To test myself, I tried going out on one tack for longer than usual this northeast monsoon, but noticed that my body starts to protest after a relatively short while, shorter than I expected, around 20 minutes. So be aware of this eh. I guess we're gonna end up zigzagging quite a bit.
Also, best you take a support vessel with you. No way would we do a crossing like this without a rescue boat, in case of equipment failure, lack of wind etc.
Note also that when you're going deep downwind in chop, your legs will be turned to yughurt in a short while. It's very tiring, because a) your nose will try to submarine a lot and b) you won't be able to take the weight off as much by using your harness.
Still, no fun if it's easy eh.
Good luck.
Just for reference I sailed from Warnbro to Scarbrough in 2hr 20min. Was about 25 kts seabreeze on a waveboard (sinker) and 4.7 Combat, the exact same gear as in my avatar doing the Christ air. Could have easily knocked the 20 mins off if I didn't wavesail woodies, crazies and Dutchies on the way.
It was a fairly easy run on powered up wave gear that made going down the swells a little easier than on a slalom board and maybe a smoother ride, the hardest part was wavesailing Scarbs for an hour after, not to mention the cold bus ride back in wet clothes but it was worth it.
I'm guessing it took about 100km to travel around 60km downwind so it may take you 330km to go 200km.
Where are you planing on sailing from/to ?
Late tip; it's worth moving your mast track forward a bit so you have close to even weight on both feet, it's a little slower but you don't want to burn your back quad out on the long reaches.
