The Breakwater to Beacon was run today, thanks to SHQ for putting it on and and Gaastra for donating a 6.4 Remedy as the major prize and Neil Pryde for quite a few minor prizes.

The wind was around 20kn with sail sizes ranging from 5m to 7.5, with 5.7 - 6.5 the norm. Its been blowing pretty heavy for the last day and a half, so the middle of the bay was a bit hairy, with over 2m swells rolling through.

The beach launch was interesting... due to the wind direction (SW), lauching required a bit of finesse to get out through the 1m surf that was dumping on the shore.

It was a physically tough race, with a huge upwind leg to get to the beacon - with just about everyone requiring multiple tacks to get there, while some sailors just didn't make it.

Assuming you made it to the beacon, you now had to sail *way* off the wind, just to get back to the shore - most sailors taking two or more tacks. The big swell played havoc with the deep course -> quite a number of sailors were on slalom boards with very little nose lift...

Ian Fox pulled out a first, with Craig Spottiswood coming second. We had an injury when Daffy twisted his knee when hit by a wave, and an unknown sailor decided to not sail back to the beach to sign his name off, causing a few stressful moments.

Major prize eventually went to Andrew Watkins - of the Watkins wind watch website - which was fitting given that he put his knee through his sail...!