How my race panned out -
A few ideas for next year & feed back.
Super pre start organisation & team to enter & sort us out was AA grade
Pre start briefing was again top notch
The 1/2 hour change of race course route was a big mistake? At the time I thought this was going to make finding marks ( small white waist high bouys in) IMPOSSIBLE at 25knots on a race board in head-high open ocean swell & with my wind meter just reading 24 to 32 knots 1/2 an hour before the race. IMO running race closer to beach as 1st planned was a far better & safer route to Lancelin.
The start was set and run perfectly with 52 racers on line not an issue. 2 x safety boats following fleet down wind all good.
1st mark a 60 ft police marine boat 4km off shore - you could see from beach. At start everyone was smoking 3x racers feel off near me in the windy and very choppy side swell but they were going for it.
At the 1st mark boat 6-8 of us passed as a group and I raced off with another racer on Port tack and all the others gybed to startboard ( not sure why as the 2nd mark was about . 6-8minutes down wind directly).
With most of the pack 500m to 1km down wind of me after 3-5minutes I was trying to spot the mark at 20knots of speed and saw nothing - Every time I tried to look for the white 2nd mark I almost stacked it as the ocean was so rough. All of the other racers were weaving around and looking lost - While still trying to find 2nd mark at speed & totally lost I had 2 HUGE crashes and was lucky not to drop my kite - infact got a pretty sore neck this morning from my crashes. At this point and totally lost, I saw the front 3 guys below me had turned towards the beach and where heading around a mark ( at last someone has found that small white pesky mark) 2 km East. At the point I decided to chase the pack as another 6-8 riders were passing down wind towards this mark, I thought I must have already passed second mark and not seen it - Oh well I thought, try to catch the main 3 riders as they were now about 1000m in front . I reckon I was within 500m of second mark but it was impossible to see in that wind and head high rolling swell.
Johhnoo smashed across to 3rd mark and passed upwind and tacked to beach as I thought the other bouy may be closer to beach but nothing so I changed to port tack and pulled up to full speeddd skirting the beach 800m out and had an amazing high speed down wind run to try and catch 6-8 leaders at least 1km ahead by now. The big green kite at the front was my goal. I run behind heaps of bommies with surf and found some fantastic smooth water and just avoiding the waves, with about 4km to go I hit a bommie just as it broke at full speed and got launched at least 30ft into the air and landed at speed more than 50m down wind ( the highlight of the race what a scary blast). With 3km to go the main 3-4 guys were 200m in front and I was trying to get a 3rd place.
2km Out past South passage looking for the mark and I saw all the front guys had turned towards the finish line and were now about 800m in front again and they were all chasing the big green kite. I thought once again I had missed the 4th mark ( johnno what a stuff up) and gybed toward the finnish line and smashed the last 2-3km at full speed and got to line 4th or 5th I think.
The end race line was cool and worked welll with 52 kites. Jumping off board and jumping onto the blue finish line.
On the beach everyone was pretty HIGH and everyone started chattering about marks and not seeing any marks - I said I thought you guys had seen the marks. It was obvious everyone had been as lost as I was during the race.
A few thoughts
IMO - If marks do not have a boat on them they will be impossible to find if racing- if your goal is to find the marks add another 20minutes to race and call it an kite orienteering race -
IMO - If no boats available - Have the 1st mark and then just race to finish - no other marks. Very easy cool.
The Ledge to Lancelin has the potential for a another GREAT WA kite race & is an amazing stretch of pristine, blue open ocean water.
Full praise to the LOC organisers - WAKSA Steve & Drew - the windsurfers who ever they may be - Lancelin sea rescue & police all all the GREAT LOC crew who helped out on day.
P.S - Super, super fun day - great kiting crew and lots of smiling faces - great that everyone is getting into ocean racing and all loving the kites, boards and tech. And those 4 beers at pub after the race were as good as it gets!
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Now I have the waypoints bring on next year.
