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...!

sflack said...

Cool matt! looks like the race was a bit of a hard slog! im shattered i missed it!

Sure does. Thanks for the news Matt!

Old Salty said...

Hey Matt

How many went into the race and what where the times like compared to previous years. How did the KGB and Jman go?

Kgb did good, I didnt make it sailed out a couple of k's and turned around was having to much trouble sailing so broad in the conditions before the race so figured I would be really struggling from 8 km out when im tired. Need to learn to sail broad when its rough like that. Also broke 3 battens on my sail in the shorebreak Im sure flacky will give me a good deal on some new ones

Here is my trackpicture. Knee blowout where second last gybe is.
Total distance according to RealSpeed was 18 km

windjunky said...

Call that a track... heres a track! (And a lesson in how to come 35th out of the nearly 50 competitors...) I actually covered 28.8km all up, for a race that in a straight line is about 8km out and 8km back. Gotta work on that directly downwind leg - that was the real killer for inexperienced-at-racing me.


I heard Joel Ryan was actually leading for much of the way out but missed the mark and had to tack back to get up to it, which opened the door to those with a better sense of direction (i.e., Ian Fox, Spotty and Luke Meyers)
Well done everyone and I must say a BIG thanks to SHQ and Gaastra for the sail!! (Plus big thanks to the person who was actually pulled out of the barrell before me, but who graciously put it back in cos they had won it last time.)

Sad to hear about Andrew Daffs injury - hope hes ok. No one likes that.

Hahaha yep I missed it by a fair bit!!
I just couldnt point high enough to make the beacon..
ended up taking 4 tacks to make it round the bouy!!
Nah was a good race! well done on the sail AB
Sorry I didnt make the presso... I was so hungover/drunk still from Sims 21st sat night!!!
actually maybe thats why I missed the beacon?
at least I made the start line which is more than I can say for James... and Phil on a speed board designed for the inlet? well that was a good laugh!