pierrec45 said...



Damn, are you as old as I am?

Said sheila was one Jane Priest, in Perth December 1979. I vaguely remember hearing of the stink afterwards.

Thems were the days when there were 5-digit phone numbers still in use in Sydney !

barn said...

whats he doing?

barn said...

Whatever he's doing has no style, perhaps he's copying the silhouette printed on the sail?

KenHo said...

He's just sailing.
Those old Wally's had a baggy sail, like a flipping spinnaker, and they weighed a ton. They did not get up and plane, so they were always dragging, needing you to lean back against the pull of the sail like that.
He was doing pretty well for probably his first time windsurfing at all. No harness or straps back then either.
It was all very much a novelty for everyone.




They can certainly get up and plane. The only time I've used a GPS on a "modern" One Design it hit 25.4 knots (top) and 22+ (10 seconds) in completely cruddy conditions. In the right conditions I reckon an original could get mid 20s, and that's well and truly planing.

KenHo said...

I'm not talking about modern One Designs.
I'm talking about a Wally in 1978-80, with a sail like Grandma's knickers, huge dagger board, and a floppy plastic fin.
I'd like to see the GPS track of an original Wally doing 25kts, no harness or foot-straps and original sail.
I learnt to sail on one, I remember.
Sure they would hook along in strong wind. I used a harness (life-jacket with marlin hook), but with no straps, I was always on the edge of disaster. But that was unusual. In that pic, Charlie is slogging.
His sail is raked a bit too, and with the big daggerboard, it's trying to round up, and he's trying to stop it.

pierrec45 said...


Shape of old ones is exactly the same (different materials) as the modern ones, once you pull out the dagger, which you would in strong winds anyways. 1980 onwards with alum booms, the shape of old Dacron sails would be quite nice and the board could plane on a broad reach. Problem was that the sail would lose its useful shape after very few outings.
The North American version had a much stiffer skeg, not the flimsy Bombora one, that helped too.

KenHo said...

I'm not talking about modern One Designs.
I'm talking about a Wally in 1978-80, with a sail like Grandma's knickers, huge dagger board, and a floppy plastic fin.
I'd like to see the GPS track of an original Wally doing 25kts, no harness or foot-straps and original sail.
I learnt to sail on one, I remember.
Sure they would hook along in strong wind. I used a harness (life-jacket with marlin hook), but with no straps, I was always on the edge of disaster. But that was unusual. In that pic, Charlie is slogging.
His sail is raked a bit too, and with the big daggerboard, it's trying to round up, and he's trying to stop it.




There mightn't have been GPS around in those days, but it wouldn't surprise me if old Wally could have done 25knots!
If I can remember back to those times and pulling out the centreboard and putting it over your arm and flying down wind. You knew you were going fast when there was no water flying out of the centreboard case and really fast when the fin used to feel like it was just hanging in there!!