A couple of days ago Lao Shi sent me a track which shows a good example of how to get the best gps peak (as opposed to best speed between 2 points) from a gust.

Well I have to admit I was sceptical with his best track being 4 knots faster than his 2nd best after about 30 runs with most being in the 33-34 knot range. But after thorough analysis on 3 different programs it was clear that earlier on in the session on a good gust he bore away another 25 degrees more than all the other runs he made down the bar that afternoon and that allowed his speed to jump up 4 knots.



The speed on the image is dodgy as it is converted from Doppler Realspeed to gpx so I could image it on my old version of GPSAR... but it looks nice. :-))

As you can see it is really the only time Lao Shi went deep... but you need to be powered.

VANDO.....

Agree Yoyo but you need the wind behind ya.
I always find you have to be overpowered upwind to get a good run off the wind.
Sometimes it feels like your running out of wind but you should just keep going you will be surprised

Vando said "Sometimes it feels like your running out of wind but you should just keep going you will be surprised

This is important. On a 40knot run I pulled up feeling the gust had run out of puff but when I analysed the track later it showed that I was still accelerating until I put the brakes on to stop. Yet I felt that I was coasting. This was particularly galling as I was only 1.2 knots behind Slowie that day. What would I have got if I had held it for a few more seconds? Will I ever get that chance again?

At that time this was new territory for me but asking around this seems normal.

As Steve Thorp said on his site after an epic day at West Kirby "...My Gps showed a 46 Knot max. On the quickest run I was just being blasted along sheeted out by a 55Knot gust! It felt pretty crazy and not the usual sensation of everything becoming light and easy after the initial 'sling shot'

I think it is because up to 40 something the sail is still pulling hard and the board/fin dragging and you are the link inbetween but once into the 40s the drag on the rig stops the sail trying to accelerate so hard and the board frees as it rides right on the tail. Whatever, as Vando says ""Sometimes it feels like your running out of wind but you should just keep going you will be surprised "