A warning to anyone unfamiliar with Narrabeen Lakes - beware the invisible sandbars!

I went out there for the first time yesterday, marginal and patchy NE wind, underpowered on a 7.5. I'm finally properly powered up and going about 20kts when I hear the dreaded scraping sound from the 40cm fin. No time to unhook - about half a second later the board stops dead and I fly forward, still hooked in. I've never catapulted onto only-just submerged solid ground before and don't recommend it. Somehow I escaped with only a few cuts and bruises on one arm; the boom is written off but no other kit damage.

I now figure the yellow flag I had assumed to be a marker for a race that was going on is actually indicating the end of the sandbar...

The sandbar is obvious on the satellite view:


One bent boom:

Glad you weren't hurt! That would turn you off sailing there again.

JayBee said...

It is indeed shallow there :-)

Yes, definitely less than 40cm deep at that point!

I launched from the car park at the end of The Esplanade. I was only there because I had to go to the shop to pick up a mast base - now I have to go back for a new boom..! Had a quick sail at Kyeemagh on my way home - there at least the dangers are mostly above water and very noisy...

JayBee said...

It is indeed shallow there :-)
...

Yes, I got stuck there once and I've thought i could not trust my eyes: there were pedestrians going for a walk across the lake/bay. It was not even knee deep there and the little dogs they had didn't have to swimm - they could walk too...

JayBee said...

It is indeed shallow there :-)

It isn't called "lake dangerous" for nothing

J

I thought it was so dangerous when I was on the SUP there yesterday that I wasn't even game to fall off in the that murky water..it looked like a haven for sea lice.

But I did notice that nasty sand bank.

That darker weedy area to the bottom right of the above image (just out from The Esplanade) can get very shallow too, although it shallows gradually and usually the first thing you feel with your fin is the weed before grinding to a halt on sand so usually not as catostrophic...