Managed to christen the new 5.0 today at RQYS. Could have used a 4.5 
While seeking some flatter water near Lota ck, I nearly cleaned up two small Dugongs.
Scared the crap out of me.
Made me realise how shallow the EPA are when it comes to genuine research prior to
decision making.
Have any sailors been contacted by EPA regarding dugong sightings in the last two years? They were very quick to target rec fishos & boats for striking dugongs. Hence new go slow zones etc.....
Could a sailor travelling at 40cm fin travelling at 20kn fatally injure a dugong/turtle etc....
The sailor may well come off second best?
Judging by the damage a 40cm fin has done to me just standing still in shallow water I expect a 20kn collision with a dugong would hurt all parties involved.
They are at manly this time of year quite regularly. Seen a number over the last few years and unfortunately hit one a year for the last 3 years. Got one sunday relatively low speed though - either that or a really big black fish
They really scare the crap out of you when standing in chest deep water and one breaches the water right next to you lets out a little growl / burp and buggers off. Gave my best impersonation of jesus and walked on water that day.
Dugongs - 2 drJukka - 0
Hit 2 Dugongs this season - one at moderate speed - sort of bounced off.
Hit one doing 28-29 knots - I just bounced off it with major stack and gear damage.
Dugongs ar pretty solid - suspect they come off better than us.
Oh and Dam is right they scare the living daylights out of you when the sneak up behind and bellow.
- J
So close in hitting a dugong at wello sometime ago, they are slow as, lucky I managed to steer upwind in time, missed it by inches. The thing just looked at me funny 
As for turtles, I have hit two of them in my time, one threw me over as the fin hit it head on to its side and cracked my board, another time just hit the rails.
Nowadays I kite a lot more so I simply rail/jump over them 
My scarist moment was when a dophin popped up like 2m away from me. But when I realised it was a dophin, it became fun riding with them 
