This Sunday 15th Jan 2012 the SHQ Breakwater to Beacon race will be held. This race is a traditional event for Victoria and has been run for many, many years. This year the event is being run early in the year instead of before Christmas. The reason for this change was to allow for possible better wind, etc.
The race concept is an open event for all windsurfers who can sail long distances. As per the event name we sail from Sandringham Beach (Breakwater left of the Yacht Club), to a mark near Fawkner Beacon and back, about 18kms. Some times with the wind direction this means a up wind leg and downwind leg.
During some races if the wind direction is unusable an alternative mark has been set. This will be determined on the day and presented during the race briefing.
Schedule:
Registration will be in front of the SBHQ Kiosk from 12-2pm
Briefing will be at 2pm
Race Start will be from beach left of breakwater and depending on the weather will be somewhere between 2:30pm and 4pm
BBQ in front of the the SBHQ Kiosk will be after the race.
Note: All race entrants must be a 2011-2012 Windsurfing Victoria member or a AWA registered member via one of the other state bodies or sub-bodies for insurance purposes. WV membership can be made on-live via www.wv.org.au or at the event during registration. WV membership details can be found on the WV website. For all current WV members, it is recommended to present your WV membership card during the registration to help with the registration processing time.
Weather forecasts can be obtained from a variety of sources, for example;
www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/portphillip.shtml
www.seabreeze.com.au/maps/vic.asp
Please stay tune for further details.
In addition SHQ will have the Learn to Windsurf trailer at the event. For more information please refer to SHQ.
See you there.
I think there will be a problem here... the 2pm race briefing will require you to be rigged before 2pm (or at least gear sprawled all over the place). Which will be somewhat hard to do when beach road will be closed until 2pm, at which point sometime after that the barriers will be removed.
Maybe the race briefing should be at 3pm?
I thought roads were open again at 11am (after the gatorade triathlon)?
Is there a second triathlon/event on till 2pm?
So who is planning to do Breakwater to Beacon?
Forecast:
Seabreeze 18 kts ESE
Windguru 7 kts ESE
BoM (too far out to call)
I might go buy a couple of flares......... (not the pants... already have some brown ones)...
Good idea. I bought flares once - little ones the size of a ball point (was after breaking mast about 1.5 km off shore in a NE at green point) they lasted a few years. After that I just decided to stop sailing in offshore winds in the middle of winter!
Latest forecast:
BoM: SE 10-15, increasing to 10-20 in arvo
Seabreeze: S 8
Windguru: S 10
Windguru will rarely capture a seabreeze in it's forecast as it pulls data straight from a global weather model. This model is far too coarse to pickup seabreeze effects.
It'll pick up main synoptic flows (northerlies, westerlies, fronts etc), but not seabreezes.
As a rule of thumb, if it looks like a seabreeze day with no northerly or other synoptic flow in the way, multiply windguru by 1.5-2 to get what the true seabreeze will be (dependent on cloud cover).
So for a typical seabreeze day, windguru will often say 10knots, but the real one will be 15-20knots if sunny or partly cloudy.
Guys the latest forecast is in for Sunday.
Southeasterly 10 to 15 knots tending south to southeasterly up to 25 knots during the afternoon.
Some of you guys have some good local knowledge. The guy on baywinds works for the BOM and shares some very interesting comments on Northerlies and Rye... would be good to get some of this info together somewhere.... nothing worse that chasing wind in the wrong spots and sitting around while somewhere else on the bay its blowing hard and your sitting there scratching your head wondering why it doesn't turn up......
I am no longer a fan for Southerlies at Bonbeach for this reason.... all chop and no power for the hop..... and St Kilda and Elwood go quite nicely.....
Sunday's forecast could be great for a blast out to the Beacon and back.
Btw I often notice a few knots difference in the seabreeze wind strength from Dendy St (Brighton) to St.Kilda/Middle Park (windier further up the Bay).
I'm guessing Middle Park is sort of in line with the centre of the bay and Brighton is closer to shore and might be more protected (mind you I prefer the wave/swell direction and Dendy St)
From the BoM site this am:
Forecast for Sunday until midnight
Winds
South to southeasterly around 10 knots increasing to 15 to 20 knots during the afternoon and evening before easing to around 10 knots tonight.
Seas
0.5 to 1 metres.
What an event. A great turn out, wind, sun and heaps of stories once again.
A big thanks to the guys at SHQ for putting on a great event, more than lived up to the legend of The Breakwater to Beacon. Also a big thanks to the WV committee members who help run this event.
See you at the next one.
Agree, great event, conditions and overall day. First Breakwater to Beacon for me. Failed miserably but enjoyed it non the less. A lot to learn and plenty of practice needed for next years event. Thanks to all!
Good fun.
A huge thankyou to WV, SHQ and all the volunteers.
I learned 2 things today
1) I have to get my A out from behind the computer and get fit
2) I remember why I stopped sailing Formula boards 3 years ago!!!!
Next year!!!
Had a great time. Thanks to SHQ for the RS Ones on loan and for the safety boats and organisation. And and the cold beer - thank god for that (after those longggg reaches on the same tack)!
Anyone with a GPS got distance of how far it was?
15 k's I measured on my gps but I also came in halfway between green point and Hampton. See attached image of my explorations.
Oh poor Evan - I saw someone taking off downwind and was wondering where they were going..... now its explained 
My GPS recorded 13.3km.... the upwind tack was on the way back, straight line out.... got a bit lost on the way back.... it all looks the same 
Still really stoked to have joined in and completed it. Brilliant job by SHQ and WV, well organized, great weather and wind for it, and just heaps of fun. These sort of races are a great idea, no classes, no restrictions, Formula Vs RS1's Vs Freerides and raceboards.... good stuff 
Going to publish the race finish listing?
K Dog - looks like you did well.
Yeah, that would have been me heading off I guess. Almost turned around half way but figured what's the worst that could happen - big walk back to start. Still fairly pleased with results, made it out and back (though not correct marker but I gybed around a large pylon). If anything it's made me more determined to sort this problem out for next year.
Getting my carlock screwdrivered and my wallet, keys and phone stolen from the Sandy beach carpark sort of took the shine off the day for me.
I think they deliberately targeted a windsurfing car guessing my stuff would be in it, so watch out... (and they didn't even have the decency to take the car!)
After that I didn't even get out sailing.
It looked good though!
