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Awesome!!

First sail for two months, out in the schlop at Melville in 15-25ish knots of cold and rain. There were 50-odd punters out. I thought there may have been a few more but it seems a few of the regulars must have headed off to more exoctic locales like...err...Mandurah?

There was also one lonely soul spotted bobbing about in a Laser. I though to myself "That guy must be very...single".

Manta 49, Warp 6.3, KA/Lockwood 23.

got down to smellville about 3:30, hit the water about 4 i guess, fluffed around on a 5.4 then did the wise thing a rigged the 6.2 whichwas much better andended up having a reasonable sail, good to get out at least. bring on summer!

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Glory Holes, Australind, WA, AU

decided on a mission to benders favourite.....hole

wind was up and down before midday then it steadied and slowly increased around 3ish

great days sailing with some local crew and elmo, lao,pepe, slowy and sam

started the day off with my old 25 drake weed which was pretty solid but draggy

changed to one of sams custom weedys and the speeds picked up a knot straight away..

at the end of the day the set up was nice but i was def hitting a wall aroung the 32kn mark

the manta is def slower than the ca 50 but in its favour a nice comfortable board in chop

that gybes beautifully.

manta 54/rssmk2 5.4/drake 25 weed and sam 23 weed

sorry guys about the pics, rain got on the lens and stuffed the auto focus..

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Got some text messages this morning from Alby, Snides and Sam so escaped home duties to try out australind. I've never sailed there before. There used to be races there in the early '90s but it coincided with uni exams so I always missed them.

Looked windier and flatter than it was... seeing alby hanging on (just) to the 7m I decided to go the 6.2 and the 54 nude streaker. Was OK in the gusts but they seemed to be in the wrong place all the time. I got a nice one coming into the boat ramp to get a 39 on the dial. That was the setup snides got the pics of (thanks maaate). And yeah it looks like I have a gut but thats just where I put my GPSs. Honest

A big squall came over and I chickened out with Sam waiting for it to pass. Mark was having a go and looking positively uncomfortable but mostly upright. It didnt seem so bad toward the end so I had a crack. Was coming back in behind Mark when I saw a lot of spray. It was windy at that point- and really quite rough due to the rain making bigger waves. I was looking for the unhook button at that point, and managed a 38 out of control.

Then I thought I should get the 5.5m out for a blast since I rarely get the oportunity. By the time I finished rigging the wind had backed off again, but it looked like enough to get around and there were still some little wind squirts. Used the Nude streaker 46 with a 25cm fin that I rebased with some more rake (it was a proto G10 KA fin that I designed a few years ago). What an insane combo. It just felt unreal. The sail was so light in the hands but with loads of power in the gusts- all accelleration. I just wanted more wind!!! First run got a 40.2 on the dial but the wind continued to back off after that. Mark and Sam were huddled behind a steel post taking pics (thanks guys!) and I was trying to show off. Lost it when I hit a nice little gust right near the boat ramp and decided to milk it up to a high 38 on the dial, but was going too fast in the chop to keep it under control when I took my back foot out to gybe at full speed. bouncy bouncy. I went flying and got mildly winded by the chop impacts as I impersonated a large ugly rock being skimmed over not so flat water.

Then another squall came through, and I was lining up for a blast when I saw a very bright flash in the cloud above... so I bee-lined it to the boat ramp. I'm a chicken when it comes to lightning...

The last little mission on the small gear reminded me of how fun this stuff is to sail. Still buzzing...

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Sorry for the late entry, but i had few strange numbers come up that had to be checked. ( Thanks Dave & Chris).

Good to get out again after a long wind lul. Starting to get the hang of this all again now. 

Gaastra Vapor 6.7m2, CA 55 SL, 32cm Techt.