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today was so windy, I had my boom, unattached, lying on the grass in the carpark, and a gust flipped it over. True story!

sailed with Mick, on my 101 FSW, 5.3 naish, and the bottom panel blew open across the seam.

LOCATION:  ANGLING CLUB

WIND:  W-SW- 20-30 KTS PEAKING 35 PLUS

TIDE"  LOW- SLACK

GEAR:  Carbon Art FR 77, c3 Venom 40 cm, KA Koyote 6.6 down to CA FR63, c3 venom 40, Ka Koyote 5.9

DETAILS:  Holy Moly!  The forecast was for a big change to hit but this was something else.  Rich and I got out on the Westerly and had some nice runs accross to the bank but it looked too shallow to run down the strip.  After 3-4 short runs I decided to give it a go and got all the way through.  After a few longer runs the wind started to build...and build...and build... We came in and rigged down (6.6 to 5.9) and went down board size.  My smaller c3 fins are on order so the smallest I had was 40cm...too big for the FR63.

Got back out and got a magic first run on the new board.  Stayed down the bottom end and then a massive squall hit.  The spray turned to smoke and the sand was flowing over the strip and dsiguising the edge of the bank.  Conservatively it was all of 35-40 knots.  When it died a bit, Rich and I sailed over to the end of the strip and had a few runs but got caught in another furious squall.  Eventually we got going again but I followed Rich as we were heading back up the strip and saw his sail panel blow apart- not becuase of a stack but becuase of the sheer force of the wind!.

After that we decided to take a safe option and walked up the strip to near the yellow bouy, and floated over the channel to the car park beach.

Amazing spectacle from Mother Nature!