LOC 2013

After watching the forecasts fall apart during the week I had given up all hope on Friday. I woke up on Sat morning with most forecasts showing a good chance of a southerly and willy.weather showing 20 knots, so I decided to head up. I was disorganised so just got up in time before registration closed.

I only had time for one run out and back to get a feel for my gear before the 5 min warning sounded. Didn't the race used to start at 2pm? Anyway, a huge rush but on the start line in time at position 188.

I got a good run down the beach and up and running smoothly except for the lack of wind given 100 sails upwind of me. Once I got going I was about mid-field heading for the first mark.

From there everything ran smoothly. I managed to get through the course without dropping a gybe. I only had one big stack when I lost concentration trying to figure out how many marks to go before the finish. Over the front and made impact with my mast on my left thigh which was agony for the rest of the trip. 

Everyone seemed to have better board speed than me (not surprising given the age and state of my board) but what it lacked in speed it made up in control and I reeled a lot of guys in around the corners or simply by not falling in as much. I have a design based on this board with a few tweaks which I'll have to get built by my bro before next year.

The run to the finish line from south passage was waaaay too broard and I wobbled in the last 50 metres pumping to stay on the plane.

Very happy to beat my best time and get in top 10 for open. I've managed to improve everytime I've entered so I'm keen to keep up the trend next year.

Big congrats to Jake and Jonah! Top results. Well done to everyone who made it to the finish and better luck next time to those who crashed out.

F2 Ride 277; Koncept 6.6; JP Weed wave 26

Lancelin, WA, AU Tabou Mad Cow 74L, 5.7 Firefly, weedwave fin.

My annual post LOC sail at Lancelin on wave gear. Took a bit of getting used to but after a lot of adjusting boom height, harness line length, mast base position etc it felt OK. I don't think I'll be joining Mark in the pursuit of wave prowess any time soon.

1 categories

LOC

got to lancelin in the morning to make sure i knew what was happening with the finish and such

then drove back to ledge

registered and then sat around chatting for an hour or so with no idea what was going to happen

darryl and jesper pulled out their formula gear and i began to walk to the car to do the same with about 45 mins to go when the wind kicked in

light at first and it looked like nice big slalom gear weather

but by the time i got all my gear to the beach it had kicked in a tad more and i stood there for a moment thinking that my 6.2 would be the better option but promptly realised i did not have time for the extra walking quickly rigged and got on the water to find as suspected i was stupidly overdone and not much was setup right, came in yanked on the downhaul and straightened the harness lines with 5 to go and then it was off

ok start but i was fighting the gear most of the first leg going side ways and unable to sheet in not to mention going in the wrong direction while i was struggling

eventualy i had to go very deep to make the first mark so decided to use some formula survival tactics, put my back foot in the middle of the back of the board and somtimes in the leward strap, this helped me alot to stop fighting the gear not to mention i could now make the mark

after i dropped the gybe i got going on the second leg which was much more with the swell this helped me and hence i went for it, in the windward strap sheeted in and going flat out, i was fighting for control every inch of the way, i blasted past bender about 3/4 way through the leg but this was as far as my strength could push me before i crashed, caught the windward rail and had a big catapult which bender might say was pretty spectacular but it sure hurt me energy wise i contemplated finishing it there but after  getting back on thought that i could finish the race in survival mode and sure enough managed to make it to south passage in the leward strap basically the whole way, i got one last chance to show the pace i could of had once i sheeted in in the flat water and outboard strap taking 2 places in the last 200 metres to the finish

all up dissapointing that i should stuff up my gear on a year with such nice conditions

last year there was less wind yet i was smaller gear 

well must mean that next year i'll get it just right 

congratulations to everyone who competed or helped out

and to jeff for the luxury meal and nights sleep thanks alot

7.0 reflex 4, 112 mistral sl, 38 fo nitro

5 categories

Lancelin Ocean Classic Marathon 2013

The end to a great weeks sailing at Lano.

Like most people I had all but given up hope of a seabreeze on race day after several forecasts seemed to show a SE or ESE wind direction and (just like Jeff) had put in a huge session on the Friday given it might be the last day of wind. Woke up a bit stiff on Sat and just thought I'd head down to see if the organisers were still planning to run the event - turned out they were so I hung around waiting for a few hours with Jeff and Jon Paul, discussing how it might be a SUP downwinder this year!! 5 minutes before rego closed, I just bit the bullet and registered at 182. Would you believe that right as I had signed the form, some bloke pointed to a couple of white caps on the horizon - fantastic!!

Didn't touch any gear until after the race briefing and then it was a mad dash to rig the 7.0 and have the 5.7 on standby (it almost looked like a 5.7 might be alright at this point as the race organisers were saying they had readings of 24knots at the outer mark!) Couldn't rig 6.3 as the mast had popped on the thursday while rigging up (3 yr old mast, better on the shore than in the race!). Decided for the iso 90 with a rock solid 32 FO proto fin, tried and tested in the safety bay marathon a few weeks back.

By the time rigging was done, I didn't even have time for a single practise run so just guessed at the harness lines (had moved them the day before) and hit the start line with less than 5 to go, nervous as hell.

Got a pretty good start in that I was on the board pretty quickly, but not so much in that there was a lot of dirty wind way down in the 180's - took a little while to get on the plane and then it became the longest overtaking mission of all time. Probably got to about mid pack during the first leg but undercooked my first gybe and had a big over the bars after the police boat trying to man handle it around (must have been getting hot in the wetsuit ). Got up as best I could and decided that would be the last in-the-drink and raceed off downwind to make up a few spots. pretty maxed out on the 7.0 for the most part and by the time it came to the last leg I was getting pretty keen to see the beach (leg burn like a mofo). Came in pretty far upwind of the blue marks and had to really work to just get through the top mark 10m or so clear. This last leg was soo broad and it was such a mission pointing downwind here so I was exhausted when I hit the beach about 40m upwind of the mat. Had a (attempted) run down and collapsed over the line!! Stoked to notice I had come over in the 31s for my first LOC finish. Absolutely awesome feeling to nail this race and awesome party afterwards too! Didnt even expect to get near prizes this year so was super surprised when Ado msged me telling me I had placed 2nd in the mens open, Woohoo! First year and in the money yeah baby!!

2 categories

LOC 2013.

Like Jake and Jeff I was not expecting to race with the easterly forecast, so I had a big day on Friday doing a practice downwinder from Ledge with Bender and a few other crew.  Got absolutely flogged in 25K, so I was a bit sore Sat.

Got down to Ledge early to register and park my trailer.  Organisers were saying the race woud run even in the SEer, so I half expected to rig formula kit.

Back to Lano to drop off my kids and grab some lunch.  Got back to Ledge just in time for the briefing.

I thought it looked quite fresh, so even when they were saying 17K, I thought 'Nah, it'll be stronger than that' and I rigged my Futura 111 + 7.6 TR7 + 38 Vector weedy.

Got to the start grid with 10 minutes to go, so didn't have time for a practice run, but I thought my settings were all OK, so I wasn't too bothered.

I lucked out this year and scored start position # 2.  Basically pole, because # 1 (Robby Radis) was a DNS.  Hence I got a pretty good start, planed straight off the beach, but I still didn't get away as quick as I should have, need to work on my starts.  I was actually a little under-powered at the start of the first leg, but I reckon I was close to top 30 at the first mark.

Dropped my first gybe (Doh!!), but waterstarted quickly and got going OK.  Second leg was good, nailed my second gybe, and maintained good speed throughout the third leg.

Fourth leg into shore I started to get tired.  I had built up a reasonable buffer from the the next closest sailors, so I figured if I had a rest at the fourth mark I'd only lose a couple of positions, so I jumped off for a breather.

Fifth leg out to sea my left hand was losing strength and I was really struggling to hang on.  Made it most of the way to the fifth boat before I got bounced out of the harness, and the rig blew out of my hands completely.

Took me a while to recover and swim the rig into water start position.  Waterstarted and the rig blew out of my hands again.  I had no grip strength left at all

Caught my breath for a spell, and tried again, but I still couldn't get going and my mental resolve to complete the race was crumbling.

By this stage 15 or 20 sailors had passed me and any hope of improving on last year's position (48th) was gone, so I made my way to shore to wait for a ute pick-up.

Gutted not to finish, cos the set-up felt pretty good, and I was sailing well with good board speed.  Just not fit enough 

My prep this year wasn't great.  After a solid week's sailing in Shark Bay in early December I only managed 4 sessions in 4 weeks before arriving in Lano Thursday (only one ocean sail at Safety Bay).  A recurring back injury meant I spent more time at the physio, than on the water.

Like others have said it's really hard having to wait 12 months for some redemption!

Lessons learned for the next campaign: hit the gym/yoga/pilates and build some core strength to overcome the back issues and do some strength training to build up some grip strength pre-season.

Congrats to Jake on a top result, and big respect Sean for holding down that combo for the whole race 

Ledge Point, after two catapults and crashing the second involuntary jump decided that the 7.3 and 120l wasnt going to work. discretion being the better part of valor I turned around and went back to the beach. luckily one of the volunteers leant me a phone so I could get a lift back to Lancelin. Should have had a small sail rigged but thats racing I suppose.