its getting close to the state champs
titles for class 5 ,mini5.6
plus a marathon each .
there will be a meeting at pauls house ,8gilberton st kal at 6.00 pm on friday 1st august
combined AGM and planning meeting . members will need to step up this year as i will not be able to run stuff due to commitments the saturday night/sunday.
ive sent out an email to members but have alot of mail bounced back ,so get in touch asap

Time is marching on. The sandgropers are having a committee meeting at the end of the month. Will have a better idea who will be making our annual trip to Lefroy. My yachts are almost ready to go. Hope to spend a couple weekends up there this time.

Cant w8, have a new harness and kites for the buggy, ankle is healed, and have a new class 5 yacht.
So 4th time lucky i might actually get to compete this year.



PS: If the racing is finished on Sun and if the lake is dry enough and if the wind is favorable. Would anyone else be interested in holding an all classes ultra marathon on Monday.

The idea being to set a course which uses as much of the lake as possible to run a 2-3 hour race. Yachts would need to be able to navigate by GPS to sail through a series of way-points.

The track in the pic below is 44km in length and all on good salt at the moment obviously need to adjust for conditions on the day. If enough people are interested it wouldn't be hard to make it happen. Let me know if anyone else is keen?

how many laps

Love it Paul.

Really looking forward to our annual get together and to catch up with everyone again.

I'll arrive on the Thursday 25th.
I have 2 1/2, weeks off work so I should have enough time to complete your course John.

I'll leave only when the conditions cut out.

Big problem is as we found in the past not everyone has a GPS or like me does not have a clue how to use them. Great idea though. Maybe some very big markers would be the go. (not green drums) got lost looking for them last year.

Silver foil helium balloons as markers. They would glint in the sun, so us blind old buggers can locate them Vic.

My luck it would be overcast.

Select to expand quote

Chook2 said..
Silver foil helium balloons as markers. They would glint in the sun, so us blind old buggers can locate them Vic.

My luck it would be overcast.

Perhaps get the fast bloke with the GPS to leave a trail of breadcumbs for you Chook.

Looking forward to getting this back on the lake.

Hi Folks,
By some miracle I've managed to wangle some time off so Di & I will be there.
Have tried for some years to make it & this is it.
Will be sailing blokart (many thanks to Brian) & Vindicator if lucky.
Looking forward to it, been a long time between drinks.
cheers!

very quite on here, not long to start time

Yachts are now ready for Lefroy.

looking good vic..

I can't wait too.

if anybody is really keen Spirit of Stupidity is for sale with all her sails(4 i think) 3? masts including her Reallly good 3 piece ally mast.
i'm selling to partially make room for the next years mini. i thought id make a clean sweep of all the sails/masts etc and learn all over again.
before you start thinking that its well outdated. in her last race she was well leading until i slid out on BALD tyres. in the marathon it managed only 4th. Its worst pllacing ever in Australia. that was with 3 capsizes AND a stop for a rear wheel change!!!!!!!.
previously it had a record of 32 firsts out of 34 races
charlottes blue mini is also for sail to pay for her new wheelset or go towards her bigger 700c roadbike as she outgrows her current bike

How much for "unobtanium" mast?

mast goes with sails and yacht, definitely not breaking up that supercharged combination

Hate this time of year, praying for the lake to dry out and cursing every drop of rain.

Went out anyway to check on conditions, the track I took avoided the majority of the water lying along the causeway.

Are the ponds dry, hope something is

Everything bone dry up here in Shark Bay Vic, even the skin on the poor Lizards is cracking. Have my mini with me and dry lakes everywhere, perfect climate, 24 max's every day, but....no wind. When I left Busselton on Friday I thought I may have to come over and borrow that Tri as the place is so saturated we are almost under water.

Counting down the days now.

Look forward to catching up with all the gang again.

Hey Trav, it's my turn to bring the medicine this year.

Is the water deep

I leave Esperance at 9.00am tomorrow (Thursday) and should be at Lefroy around lunch time.
Big Mick is travelling with me in his ute and trailer, with their 2 mini's.

Scotty and Greg (hope his wife is well enough to leave alone) should be there sometime on Friday and a couple of "social sailors" on Saturday.
6 from Esperance with a bit of luck.

Catch ya guys.

The vast salt lake of Lake Lefroy at Kambalda was the setting for the 2014 Land sailing state titles hosted by the Lake Lefroy Land Sailing club.The regatta at Lake Lefroy in September rates as one of the highlights on the land sailing calendar. The unique salt lake and friendly, laid back spirit created a sense of being on an adventure. Many pilots travelled far to camp and race at the iconic lake.

Class 5 and International Mini 5.6 fleets saw 25 pilots from Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Kambalda, Esperance, Perth, Adelaide and other parts of the country. This regatta had the current blokart production heavyweight world champion, Joe Juvjevick, and the designer and builder of Australia’s fastest land yacht, Bill Finch.

Racing was held over two days with many pilots setting up camp and practicing on the Thursday and Friday with racing held on Saturday and Sunday. Both fleets completed 7 series races and one marathon each which was a great achievement especially for the novice pilots considering the windy weather conditions on the Saturday.

On Saturday the forecast was for 15-25kn winds strengthening during the day as the cold front moved across. The strong wind, smooth salt and technical short course added and extra degree of difficulty. The first two International Mini 5.6 races resemble the speed skating of a winter Olympics with many pilots spinning out and some pilots attempting speed records sailing the yacht backwards.

Next was the class 5’s with two a fast paced and scary races with many just on the edge of control in the strengthening wind conditions. The last two races of the day were the mini’s again in some of the strongest winds I've ever sailed in. The wind was now a solid 25kn with 30kn gust. These two races made racing more a power slug than a sailing race. Racing was then called off for the remainder of Saturday as winds stayed a consistent 35kn with 45kn gust.

Most pilots retreated back to their camps to stop them blowing away and to keep sand out. However two Boulder pilots, Bryan Cook (Kalgoorlie Blokarts) and myself made the most of the windy conditions and continuing to sail with the ultimate goal of top speed. We both went out for several runs in the Bryan's Blow/mini with custom 1.8m sail. Bryans’ top speed posted on his Garmin GPS was 101km/h and my best effort was 108km/h.

The conditions on Sunday had improved for racing to start.The first race was the class 5 90min marathon. The conditions started well but the dying wind made the finish a struggle. Vic Bermingham sailed a solid race with his fast class 5 followed by Paul Day (AUS 3) and third was Mark Fauntley in his Club88.

Next was the mini marathon shortened to 40min in the dying wind conditions. The start was really slow with only a few yachts rolling across the start of the flying start and several pilots wheel chairing their yachts to get rolling and get some breeze. Greg Smallman (Esperance) sailed his LLM had an excellent race and found the wind to power him to an amazing victory lapping several yachts. Second was myself in my Blow/Mini and third was Chook Henderson sailing "Fowl Play".

The afternoon finished the circuit racing series. By now the wind had filled in and winds were 8-15kn. Vic’s Class 3 was found later in the afternoon with minor damage after disappearing Saturday night and sailing off by itself. Hat’s off to all those that made their State Titles debut including Andrew Bowler from Kambalda who had this year finished building a Class 5 and finishing 3rd overall. He started and finished every race. It was great to see the other novice pilots out their sailing and have a go.

The sportsmanship and encouragement of all the pilots was excellent and was fantastic to witness. It was good clean racing with zero protests lodged. I would like to thank Goldfields St Ives for the loan of their exploration buggy that helped a lot with the smooth running of the event. I would like to thank all those involved with organising, registration, scoring, starting, and planning the 2014 Land Sailing Titles a success. Now it’s time to start preparing for January 2015, where the next state titles are the be hosted by the Sandgropers and Perth Blokart Club at Lake Walyungup.


Results

Class 5 Marathon 1st- Vic Bermingham (AUS230) , 2nd – Paul Day (AUS 3) , 3rd Mark Fauntley (AUS 32)

International Mini 5.6 Marathon1st – Greg Smallman (241) , 2nd- Ben Ashby (AUS 233), 3rd- Chook Henderson (240)

Class 5 Circuit racing 1st Chook Henderson (AUS 240) , 2nd Barry Mason (AUS 16) , 3rd Andrew Bowler (235)

International Mini 5.6 Circuit racing 1st Joe Juvjevick, 2nd Greg Smallman (241) , 3rd Will Cuperus (77)

Class 5 State Titles 1st Barry Mason (AUS 16) , 2nd Chook Henderson( AUS 240), 3rd Andrew Bowler (235)

International Mini 5.6 State Titles 1st Joe Juvjevick (AUS 3/White Sail), 2nd Greg Smallman(241) , 3rd Will Cuperus (77)

A few pics that I took on the way to Lefroy and at Lefroy and a couple going home.



















I had a great weekend, The winds on Saturday tested me, actually the first time that I have ever pulled out of a race, my yacht was completely uncontrollable in the high winds. It was a credit to the guys that kept on sailing. The marathon on Sunday suited my yacht much better and was happy to win the Lightning Nickel Marathon, 90 minute event seemed to be a dam long time. Thanks to the Lefroy Club for putting on an excellent event. Special thanks to Ben for the great effort he put in to running the event also to the guys that spent half a day looking for my runaway class3 yacht.

Not shore which runs were fastest but you get the general idea, well done boys.

.be

Well what a fantastic event!!!
Ben just "over ordered" the wind slightly, as Greg is indicating.



It was heaven to see Vindicator and to meet Bill and his wife. What a treat!!!!



Boy it is a sweet old yacht. A work of art that really gets up and goes. In not much wind at all topped out well over 100 kmh.
(The Gopro footage worked a treat Bill.)



The moisture level of the salt made it a bit tricky to see sometimes. But the perfect surface really made up for it.
Frosty the snowman.


Pick any Day for a sail.


It was fantastic that Graham found Vic's yacht after much searching. (It blew away in the gale force winds during the night.)


Luckily there was not much damage considering the causeway it launched over.



It was so nice to go to a competition where there wasn't a single raised voice or any disagreements of any kind.
Best of all no one was injured in pretty high winds. A huge thankyou to everyone involved, particularly Ben, it all played out like clockwork.

The recovery vehicle was a great asset for the event. (Thanks John for organizing it.)
A blown tyre during the social sail bought about this.


6 days on the salt and I loved every minute of it.
Cheers.

Just a quick hello to say how much Di & I appreciated all the support from Paul & Sue, as well as all the effort you did in bringing Vindi out Paul.
Thanks also to Bryan for the loan of the kart, hope I managed to do it a bit of justice.
Saturday race 1 was my first race in a blokart.

Loved the whole weekend, sorry I didn't get to connect with as many of you as I would have liked, but hopefully I'll see you over time.
Cheers.
Look forward to video Chook! (when you get a chance).

Congrats on what appears to be a great event! Special praise for the organising individuals

EDIT: LOVE the pictures Can't wait for more footage...

This lovely "lady of the salt"
A novel way to pilot her Bill. (Check out his legs.)

Better late than never
Thankyou Lake Lefroy and Co
Look forward to next year