A few of the Canberra locals have been taking advantage of the mysterious filling of Lake George (the one in NSW). 12kms end to end. About 8kms sailable, and only a few fence lines to cross

Looking Good!!!! Always wanted to sail there!!!!

Please keep the pics coming and updates about the lake capacity!

Planning a trip there at the end of the year

you could anchor some inflatable obstacles to the fence lines and pretend you're doing supercross when you come to them!!

Snakes and underwater fences. What could go wrong?

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evlPanda said..
Snakes and underwater fences. What could go wrong?

No wind?

No Sharks, coral, oysters,???????

Crab pots, jet skis,boats, tour boats but possibly kites

If we could hire bus/ truck/B W or something to take 10-20 sailors from Brisbane, that could be a dream .
One day autonomous self driving Tesla could drive me there safely but till then the 2,000km is biggest challenge. I have been thinking- we could do maybe something like boxes- 270x80x80 cm ? that people could fill with their gears to be delivered to LG. Twenty such boxes loaded onto common truck delivered on LG beach and crew just fly there....Then we could hire a truck with driver and split the cost by 20 ??

Macro read the title - Lake George (NSW / Canberra) 2017

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AusMoz said..
Macro read the title - Lake George (NSW / Canberra) 2017

but whole idea about LG-SA still valid...

NO

At least you don't have to worry about house boats at either of the lakes!

I wish we have our own windsurfers houseboat on the lake. Something like big floating hotel for everybody.

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peteshea said..

Doesn't look like Lake George. Are you sure you sailed on the right lake ?

All those windturbines..It looks like it gets decent wind..Bad luck if you suss it all out , get addicted and then it disappears for another 20 years..

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sboardcrazy said..
All those windturbines..It looks like it gets decent wind..Bad luck if you suss it all out , get addicted and then it disappears for another 20 years..

Bucket List!

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sboardcrazy said..
All those windturbines..It looks like it gets decent wind..Bad luck if you suss it all out , get addicted and then it disappears for another 20 years..

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_George(New_South_Wales)
"
The unusual fluctuations in the water level have given rise to fanciful urban myths that the lake is somehow connected to lakes in Peru or South Africa, although NSW government ecologist Justin Nancarrow theorises that the lake may indeed be connected to the nearby Yass River by subterranean aquifers which pass under the surrounding escarpment, and that this connection may explain the salinity of the river.[3]"

It gets wind, A supercharged version of the Canberra easterlies. I suspect in winter its eastern side may have strong westerlies like Lake Illawarra? Access is difficult over there, unfriendly land owners.

"Unfriendly landowners" teach them how to windsurf..

Any more Sailing there this week?

Back in the very early nineties, 3 of us looking at Lake Burley Griffin (with absolutely no wind) and one comes out with the comment that he said someone (a fisherman) told hime how to get to the lake shore. No likely wind at LBG so off we go. Brad Gunther (who went on to run a windsurf shop in Belconnen), Alan Flynn and myself. As far as we could establish, we were the first people to windsurf on Lake George. Late afternoon brick wall easterly. For those on lake BG this was a gift from God. Obviously we shared "our" discovery with the rest of the windsurfing community. Within days there were 20, 30, 40 short speed boards there every afternoon that even hinted at developing an easterly wind. With so much space, no-one ever had a problem with crowding or getting in one-anothers way. The main highway used to run very close to the western shore line. There was a track just where the highway turned and headed away from the lake towards the southern end of the lake. This is where we gained access to the rigging area. Due to the unusual terrain, and the hot inland weather, it created one of the most solid thermal easterly winds you could find anywhere. Just a rock solid wall of wind with virtually no variation in direction. It was a remarkable place to sail back then. Alas, the water disappeared, very much in the same way it appears without explanation.

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Ian K said..

It gets wind, A supercharged version of the Canberra easterlies. I suspect in winter its eastern side may have strong westerlies like Lake Illawarra? Access is difficult over there, unfriendly land owners.

From the experiences a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there is much better sailing on the western shore line. Lake George only ever worked in the hotter months. Absolutely nothing in winter because there was not enough thermal activity to start or maintain any wind strength. The further off the western shore you go the less consistent the wind gets. This is because the very long east facing range or face of rock facing the lake heats during the day. The air on the lake surface, above the water, naturally stays cooler. As the hot air on the western side of the lake heats, it obviously starts to rise being replaced with cooler lake air which in turn is heated by the rock face, rises and so starts a cyclic building of wind strength on the western shore line on hotter days.

Back then, it was also popular with hang gliders. It was not un-common to see a couple floating in the sky while we would be packing up.

During our time there we fostered a very positive relationship with he respective land owners. No-one every left any rubbish anywhere, the gates were always closed and the place just generally looked after. I believe the occasional beer from an esky may have even been shared, from time to time with the man on the quad bike that dropped in to see how we were going.

I was thinking of the winter/spring westerlies. You'd need to access the eastern side to launch. I had poke around there looking for a launching spot many years ago, but couldn't get past the locals letting me know I was on private roads and should turn around.

They've got a wind farm on the eastern ridge now. They do a bit of research before putting those in so I'd reckon there's more than summer evening easterlies to be had. The temperature is another matter, it's a lot colder than Lake Illawarra up there.

Always wanted to sail in the cow paddock .
how deep is the water .
i guess there's a first time for a windsurfer to run into a strainer post .

but it looks good ,any day sailing is better than work.
well done guys.after seeing a 10 foot tiger shark in our area yesterday ,it looks even better.

I took a couple of photos today;
one is the western shore where we used to sail in an easterly when the water was up to the highway, there is no water there now.
the other is the eastern side where a few guys have been sailing recently.
its a lot further to drive and apparently waist deep or better once you wade out.

Long walk from the western side