Firstly, Lake George's famous 5 Mile weed bank was not in ideal conditions and I did not sail it so cannot compare, (This is the famous part of lake george and is not the subject of comparison here).

The Spit: A Large expanse of water with 6 to 800 metre sand spit. Very shallow in the first 50 to 80 metres, abot 15 to 30 centimetres. Weedy and sandy bottom. It is hard to work out the water depth as the water is not that clear. Where water is 30 to 50 cm's centimteres plus is about 80+ meteres off shore. There is a small wind driven chop, about 5 to 15 centimteres (dependent on depth), larger chop as you go into deeper water further out (30 to 40 centimetres). The launch is very easy, just walk out from shore about 50 to 80 meteres and go. Getting back to the run is also easy. Coming back into the speed run and bearing away, the speed and chop is enough to have the board leaving the water, so you have to concentrate intensely to keep good board trim. ( I was ****ting myself) It felt incredibly fast ( for me ). You can pretty much stand most areas of the run, tho it can be above head high in some spots away from the spit. Overall an easy place to sail and to go fast, PB's for many who come here. But when the wind gets over 25kts, there is chop, tho small, and when around 30 knots, to me "I felt like I was on the edge sailin". There are 2 NM runs here. Both easier than Hardie;s run, if you begin at the start of the spit and sail west, its very flat for a long way. Winds I would say are very steady, steadier than WA seabreeze conditions.

Hope 5 mile weed bank fires up before I have to return.

Sandy Point. Well known to many, so how duz it compare to the LG Spit. When sailing next to the bar, there is zero chop, so feels much safer and easier than LG. The Launch is way more difficult at Sandy, very gusty, drifting in deep water, best launch is from the east sand bank which means you gotta do a hard upwind run to get to the flat water, and the less experienced such as myself were losing too much of the flat sandbar run by not launching higher up. Getting back to the launch is also harder at Sandy Point, its walking and losta upwind sailing. When on the sandbar run its just magic, would love to spend months here and get to sail her in strong winds. Winds are much more gusty here than Lake George.

Tides: (Ta Choco) No Tides Lake George tho apparently at different times of year can be too much or not enough water in lake. Sandy Point has tides that can make place unaccessible & unsailable.

Overall
Lake George (The Spit) is a much more user friendly place than Sandy Point and suit all skill levels, until the wind gets 25kts+, but for the speed purist of high skill level, Sandy Point is a superior speed run. The 5 mile weed bank is another proposition all together, but I havent sailed that yet. Tho for NM;s Lake George is probably Australian SpeedSailing Mecca!!!!!!

I would highly recommend Lake George as a Windsurfing Holiday to windsurfers of all levels.. Sandy Point would be highly recommended for the serious speedsailor.

You forgot to add the most important thing Hardie.......no "tides" at Lake George

Be on the money there re user friendly Lake George and Sandy Point. My fleeting visits to both in 2010/2011 indicated same.
Sailed Sandy in a shocking reverse angle breeze so didnt get a run along the famous spit. Was one to tick off the list however. Lads called me back there when I was located South of Geelong and committed to next part of my journey. so couldn't make it back.
Jimbob looked after me when I hit Lake George. Only light winds and no cam sail or small board, but made the most of it while I was there. Had weed fins so no problems. Would love to spend a few weeks there again

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choco said...
You forgot to add the most important thing Hardie.......no "tides" at Lake George

plus its twice as salty as the sea, great for getting started on small speed boards or just float the big fellas a bit better.

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jimbob SA said...

choco said...
You forgot to add the most important thing Hardie.......no "tides" at Lake George

plus its twice as salty as the sea, great for getting started on small speed boards or just float the big fellas a bit better.

Yeah I wonder what if any performance benefit the saltier water gives us? I loved LG and I'll be back as soon as the conditions favour the purists amongst us...

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Bonominator said...

jimbob SA said...

choco said...
You forgot to add the most important thing Hardie.......no "tides" at Lake George

plus its twice as salty as the sea, great for getting started on small speed boards or just float the big fellas a bit better.

Yeah I wonder what if any performance benefit the saltier water gives us? I loved LG and I'll be back as soon as the conditions favour the purists amongst us...

Had wondered about that. Might be swings and roundabouts, the optimal fin might be a little bit smaller in denser water. Had thought viscosity might be more important but the viscosity of water drops by 50% between 10 deg and 30 degrees, nobody seems to have pinpointed any difference there.

www.engineeringtoolbox.com/water-dynamic-kinematic-viscosity-d_596.html

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jimbob SA said...

choco said...
You forgot to add the most important thing Hardie.......no "tides" at Lake George

plus its twice as salty as the sea, great for getting started on small speed boards or just float the big fellas a bit better.

& great for pickling olives

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Ian K said...

Bonominator said...

jimbob SA said...

choco said...
You forgot to add the most important thing Hardie.......no "tides" at Lake George

plus its twice as salty as the sea, great for getting started on small speed boards or just float the big fellas a bit better.

Yeah I wonder what if any performance benefit the saltier water gives us? I loved LG and I'll be back as soon as the conditions favour the purists amongst us...

Had wondered about that. Might be swings and roundabouts, the optimal fin might be a little bit smaller in denser water. Had thought viscosity might be more important but the viscosity of water drops by 50% between 10 deg and 30 degrees, nobody seems to have pinpointed any difference there.

www.engineeringtoolbox.com/water-dynamic-kinematic-viscosity-d_596.html

Maybe you're right. The fastest run of the day was when I got on Daffy's gear with exactly the same setup as mine, but with a C3 Slingshot 19cm instead of my KA 23 Symmy! It was a good gust but no stronger than it was for an hour or so later. I couldn't get within 1.5knots of the C3 when I got back on my gear. The C3 did feel super slippery. Ian would you happen to know the difference in area and drag numbers of these two fins? Shame they only make the 20cm version now as the smallest.

Made a very special fin just for epic Lake George, very small and slippery. Hope it works as there is no where to test it here

interesting about the salt content of lake george. didn't know that.
the difference between open ocean and a freshwater lake is about 4% in buoyancy
so a 100liter board on a freshwater lake would float 104 liters in the ocean.
not a huge difference but noticeable for sure, so if lake george is double that again i'm sure it makes a difference in floatability and power from the fin for sure.

the sideways projected area of the Slingshot19 is around 180 sqcm, the SS20 about 190 and the SS21 just under 200.
since we have released the Slingshot fins we have only ever sold one minimum order quantity from the factory of the SS19's, that is why we have taken them out of the program for now.
if you get get an order of a minimum of ten SS19's together we will order some more and make you guys a discounted price for those and keep the rest in stock.

Boogie

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kato said...
Made a very special fin just for epic Lake George, very small and slippery. Hope it works as there is no where to test it here

kato show me yours and ill show you mine

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since we have released the Slingshot fins we have only ever sold one minimum order quantity from the factory of the SS19's, that is why we have taken them out of the program for now.

Sounds like the same story from sailmakers. Everyone asks for small speed sails but no one buys them...

BTW there is a monitoring station on LG with current data. (It is a bit slow to load)

https://apps.waterconnect.sa.gov.au/SiteInfo/Default.aspx?site=A2391078#Current Data

NB: EC units are expressed in micro-siemens/cm at 25?C (?S/cm) and that:
1000 EC = 1000 ?S/cm = 640 ppm = 1 dS/m
So salinity at LG should be ~ 51200 ppm or approx 50% saltier than seawater (~35000 ppm)

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keef said...

kato said...
Made a very special fin just for epic Lake George, very small and slippery. Hope it works as there is no where to test it here

kato show me yours and ill show you mine

NO

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kato said...

keef said...

kato said...
Made a very special fin just for epic Lake George, very small and slippery. Hope it works as there is no where to test it here

kato show me yours and ill show you mine

NO

come on kato surely it cant look any worse than mine