Top speeds are losing favour as the measure of greatness, Bugatti has given up concentrating on building the fastest car. Supercars are now compared by their time around the Nurburgring. Even Holden is boasting about it. www.topspeed.com/cars/car-news/holden-ss-v-ute-sets-a-new-record-at-nurburgring-ar158614.html And for a moderate toll Joe Blow can take his Datsun around the Nurburgring just to see how good he is.

Offshore yachts have race records for the Sydney to Hobart.

Windsurfing needs a few something-similars.

There's the Ledge to Lancelin. What's the best ever time there? ( Although the marks are not in the same place each year, and you can really only have a go once a year as its a bit exposed without the organiser's support.

Don't the Vics have an event from a Breakwater to Fawkner Beacon? Does someone have the glory of the fastest time recorded ?

Sydnersiders can cross Botany Bay from Kyeemah to Kurnell. Who's bettered 10 minutes? The start and end points probably need to be better defined.

There should be more of them. Ideally...

They'd be doable without support in reasonable safety. Bass Strait crossings are a bit extreme

The mates of the local hero should be able send him or her out on an epic day and, from a suitable vantage point, be able to see the full course to verify that the marks are rounded and to do the timing. Alternatively gps derived time could be allowed?

The marks should be likely to be geographically fixed for the next couple of decades.

Who knows of any more?

Aaaheeeem!

Windsurfing has the Alpha!

If one Alpha doesn't float your boat. How about a dozen or fifty in a row and go for a 1 hour?!


And then, for the border-line nutcases out there, there is the 24 hour! Up and down, back and forth, down the coast, cross bass straight and back. The possibilities are almost endless.

Vic' Breakwater-to-Beacon did have a record of about 22 mins, which stood for about 10 years - set by Ian Fox.

Last year we had somewhat good wind and a reasonable angle to the mark -> the first 8 sailors beat the record.

However there is some controversy... previous years comps were a beach-launch, while last year was an on-water launch.

Should also mention distance...

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sailquik said..

Aaaheeeem!

Windsurfing has the Alpha!

The Alpha is different. Both would be fast reaching events but the Alpha is for flat water and it allows sailors from anywhere in the world to compete. This would add just a little local flavour for visitors to have a crack at. Because there'd most likely be a fair bit of chop and swell on the course the optimum windspeed for course records and pbs would be down into the range of common occurrence. Too many ducks have to line up to get an alpha pb. The fastest crossing of Botany Bay, whatever it is, was probably done in a pretty average noreaster.

Wouldn't be too hard to put the co-ordinates of all the global standard runs into the track analysis packages, ( ie Spot X: from the end of the jetty around the 3rd channel marker and back) so that if the course was attempted the times would appear along with alphas, 5 X 10s, etc. A disadvantage is that well-travelled speed sailors would have a very long list of pbs.

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mathew said..

Vic' Breakwater-to-Beacon did have a record of about 22 mins, which stood for about 10 years - set by Ian Fox.

Last year we had somewhat good wind and a reasonable angle to the mark -> the first 8 sailors beat the record.

However there is some controversy... previous years comps were a beach-launch, while last year was an on-water launch.

Thanks Mathew, next time I meet Ian Fox I'll recall that he holds the Breakwater to Beacon record. Got no idea what his best 5 by 10 is? How's it compare to yours? 22 minutes is a long course for everyday attempts, is there a shortened version that would still use that famous Beacon that you can see?

WA nautical mile comp.

Fastest nm at 4 or 5 set locations I think, at least 2 are open ocean. Looking forward to having a crack this summer.

For Wollongong/Illawarra sailors we could look at something like a big downhill run down the coast in a good noreaster, or maybe a coarse out around 1 or 2 of the islands and back would work???

Record for B to B is crap as it is never the same distance, last year super short probably only 3/4 of the way to the beacon.

OK. We had a little competition record going for who could get to the Shallow Inlet entrance and back fastest. From the normal launch to the entrance channel corner marker buoy and back. Problem was that the channel kept moving, and so did the marker buoy!
It would be good if we made a GPS waypoint for the turn point.
Great fun to do on a slalom board on 15-20 knots southerly summer days.

Here's a good one:
For many years the Paynesville Windsurfers used to participate in the Yacht clubs 'Round Raymond Island Race'. For a few years in the mid to late '80's it was run as a stand alone Windsurfing race with a quite large prize pool and, at its peak, hundreds of windsurfers. The Yacht club still runs it for off the beach sailboats, but the windsurfer numbers are now very small. I don't know what the windsurfer record is but I think it is held by Authur Brett. It is quite a challenge in a typical strong summer easterly. A big beat up one side of the island and a scary fast broad reach down the other side.
It is really a Longboard only course though, as the trip through 'the straights' at the start or finish (depending on which way around it is run), is a drifter even when the wind is 25+ knots. The last time I did it, on my old formula board in 25-28 knots Easterly, when I got to the entrance to the straights I could not see the next following windsurfer on that side of the island. They were at least 4.5kms behind. By the time I had drifted halfway through the 2km straights, the two guys on Windsurfer one designs had caught and passed me!

A bit beyond what I was thinking but we met some kiters at LHI last month who were planning to do the Ball's Pyramid Lord Howe Island crossing. They've been practicing doing 20 km runs out to sea off Sydney. They use a back up boat, radios and epirbs so they don't take chances. One day looked pretty good so they went out in a boat hoping to make the first crossing. The wind was not favourable so they ended up just fishing for Kingies. Just being in the water next to Ball's Pyramid would pump you up enough to get the 20 km back to LHI with ease. it's 562 metres high, the tallest volcanic stack in the world.





A couple of us did the downwinder from Sandon Point to Corrimal in a noreater a while back Stu. A great run, It's quite a way! The end points are easily specified. Might want to specify a few gybes so as not to be tempted to do it in 2 legs, going too far from shore. Or a gps enforced course boundary as they are using in the America's Cup maybe? It's at the top end of distance if you're planning to beat upwind back home again. We organised a lift.

the 25Km's from Ledge Point to Lancelin is always a good yardstick as to how fast a sailor you are.
Steve Allen did it in 26min or something like that last year beating PV and Bjorn to the line.

Yeah Ian that sounds good. I'm thinking convincing the wife that a family picnic at the other end would make for a good pickup plan lol. How long did that run take?

Ps. I've seen Balls pyramid from the air once years ago on a flight to Norfolk Island, very impressive rock, even from that altitude.

Not sure how long it took Stu. We tried to stay in a group, had confusion on the best way to negotiate Bellambi Reef and sailed in circles for a while. 10-15 minutes maybe? We should try for a few more this season. We'll keep you posted. The islands are tempting to sail around. Flinders Islet is 3km off shore though! Pack a PLB. The closer, larger ones might have a fair wind shadow behind them? I'm sure it was done more than once back in the windsurfing heydays.

in SA there were a few distance races to play in some years back, insurance and backup boats saw them all fall away.....
KI crossing
Milang to Goolwa
Goolwa to Meningie
Wardang Island
and a few others !
lots of fun
Goolwa to Meningie record is interesting..... fast !!

Great topic! Agree that the N??rburgring lap seems to have hit an audience. Any sports car manufacturer must look to the lap time in that environment as a measure of success. I reckon the beauty of N??rburgring is that it tries to replicate a wide range of conditions of a reasonable distance, providing 7-8 minutes of excitement.

If I was to visualise an equivalent for windsurfing it would have to be location dependent. The Nautical Mile seems too quick and has no corners so I think we can discount that.

So I can only think of spot hours or the flip which would be a set distance at a location. Given a 27 knot hour is roughly 50 kms, a 50 km course that is specific to your spot would seem to be a good measure and result in a "time" rather than a "distance" which is more akin to N??rburgring.

So, my vote is 50km spot records.

i suggest " the Baron", an award for most interesting, brave tracks, takes the emphasis off speed puts it more on spirit, ha, something different, maybe too dangerous?

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Milsy said..

i suggest " the Baron", an award for most interesting, brave tracks, takes the emphasis off speed puts it more on spirit, ha, something different, maybe too dangerous?

The Baron is late isn't he?

ha, yeah, he might still be on his way man......................his windsurfings eddie!

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Ian K said..

Not sure how long it took Stu. We tried to stay in a group, had confusion on the best way to negotiate Bellambi Reef and sailed in circles for a while. 10-15 minutes maybe? We should try for a few more this season. We'll keep you posted. The islands are tempting to sail around. Flinders Islet is 3km off shore though! Pack a PLB. The closer, larger ones might have a fair wind shadow behind them? I'm sure it was done more than once back in the windsurfing heydays.

I'm keen Ian. Hopefully we can get some others in on it too. Who knows, If it works out well maybe we could think about planning an annual thing? A nice long one way run, Bellambi to Bass Point! know anyone with a "support/rescue boat"

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Ian K said..

Not sure how long it took Stu. We tried to stay in a group, had confusion on the best way to negotiate Bellambi Reef and sailed in circles for a while. 10-15 minutes maybe? We should try for a few more this season. We'll keep you posted. The islands are tempting to sail around. Flinders Islet is 3km off shore though! Pack a PLB. The closer, larger ones might have a fair wind shadow behind them? I'm sure it was done more than once back in the windsurfing heydays.

I sailed from North beach to Sandon and back on the Hyper with the 8.5 in 20kts last year. It was one of the stupidest things I've ever done. Was fine going up...getting back in that chop on the Hyper with that much sail in 20kts was interesting :P Also ran aground on Bellambi reef but that was another time...on the QUAD! Quite shallow out there in spots

Gerroa to the heads is another classic, always wanted to do that.

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CJW said..

Was fine going up...getting back in that chop on the Hyper with that much sail in 20kts was interesting :P Also ran aground on Bellambi reef but that was another time...on the QUAD! Quite shallow out there in spots

.

On the hypersonic! The joy of going downwind is threading a fast line through the chop and swell. I used to own a hyper, no threading to be done there, they swerve like an oil tanker! I've checked out the passage through Bellambi reef in a canoe at low tide. There's only one rock to hit, well done, or were you over the reef proper?