just wondering if anyone checked it out, what was the direction and strength like?

Raining and very light 5-12 knots southerly. I saw 2 guys out early arvo but was not tempted at all myself.......

I don't get it; the windguru forecast and Wilson's Prom windgraphs often tell a very different story; windguru forecast for Wednesday was low winds (max of 14 knots) all day long, and according to the Wilson's Prom windgraph between 10 to about 3pm they were about right, but before 9 and after 3 it was absolutely cranking.

Have been keeping my eye on windguru and the Wilson's Prom windgraphs for the last couple of weeks and this seems to be a fairly common phenomenon.

Is the Wilson's Prom windmeter in a location which is significantly more windy (e.g. frequently 10 knots windier) than Sandy Point?

Or does Sandy Point and the Wilson's Prom windmeter cop pretty much the same breeze?

Bottom line is; if you want to know what the action and Sandy is actually like (or will be like at some point in the not-too-distant future), what's the reliable source for this?

Had to drop the car off for a service on Wednesday night, but despite this, was seriously considering heading down to Sandy on Wednesday for a quick fang. Only thing that put me off this was the windguru forecast. Naturally I viewed the Wilson's Prom windgraph readings after 3pm with a fair bit of frustration and anguish.

The wind-meter for Wilson's Prom sits on top of tall'ish mast, on top of a hill; it is also a bit further south into Bass Straight... thus you need to subtract about 15-20 knots from the meter reading, to be about right for the inlet (subtract a bit less in lighter wind, a bit more in stronger wind). This is for W to SW; if it was an E to NE, then the meter is about right (go figure...).

So, before 9am I'm tipping about 15-20; after 3 about 5-10.

Windguru doesn't always get it right, but it is good enough to get us in the ballpark, ie: if the guru says, 25 then you can be pretty confident that you will get a decent sail, with winds probably peaking around 30. It also tends to get the time-of-day approximately accurate, say within a few hours.

Some tips:
- It may help to use a "wind modification" (see "option" in the top-right of the chart); it helps to give an idea of what the wind could get to.
- Use the "tides" link (bottom-right of chart); choose "Waratah Bay" -> the tide-times for the inlet itself, are about 1.5 hours later than on the charts.
- When its a windy SW, you want to sail on an out-going tide as the water is smoother.

Thanks Mathew!

That makes a bit more sense of things.

By the way; still keen to check out the Bladerider. Didn't make it last weekend as was busy all day Saturday and had the 15 year school reunion Saturday night (i.e. a wee bit of a sleep-in was required on Sunday, so didn't end up surfacing till the afternoon). Won't make it this weekend either; one of my sister's is getting married down in Geelong this weekend, so will down in that neck of the woods for the duration.

Murphy's law would dictate therefore that Sandy will defy the forecasts and crank all weekend long, so pack your gear now, bail for Sandy on Friday night and hope you enjoy the all-time session down at the Pit that will be brought about my enforced non-attendance there!

Cheers!

Mat is pretty much spot on. :-)

Another computer model forecast I find useful is buoyweather.

www.buoyweather.com/wxnav6.jsp?region=AS&program=nww3BW1&grb=nww3&latitude=-39.0&longitude=146.25&zone=10&units=e

Tends to be a bit more realistic in some circumstances.

Note that on Easterlies, mostly in summer, none of the models does very well with the strong sea breeze effect and the Prom readings are often pretty close to Sandy Point conditions. The high, exposed position of the Anemometer at the prom is compensated for by the extra sea breeze effect we get across the Prom Isthmus. When there is less Easterly sea breeze effect the prom still reads a bit higher than Sandy Point reality.

Cheers sailquik and matt- the options in windguru and that bouyweather site are good value.

The last couple of weeks has been driving MI crazy with the dud forecasts....

Whats going on with the SWer's the last couple of years? I remember years ago when I used to surf a lot it always seemed to be onshore and SW - thats why I took up windsurfing! Have any of you guys been keeping any records and is it a "bad" year??
Global warming?

Do we need to appease Huey and make some sacrifices??