Hello Sailor

The windsurfing, windfoiling, slalom and gps race calendar for 2021/2022 is over with plenty of results, videos and photos on the Seabreeze NSW forums.

We have setup a windsurfing, slalom, gps and windfoil racing survey for the 2022/23 season.

The intention is to see what people are actually interested in which will help to make the next race season more appealing to more sailors, whether on fin, fin+foil slalom, gps, free race, Formula Foil, iQ, Free Foil, Raceboard, Windsurf LT or even Wing Foil.

Please answer the first question as a minimum and keep going to give us a better idea of what type of sailing your interested in for next season.

Please answer the survey before 31/March/2022

Thanks!

www.allcounted.com/s?did=kxn5hhyty5xnf&lang=en_US

If you are after more participation is there a way to tap into some sailing clubs with big junior membership so that you can entice the next generation to come race?

75 % of slalom sailors at Bayside are now 25 or under. Most saw us slalom racing when they were out on the techno or dinghies. We've had the RQYS youth squad come and try windsurfing. Our events also don't clash with their regular scheduled racing. We actively try and sell our second hand kit to the juniors before advertising it elsewhere. A freeridr division with less laps has helped to entice more to come try.

Hope this helps.

Also Bayside sailboard club will be looking to run a state slalom titles over a weekend in Oct / Nov (3 to 4 days). We could do a state of origin trophy over the two combined state titles.

Your survey needs to be geared to pick more than one answer.

Thanks Mitch, a few of us have talked about this idea and we think it is a great idea (and a good excuse for a warm hospitable holiday).

Some results are flooding in. Please vote if you haven't already.
I'll share the results on the weekend.
note I added raceboard answers to Q6.

Some preview results so far from just Question 1...

Geez, that "not interested" gets a flogging!!

would be great to organize a downwinder or two in the ocean, similar to Ledge to Lancelin. I understand the safety, logistics and boat support issues would be enormous, I would be happy to pay extra fees

OK the survey is done with nearly 50 responses... thanks to all those who took the time to answer the questions!

Below are some highlights.

There is a lot of interest in competitive foil course racing, followed by Slalom (Fin/Foil) and GPS blasting.


Breaking this down by what format people want...

for Foil Course Racing a lot of support for last seasons format, while some want more local events, and some want more away events (including QLD) and a championship.
There were a few people prefer club racing locally (less travel).



For the Slalom (Fin and / or Foil) racing a big majority prefered the current format, while the second most popular was to add a few extra events (locally) with only minor support for more events further away!


For the GPS Blasters, definately popular just free racing at the local spot. for those that competed last season it seemed to work pretty well with minimal interest in ore events.


The Windsurfing / LT cateogry didn't attract many responses despite the strong fleet.


The Raceboard crew seem to prefer local club racing and a championship.


Winging was very mixed and minor support shown.



Skipping ahead there is a lot of support for racing at Myall Lakes, Lake Mac, Botany Bay, Illwawrra and a few other venues. Even QLD gets a lot of votes, more than Melb or Perth!





In terms of when, most people can race every weekend (13) or every other weekend (11) ... with good support for occasional 3 day events.
6 events in a series was by far the most common response while most people want 5 to 6 races per day.
Most people want a Cabin (15) or Powered site (11) or Hotel (7).

A lot of people missed it this year, but are interested in the Lake Macq Heaven can Wait charity marathon. Some other marathons get votes like the Australia Day KCC event, the Pitt Water event next month, and the Myall Lakes NSW State Slalom championships or green island (Cairns) National Slalom Champs.

The Foil Course Racing events and NSW Championshiop also got a lot of support.



I think it is quite interesting that a lot of racers are quite happy to compete in bumpy conditions... with very few course racers prepeared for beach launching!



Most of the comments (bar 1) were encouraging...
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like current raceboard series. The number of away events is good so that you can still fit in with regular club racing as well.
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more downwind slalom events please
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You are a f--king w--ker!!
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Thanks ??
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Keep racing until dark
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Thanks {name}, regards {name}
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Slalom racing on some club days. I don't think people realise how much fun slalom is. Make it more casual and fun.
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I'm not really participating but it seems the gps series is skewing to suit foiling. If there are 2 days to choose from one strong , one light they choose the one with less wind.
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While I am a member of a sailing club, which is into windsurf racing, I am into Wing foil in a way that excludes all other watersports.
I am still race curious to improve my skills.
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Keep up the good work!

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GPS slalom only had 5 events including the state titles this was enough.
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Would be nice to show more diversity on social media to attract young generations.
Logistics are always a bit of a challenge for me. Need to invest in proper transport
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Thank you for doing this survey!
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Club sailing probably provides the best initial intro to comp sailing.
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Thanks for the work you've put in to setting up this survey!







See the All Counted Survey Site for the complete Analysis.
www.allcounted.com/share?view=summary&nid=ikh9brud45u1a&lang=en_US

Berowne, great summary!

Select to expand quote

berowne said..



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You are a f--king w--ker!!
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Thanks ??
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Ha,Ha !!!
someone doesn't appreciate your enthusiasm, must be jealous.

Great tread
St George SC is looking like a good option for windsurfing racing next year. They race all types of windsurfing and Berowne mention maybe slalom on Sundays! Great parking, a brand new very cool clubhouse.

I raced last Saturday. And I have never seen so much water movement!!! The tide was roaring out or was it storm water? There was waves breaking at the club!! Surf! Absolutely incredible and strong gusty winds.

I was foiling and the racing was tight and super exciting. My best moment was leading the last race to the finish. I wanted to do, 'one and in' to borrow AC speak. I was looking for the lay but could find it. I could not see the finish boat or the marks. The committee boat could not hold anchor but I should have been able to see it. I could only do glancing. We are at about 20 to 25 knots downwind sailing into the swells and dodging 16fters and skates and everything else. We also have to pick the lay a long way out. I was super hectic. Anyway I gybe too early and so conceded defeat. I immediately sailed deeper to kill the speed cause if I hit debris at high speed it will be, lets say unpleasant but then I hear my mates sail pop he has gybe too early too and it's back on. He manages to pass me to leeward! Pretty ballsy of him to past to leeward. We now both have one gybe to go. I put everything into it and we draw level. We are now charging at line full noise. The large swells are going up and down on our foil masts any breach at this speed will too hard to recover from. We go thru a dead heat but the committee give it to me by a nose!!

Oh also one good thing about river sailing is you have to do natural boundary tacks and gybes. So it keeps you busy. Makes you better.


Rgds j

*thread
And any other mistakes

Nice Report Justin, the results are on the StGeorge website, you won by 2 seconds!!