After a few false starts due to the changing lockdown conditions in NSW we can now present the calendar and NOR for the upcoming season. Note that the calendar represents quite a tentative approach to starting racing again and as we get used to new non-lockdown rules things may change later in the season. We have concentrated initially on hosting clubs we know can deliver what we need, rather than trying to expand to other clubs and locations (which is what we had hoped for this season).

In particular we hope to add a 2-day state champs later in the season.

Unfortunately we have had to cancel the first heat, due to the unforseen "no travel between regions" (before Nov 1) COVID rule (and not wanting to change the calendar and NOR again!)

Series details are found on Windsurfing NSW website - just follow the Windfoil/Wingfoil links to find the NOR and Entry/payment portal.

www.windsurfingnsw.com/classes/windfoil/

NOTE that for this season we are asking that competitors pay for each event, before each event, through the on-line portal. It just makes it easier if an event gets cancelled, due to any changing COVID rules.

Also note that for heats 2 & 3 competitors MUST be fully COVID-19 vaccinated to attend and will be asked to show proof of it. It would seem that these requirements may be relaxed after Dec 1st?

The series includes the Windfoil class with the following divisions;

Open (Formula Foil)
IQ - (Olympic board and 9m limited)
Freeride - for freeride foils/ aluminium mast etc

and the Wingfoil class (anything wingding goes). We are hoping some may be interested in racing?

First event is on Lake Illawarra , from the Koonawarra Bay Sailing Club on November 13th. Same location as the last couple of years.

Hoping to see you there!

Sailing Instructions now up on the website - www.windsurfingnsw.com/classes/windfoil/

The forecast for Saturday on Lake Illawarra looks pretty extreme for windfoil racing - a strong westerly (40 knot gusts). Hopefully the forecast changes!

More info later on this week.....

Yeah I am not impressed with the forecast. could be more fun doing speed runs at Primbee. last Saturday was perfect for gps slalom.

We have decided to cancel the windfoil regatta for tomorrow due to forecast weather. It looks like we are due 3 days of extreme westerly winds, making the ability to hold a safe regatta, for both competitors and race crew a bit on the edge.

We have held out until the "last moment" , hoping that the weather forecast would change for Saturday, however that has not been the case. We think the main issue with the predicted westerly winds are the wind gusts with forecast strengths up in the high 30's for Saturday. Normally westerlies on the Lake Illawarra have higher gusts than forecast.

This season is proving difficult, with disruptions due to lockdowns and now unsuitable weather! We will now look at rescheduling this regatta, however at this moment the next event is 27th November at Marmong.

For those of you that have already entered and paid for the Lake Illawarra event we will roll over this entry over to the next round (Marmong), unless you want something different - contact me via email if this is the case, (my email is in the NOR) or PM via seabreeze.

Sorry if this cancellation has stuffed up your plans!

Looks like this Saturday at Marmong will be on huh?
Nice Southerly, which is the best wind at this location. I imagine if really windy then Wing racing will happen also?

Heat 3 (which is really Heat1)
This weekend Saturday 27th November
@ Marmong Point Sailing Club

Great southerly forecast of 15 - 25knts so hopefully stays in at a raceable strength ie not too windy.

Briefing 11:00am
First Start 12:00pm

Rego etc @
www.windsurfingnsw.com/classes/windfoil/

Note: if you entered Heat 2 which was canceled, your entry carries over to this event in credit.

Hey everyone. Racing is moving to Sunday 28th due to the forecast. Murray will post more info later on.

Officially Rescheduled to
Sunday 28th November

Heat 3 @ Marmong Point Sailing Club

Given 25 - 30knt Forecast (low chance of enjoyable racing) and a more moderate 18knt Southerly forecast for Sunday the general consensus has been to shift the race day to sunday.

We apologise for the late change and to those who cannot join us on sunday but we believe the shift is in the best interest of the Series given our first 2 events have been canceled.

Rego details as per previous post.

Briefing 10:00am
First Start 11:00am

Fun times despite the bad weather. Well run event thanks team.

Thanks for running a great event Marmong. It ran like clockwork and we had a great day, Wind was perfect. Cheers Roger

Results of the first round of NSW WindFoil Series (aka Heat 3) are in.

Firstly, everyone I spoke to after the race wants to give a big thanks to Brian Lancey and Graham Norris for running the boat and scoring, without them there would be no regatta.

For those who accomadated the change of day to Sunday and braved the rainy forecast, which hit 10min before scheduled start, we actually had a pretty good day of racing with decent wind. It was good to see the wing dings at the event too, mixing it up. I can't but help think that a UJ on the wingtip would give them some better speeds...

Every start line is different and there is no better way to practice than against a bigger fleet on a short start line, so it was also a bit disappointing that none of the IQ guys or girls where present to compete in the NSW series but I appreciated the easy points!

After the rain lifted we had a pretty solid 12 knots for most of the races, with a few unfortunate lulls down to sub-flying 6 knots during race 2, to a white knuckle 18knots later in the day. Certainly more enjoyable than Saturdays forecast 30kts! The well run event team managed to bang out 4 races in record time (including a lunch break).


A few memorable moments from me:
1. Watching Doug edge away upwind... and down!
2. Matching Dave upwind a few times, the bigger 1000mm wing for me definately helping (same 9.0m sail sizes).
3. Chasing Dave on the 2nd upwind leg in the light air of race 2.. watching him tack into nothing behind a hill and looking around not finding any gusts, I decided to GYBE around him! touched the water and slowed down, so pumped and pumped and pumped back onto the foil to fly away while he was still stuck... only to see him MAKE the upwind mark a few minutes later as I missed it by so many meters. Urgh.
4. Chasing Dave (I think) to the line... he gybed early trying to stay in the main wind channel, while I went further East and headed to the line after just 1 gybe. Dave dropped an extra gybe close to the boat... and I thought "I've got this!" but was amazed at how quickly he got his rig up and beat me by about 10sec.
5. Heading on port towards Nial who had tacked, him yelling "Starboard" for some reason... but I thought he was bogged down and wasn't accelerating yet. Turns out he has some skill! and got flying fast, that was close! (I let him have the next crossing).
6. Getting HIGH on one downwind run, cranking the leeward rail and staying in control... phew!
7. Dropping 2 tacks (due to a lack of wind!) and watching the crowd slide by.

There was some great relatively close racing across the fleet and a good tactical event as we always had to be thinking of when to tack or when to gybe as it created some regrets and/or opportunities... my GPS track showed the East side was well and truly favoured.

Here are the final scores. This is my first time using Excel, so please let me know if I made any mistakes with the scores.

Well done to Doug with a clean sweep and Dave's consistency earned him a well earned 2nd place, with my new F4 foil definately helping me fly into 3rd place.



Looking forward to the next GPS/Slalom race this weekend.

I think Heat 4 of this series will be rescheduled to accomodate the Melbourne Nationals. Good luck anyone heading south... may the borders stay open!

Update Results as I had misread a few free foiler positions. Thanks to everyone for their honesty, and to Dave for the help with the scoring via Sailwave Scoring Software.

Anyone doing Sail Sydney? 4 days of racing?

Overall Results - Wind Foiling (sailingresults.net)

sailingresults.net/sa/results/overall.aspx?ID=81232.17

Congratulations to the Sail Sydney open men winner Grae Morris and open women winner, Sam Costin. A special mention to the interstate travelers including Sam from Qld and the Victorian participants for making the journey.

The photo doesn't really show how hard it was. 20kn swirling south westerly bullets from right to left busting down the 100m hill behind HMAS Penguin combined with a perpendicular swell of 1.5m and large stink boats doing 20kn through the middle of the course made sailing difficult. Great for spectators. The wing exhibition races looked fantastic. Dan Wilson took out the 5 Saturday races & Jack Abbott from SSCBC in Victoria all the Sunday races. All results at the link above.

A few pics from Sail Sydney wind-foiling and wing-foiling races. the IQ foils got in 15 races over the 4 days and the WIngdings got 5 slalom races on Saturday and 5 Windward Leewards on Sunday.

Hi race comittee

Any news on a potential reschedule event from mid-Jan? Heat 3 conflicts with the Nationals in Melb.

Hi Race Committee, are we good to go for this weekend at Illawarra? regards Roger

Heat 4 scheduled for this weekend will not be ran due to the possible clash with competitors taking part in the rescheduled Australian Titles currently underway.

Apologies for the late notice.

Regards

Muz

Guys,

Round 5 of our disrupted season is on this SUNDAY at the Kurnell Cat Club on Botany Bay. This is actually only our second regatta.

As in previous years, parking will be difficult. The club are trying to get some parking arrangements for us, but nothing concrete yet.

The Sailing Instructions show briefing at 11:30am near the club entrance (normal place) and first possible race at 12:00

NOTE: PLEASE ENTER THE REGATTA AND PAY FOR IT AT THE KCC - don't use the WNSW entry portal for this round.

The forecast looks like a good NE'er - should be fun.

Good, but conservative, line-up at the first race today...

Race 1 and I think 4
Full arce length.
Follow links in videos to continue

The final round of the season is this Saturday at Marmong on Lake Macquarie. Briefing at 11:00 and first possible race at 12:00.
The forecast looks like a moderate NE'er.

Please use the WNSW payment portal for event entry.

Sorry for the lack of results for the Kurnell round - still waiting for the club to forward them on.

Here are the results from the Kurnell round They are shown here with one drop. Every race will be added to the season's results before the overall drops are "added" in.

A big thanks to the guys at Kurnell Cat Club for hosting the event and looking after us. It was particularly good getting the parking permits!

Sorry guys, the previous posted result totals were incorrect!

Series results, after 2 sailed rounds. One drop to 6 - 10 races, two drops from 11 - 15 races. See the NOR for scoring system.

Just a quick note to say that racing is ON this Saturday (5/3) at Marmong. Water levels & water quality have been "checked" and all seems OK. The forecast is showing a light NE'er.

Winds were lighter than forecast so the call was made to do Formula Slalom in about 6-10kts. Most of us struggled to get flying at some point but there were some great races, and some great disappointments! The iQ riders were at a disadvantage with 900cm2 wings against some 1000 riders on bigger boards and 10.0m sails instead of 9. But... if you could get it up, and keep it up, it was a pleasant days activity with lots of pumping!

Thanks to the organisers and volunteers, another well run event!

My favourite moment.... my first FormulaFoil race win! Not a course race... I don't care I'll take it!

See the race 4 action on youtube

Select to expand quote

CONGRATS Berowne!
Thanks for the video!

First up a big thanks to the volunteers on the boat... tremendous job getting the scores out on the day so thanks!


There was a good crowd of ~15 on the water, and conditions were tricky!
The wind was a slowly building NE from about 6-10 knots and after waiting until about 2pm the crowd agreed to try our first Slalom Formula Foil races. Seeing as everyone had eaten we also declared 5 races on the water with no break unless conditions changed.



The starts were tricky! There wasn't always a gust on the start line leaving many to slog it out for a while... I took over 2m to get flying in one race getting caught downwind of a group of sailors none of us able to break free. But other starts were 'easy' taking every piece of fitness, skill and equipment choice to get the most from the conditions.
Dave did well to recover from this 'forgot where the footstrap is" incident and chase me the whole race.


Light air gybes are tricky... I didn't recover from this underpowered pivot...

Doug landed this but stalled...


While Tibor had a hard time avoiding the crowded mark!


But despite the challenges, we mananged to get 5 races done with the foils proving to be a great development in windsurfing!



































Bring on next season!

Keep up the training over the winter boys!

I consider saturday's races at Marmong as a success. It's a format we haven't really tried till now.

I can imagine it as an addition to course racing as we know.

Perhaps 2-3-4 rounds before the start of the course racing. It could add more colour to the regattas. May even attract extra people looking in

We have plenty of time till September.

Let's hear more ideas on this or others.