The FreeRace event scheduled for March in Hervey Bay is being moved to Lake Cootharaba this Saturday 14 March 2015. Jonesey has asked me to post that sign-on is planned for 11:30am at Boreen Point, either sailing club or usual rigging area (to be confirmed). See you all there - woohoo!

Thank you Andy...

The forecast looks great for this Saturday so FreeRace is ON at the Lake..
Sign on at 11.30 in front of the Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club...see you there...and yes you can register on our website at http://www.windwanderers.org.au/Events/FreeRace/OnlineEntryFees.aspx

Drinks in the LCSC club house after FeeRace...woho...

Thanks guys for getting the ball rolling,
Great forecast for Saturday, as its been a really dodgy season for wind its been decided to make the most of the conditions as we are presented, quite wisely.

So the WINDSURFING GEAR Hervey Bay March event has slipped a little south to Lake Cootharaba this Saturday, sign on from 11.30, great forecast of 20+knts.

You can enter on line via the Freerace Queensland Website, Windwanderers Website, or on the day, we will be either in front of the sailing club or at the old grass rigging area (well pre fancy house that is!)

Rumour is there is a bunch coming from the Gold Coast and Brisbane so will be great to have good fleet, positions for the series are wide open, with only this and Sandgate to go, and its great practice for those considering Green Island Nats this winter.

Don't forget the KA72 software now has 'races within the race' so lots of category opportunities bragging rights amongst your mates.

All entrants go into the end of season draw for great prizes from Severne, Starboard and Flying Objects.


See you up there.

We will be there - Motel is booked - looking forward to it - woo hoo. Jaye is coming up to beat his first score of 3.25kts in the hour

Links to the results and replay video have been posted to the Freerace facebook page:
www.facebook.com/freeraceq?fref=nf

Cheers,

Dylan

Thanks Dylan. For those not on Facebook here is the reply from yesterday. Thanks to all those that attended to make a great day at the lake.
Cheers
Marty

Hi Guys and Girls some pics from yesterdays Free Race no. 4 Thanks to Andy and Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club and Kelly for the Number crunching. Was another action packed, fun filled windsurfing adventure :-)

Looks pretty windy!

Sure was was great

Another great event by the Windwanders and Freerace team. Some close tussles on the day.

Is it true Brad listerns to classical music to make him go fast?

Great FR session, great conditions, especially as the hour went on the wind was better 2nd half when it really cranked!.

Special thanks to all that pulled it together, Windsurfing Gear, Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club, KA72, Kelly Morgan for the Pic's & Our new Flag Girl Anita!!

It was great to see it run in auto pilot pretty much, lots of people getting involved, rustling people, posting news, updates, replays, photo's, especially even more appreciated as it was a late decision to go, even better to see such a wide group of sailors from all over the place far and wide, even Sydney guests, thanks for joining in Dean!

Personally I didn't think I was even going to be able to make it as was over committed on Sat, and I have been really impressed by how so many people stood up and played a role before and on the day, BIG THANKS! It does show how quick and easy it can be to run a FR and a few extra pairs of hands makes light work.
I made it on the water with 10 seconds to spare, (Thanks Macro for the fin rigging and a choice of non cam quick rig sail!) no chance to test sail the gear or even look at conditions properly, chaos! Not rigged right but managed the hour ok.

And yes I did make it to the Catering gig on time, and everyone was well fed and happy! But I would have preferred an extra hour on the water and cold beer from the bar at the club!

We are lucky to have access to such a great venue and facilities, makes these things quite easy to do.

We scheduled 5 Freeraces for the Season and will do our best to come through with the goods and complete 5, After the festivities of Wind Fest Week, we will be watching the weather and tides, and working with Padi At Surf Connect Sandgate for the Inaugural Jetty to Jetty FR in 'April', stay tuned.

Results

Great to see you got another event in. The conditions look perfect.

Made a video of my day on the water. Spent too much time in windless holes but still fun none the less.
Cheers
Marty

Nice video! I sat my lap top on my lap and bounced up and down with the bumps, it seemed to make it a smooth ride to watch!

That actually was a pretty smooth day! When the wind cranks harder it gets much messier than that, (last years super windy days were a big test of sailing in rougher waters) funny how the wind waves work...windier it gets bigger the waves...unless you have the luxury of a speed bank that is

It's interesting to watch your video and then GPS replay, well probably not for you because the video clearly puts you way out in front! haha! Not sure what Dean was up to, seemed to be sitting down on the job a bit...he did murmur something to me about X$%$!!! race sails filling up with water afterwards!

Classic Lake C Hole you found there! you get that on the lakes, the wind is always gusty even on big blows...need to rig for the lulls not the gusts!

Would be great to mix your video with the GPS replay and Morgan's pics, make a great presentation....FR4 was a good one, and pretty tightly contested.

That's the problem with gusty lakes - you either go a big board for the lulls and get bashed to bits in the chop or a small one that it is ok in the rough but then a pain when the wind drops.

Yeah Jonesy it wasn't one of my better sails. I made lots of mistakes. I had a 6.2 and 7.8 rigged and needed the extension from the 7.8 and the boom from the 6.2m to rig the 7.0m. Thought I had a bit of time to derig two and rig one but tried to do it all in 15 min which I couldn't manage. I realised afterwards that I rigged my 7.0 wrong I still don't know how but the downhaul was about 4 or 5 cms short and I didn't dare put any more weight on it as everything was creaking. Anyway I was all out of sorts and the conditions where challenging. Felt a bit embarassed afterwards, but getting used to it. Blamed the race sail afterwards like every bad carpenter blames his tools, but looking back on it, it was a rigging fault on my part. Yes a 6.5m NCX would have been perfect though. The water was nice and warm though. More time on water needed. Don't know about rigging for the lulls some of them you would of needed a 10m to keep going.

Nothing embarrassing goes on in FR, everyone has a disaster story/race day.
Good thing in FR is you bugger a gybe or find a lull its not game over, as you have the entire hour and it's likely that everyone else will drop a gybe or two or find a lull or three...kind of all evens out in the end.. important part is to keep going, to get that speed averaged up.

Had 1 week on your ol' 6.5 NCX a little while ago...nice ride, since then hasn't been windy enough to dust it off!!