Probably the best day I've had at sandstone point to date. Had to come home and have a few hours sleep afterwards. Plenty of breeze well overpowered with a 6.6. You know it was good when you end up with so many bruises. Won't be sailing tomorrow but might try to call in around lunch with the kids.

Was great day and are very sore and stiff, but I reckon I am up for some more this arvo.

I found my fin!

Janet got out with the 6.6 on the Metal Rock and I then realized I'd given her the boom I needed for the 7.8. In desperation I rigged it anyway, with zero outhaul. It was a bit of a pig to ride but you always learn something. Tony went past and I gave chase, and as he rounded up on the Lightning I bore away to try to gybe the Explosion and BANG, the fin was gone. Realized I'd transgressed into reef territory. I grid searched for ages then gave up, dragged the rig back in slowly, and having lost both my nicest fin and my enthusiasm I sat it out on the beach. We had to get back on time and with the tide dropping I left it to the the last possible minute and waded back out to the reef and after 5 minutes I FOUND IT! Unreal.

On another subject, Tony recently bought his Lightning from an older couple who'd stopped sailing and shifted house and were getting rid of their immaculate gear. After my recent post he told me that when he was buying the Lightning they also had a mint condition Metal Rock. He had said to them "don't give that away ... I know someone who would love that!" (thinking of Janet). Anyway, he kindly dug back through his phone to find their details and messaged them to ask if they still had the Metal Rock. I would have driven over there this morning to get it! But they eventually replied that when they hadn't sold it they cut it up and took it to the dump. Very sad. Really makes you feel sad about our wasteful consumer society doesn't it.

Great work finding that fin Andrew. Another lovely afternoon at the beach for us all today, just not enough push in the wind for me in the end, but it was my laziness that made me persist with the 7m sail instead of coming in and rigging the 7.8. Those guys on the long boards were awesome to watch, top conditions for them to play.

Yes the Windsurfer one design guys were great to watch - they had amazing skills. They really had the most fun of anyone today. I liked seeing the tricks ... helicopters and riding the rail etc. And they really seemed to make it a great family day - lots of wives and kids, and they spent ages with kids sitting on the front and back of the boards while Dad scooted back and forth. And kids with really good kiddie rigs having a go too.

Great reports

Feel like I'm missing out on all the fun

I'm going to try again this week - it's taken a week for my foot to recover from last weeks rehab on the water session. Hoping I've got it sorted enough to get some time in soon - going spare - starting to look at other adventure sports.

I'm on days off now - I'm up for any sailing going on

Cheers Jeff

Hey Jeff, Adam was sounding pretty keen for some afternoon sailing this week, he'd be worth a call. Stupid work will be interfering with my fun life again. You should buy another mx bike so every other part of your body will hurt so much you'll forget about your foot

Yeah I can vouch for the repercussions of dirt bike riding. My knees are still trashed from last Wednesday - can't kneel without using my arms - plus a multitude of other bruises etc. Windsurfing is the one thing that DOESN'T seem to hurt me at the moment! (except the rigging up - that hurts).

Looks like it's game on again for sunday at Pebble Beach, is anyone heading over to Turner's for a cheeky little late arvo session tomorrow in the NE seabreeze? I'm going to bust a gut in the morning at work and try to sneak away after lunch if I can.

It's probably about time I dug out my gear to see if I can remember how to use it, assuming it hasn't fallen apart/ been eaten. It's been quite a few years since I've used it and looking at the comments Sandstone Point might be the spot to try. I think the last place I tried was Victoria Point.

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Befree001 said...
It's probably about time I dug out my gear to see if I can remember how to use it, assuming it hasn't fallen apart/ been eaten. It's been quite a few years since I've used it and looking at the comments Sandstone Point might be the spot to try. I think the last place I tried was Victoria Point.

Get out there!

I'll be there on Sunday as long as the forecast lives up to expectations.

Cool, Adam and I sailed Turners this arvo. Adam used his 7.5 and I used a 7. I should have used the 7.8 as I just didn't have enough go all the time. Nice afternoon though.

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Befree001 said..
It's probably about time I dug out my gear to see if I can remember how to use it, assuming it hasn't fallen apart/ been eaten. It's been quite a few years since I've used it and looking at the comments Sandstone Point might be the spot to try. I think the last place I tried was Victoria Point.

I would like to come back up for Sunday. What time?

My board is 30 this year and still goes ok so you'll be fine.
I found Vicky point rougher than Sandstone - hard work. Also more beach starts than water starts at Sandstone + a great bunch to sail with

High tide is just after 9am so it'll be morning sailing till around lunchtime. Hopefully the wind will come in tonight and be blowing SE first thing and we'll get a good sail in.

Can someone post in the morning if the wind has come in. I'm very tempted. Whats the street name from where you sail?

Street is Oxley Place, I can,t sail today, but will call past to say hi.

The wind came in last night, when I first woke up it was blowing pretty hard but it's dropped slightly right now and then supposed to come back in again through the morning. Oxley Place is where we go.

It looks great for tomorrow morning, but Janet and I have to be somewhere else. We're thinking of going Tuesday morning to catch the 10am high tide, if the wind holds up.

Great morning sail another good turn out to sandstone good to see dunken again 7 sailers today big thank you to john for picking me up n my gear as my car brock down yesterday

You're not getting out of it that easy Adam, you've gotta work on that shopping trolley idea, it's only a 5 min walk from your place. Great morning sail though, as usual I wished I used a bigger sail, but as usual I couldn't be shagged messing around and changing once I'm going.

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Paddles B'mere said..

Looks like a lovely spot

Hi all,
So Sandstone is only sailable on either side of hightide?
Is it because the walk out is too far or the water is just not deep enough?

Was on the north side of Brissy on Saaturday night and was going to come up your way on Sunday but was worried about the early tide with the wind coming in later in the day.

Thanks in advance

No water. There is a big shoal that extends about 2 km of the beach. So no chance of walking out to deeper water as it is pretty flat. As the tide drops you start touching bottom a long way out.
Does keep it reasonably flat compared with the passage.
Plenty of other deep water spots around, but will be rougher and you will have the current to contend with too.

Well it was happy Tuesday at Sandstone, I joined Andrew and Janet for a sail and it's been a stunning few hours sailing with around 15kn of wind and clear skies with plenty of sun. A few kiters showed up to sail the low tide through the afternoon but up till then we had it to ourselves. I went out with the 7m sail and it just wasn't enough power to plane everywhere all the time so went in and rigged up the 7.8m for the first time. Now this is the biggest sail I've ever sailed with so I had to do a bit of mucking around to get myself comfortable with it but it was definitely the right choice and I'll be using it more in future. Even though the boom was set longer than the setting for the 7m, I had to move the harness lines towards the mast by about 15cm and the mast base right to the back of the track to get the balance right which was just weird, good power in the 15kn breeze though.

thanks ballast

Janet and I went windsurfing at Sandstone Point to celebrate my birthday today!

Initially it was just generally totally frustrating - took me ages to rig up, partly because when you have to work the rigging for 2 people it can be tricky - some bits only work with some sails and I had to derig Janet's mast extension so I could use it. Then her fin started to fall out way and she left the board and rig way way down the far end and walked back ... we both walked back with another board and I realized I'd taken the screw out (US/classic box) to use as a sample to buy some more, but I'd forgotten to put it in. I do lots of stupid things.

Janet then rode the newly acquired Astro Rock and loved it. She was using an excellent Aerotech 6.2 cambered sail that we'd got for next to nothing with the board. Only problem was that the deck grip treatment I'd done (epoxy with sugar thrown on it) was way too aggressive and she was getting severe skin abrasions every time she swiped it.

After more rigging I was out on newly acquired Metal Rock no. 2 and loved it. But both of us were getting totally frustrated at basically failing to make any improving at gybing. Lots of crashing into the water and floundering. And a bit of swearing on my part.

We stopped for lunch and a cuppa; Janet re-watched Youtube gybing videos on her phone and when we went back out, we had picked up our act. Both of us were getting more gybes than we missed. The highlight of the day was when the 2 of us were actually planing a long reach back and forth together and staying upright in the gybes … I can’t actually remember when the 2 of us were actually out sailing at the same time, let alone side by side, because in our heyday one of us had to be on the shore minding kids. It was a very good feeling and I’m really chuffed to have an amazing wife who does this stuff. I know it sounds weird, but doing that sort of thing together rekindles our romance! Oh, and she can really cook too.

John is going great - he just keeps working away at it and his skill level is better every time I see him.

Jonno arrived in a big planing spray and a crash as he attempted a duck gybe, having sailed from Bongaree. We all played around and tried to race each other for half an hour or so until the water was getting low and we had to head home anyway. We went home smiling, feeling like confident gybing may not be the mathematical impossibility we thought!

Happy birthday Andrew!
Great to see you are all still getting some really good wind there.
I"m still at Wallaga Lake near Bermagui and had a good NE session on the 7.0
otherwise its just sitting around fishing or sitting around reading or sitting around lunching at the country club or sitti....you get the picture.
Another week to go and we'll be homeward bound, save me some wind

Hi Pete, great to hear from you in the deep, dark south again. There's just too much wind up here at the moment and it's making us not want to go and do that thing you call an intrusion ........... Work! You don't have that problem though, so I'm looking forward to wagging work and having a few quiet mid week sails with you on your return. Jeff's going stir crazy with his foot and buying motorbikes, hopefully he'll be back in the game again shortly too.