Henley to Semaphore Race
Race from Henley to Semaphore.
This is ~8 km direct line and expected to take 30 - 60 mins, depending on the conditions.
When: Green SW'ly arrows on Seabreeze during the holding period & consensus amongst organisers
Holding Period: 1st/2nd, 15th/16th, 22nd/23rd, 30th December 2018
Called: based on the forecast around noon on Friday - here at this post
Event Briefing: 3 pm
Cost: Free to WSA members (join up here)
Registration - Marlborough St, Henley Beach, from 3 pm
Briefing - 3:30 pm - you need to be at the event briefing to participate in the event
Car Shuffle - Organisers will leave transport at Semaphore ready for the car shuttle.
If you have a buddy coming then organise to leave a car at Semaphore
Eligibility - competent wind surfers who can water start, gybe and plane comfortably in choppy conditions.
Comfortable sailing for 1 h in changing conditions, mainly on a broad reach
Equipment - Floater board, PFD and mobile phone in waterproof case recommended
Event entry fee - free for WindSurfingSA members. Join online at
(windsurfingsa.org.au/
Windsurfer definition: (Wikipedia) It consists of a board usually 2.5 to 3 meters long, with displacements typically between 60 and 250 litres, powered by wind on a sail. The rig is connected to the board by a free-rotating universal joint and consists of a mast, boom and sail. The sail area generally ranges from 2.5 m2 to 12 m2

If it's on Saturday, it's going to have to be a Sem2Hen

Not this weekend
- Saturday forecasts are divided about when the main front is going to arrive (looks like surfing weather to me!).
- Sunday seems to depend on whether it gets sunny?
Not next weekend either - one of the organisers is away.
Still another 5 days left in the holding period.
Stay tuned to this post!

Not this weekend (15/16th) either

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Coming to the end of the holding period so we're calling it for Saturday 22nd December based on this forecast:


Forecast for Saturday, 22 December

Winds: Southerly 10 to 15 knots becoming southwesterly in the middle of the day then increasing to 15 to 20 knots during the afternoon.

Registrations from 3 pm
Event Briefing at 3:30 pm at Marlborough St - You need to be at the briefing to participate.
There will be some time to rig after the briefing.

Hope to see you there!

Good luck with the Race, hope conditions are great for it.

Bugger - can't make it today - family obligations I can't get out of. Hopefully next time - good luck to all.

5 Sailors, good fun, hard work doing a single 8km reach fully lit!!!

Well done to James for organizing.
Congrats to Richard - not sure how you could keep that speed up so far off the wind.
Well done Juan for sticking with it.
Ty, hope you are OK and everything in one piece, apart from the boom.
Result of my own high speed catapult below: Busted sail and nice battle scar on shin from one of those moments when you know it's coming but can't do anything about it as you bury the nose at 25knots. It would have been a "Cannonball" but stayed hooked in and impact wasn't pretty. (Thanks Simon for lending me the PFD. Should have worn it on my leg!!)


Wipeout resulted in watch GPS stopping 300m from finish!
8.62Km in 15.21 mins
Average speed 33.7kmh or 19 knots
Max speed 51.6kmh or 27.8 knots

Thanks for participating. Here are the placings:
1. Richard Upton
2. Mark Tinnion
3. James Thomson
4. Juan Hierro
DNF Ty Andrews

Congratulations to Richard on your 16 minute time!
Mark - your leg and the 4 m shark Clyde was telling us about aren't associated?
Sympathies to Ty who went out guns blazing on a 7.5 but broke his boom in a big smash and was unable to complete.
Great work Juan - hanging onto that big sail!

Here is my wave board run (Starboard Kode 87 in single fin mode, Ezzy Wave Tiger 6.0):

I'm all good
Biggest crash I've ever had and only 500m into the race.

Boom let go and then I was a passenger.
Thank god it was at the start

Thanks Guys for organizing the event and next time I'll bring smaller gear..

That was a great race in perfect conditions! Plenty of wind, plenty of chop! Thanks James for organising, and thanks to everyone who turned up on the day. Yep, I snagged the win by being able to go a bit deeper off the wind, but probably a bit slower. Back leg felt the burn after the first 5 min . The wind seems a bit more behind you in the last few km, looking at the map this makes sense as you follow the slight bend in the coast.

According to my GPS, stats were:
Elapsed time 15:17 from flag drop to standing on beach
Average moving speed: 31.7 km/h (17.1 knots)
Max speed: 44.7 km/h (24.1 knots)

Gear was a 107 L Thommen CrossX board, 6.4 Hot Sails KS3. Used a weed fin. Not sure whether that was a good idea or not.

Is that the famous
Mr Cannonball
Behind James in Picture

After Mark's and my efforts
I think it's fitting that we rename the event



THE CANNONBALL RUN

Thanks James for organising had a great time look forward to next year again loads of big wipeouts though

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TAA said..
Is that the famous
Mr Cannonball
Behind James in Picture

After Mark's and my efforts
I think it's fitting that we rename the event



THE CANNONBALL RUN

Yes hahaa that's gold