Got to Swansea on Saturday afternoon just as a bit of a front was coming through, SW at around 30 knots. Looked like the ideal conditions for a run over to Dolphin Sands.

It was "hook in and hold on", and keeping the board in the water was challenging at times. The wind had whipped up a soild 3 foot surf and messy chop. Even bearing away I was half sheeted out and averaged nearly 22 knots for the second kilometre. Peak speed was 23.7 knots, and that was when I was trying to slow down. At the crest of each swell I had to drop the windward rail to keep the board from lifting out of the water. Controlling a 3.7m board as it lifts off in 30 knots had its moments!

By the time I got to Dolphin Sands and re-grouped the wind was down around 15 knots and made a far more leisurely sail back to Swansea. Great stuff.

Clarence

www.strava.com/activities/217133488/analysis

Excellent clarence, sounds great ! Any plan for if the wind went westerly when at the Dolphin Sands end? I've recently got a Starboard Rio (with centreboard) and doing some coast runs is on my agenda also, so its interesting to hear of your exploits!

Well done Clarence...quite an adventure

Hey Clarence
That's a run Johnny and I have talked about but we only talk the talk. You definitely walk the walk.

My darling wife was going to pick me up at the other end at Dolphin Sands, but I got there so quick she hadn't even left Swansea, so I called her up to let her know and then sailed back.

You guys can all come along and "walk the walk". Great thing is, if things stuff up you drift into the beach and walk out 100m to the Dolphin Sands road - all you need is a darling wife (or similar) to do the pick up. The Rio would be great for this sort of sailing Tgale.

I was also scoping the coast south of Swansea down to Boltons Beach- about 40km. I've got some pictures to post. In a typical NE summer seabreeze it would be magic, and about 1.5 hrs drive from either Hobart or Launceston (and St Helens, Iceman).

Clarence

Yea sounds great Clarence.
You're a lucky man to, not only, drive for a sail, but get taxi'd as well... far out. I thought I had it all!

Great Oyster bay has so many options, but being ~15km wide, and prevailing winds all offshore, there is a lot of ocean in front of you.
Thanks to gear failure, I've been rescued by so many boaters, and spent hours on the Coles Bay island that many times in some pretty wild weather.
Everything from UJ's, masts, fins and winds to 140km.
The swell that comes in on anything with a S in it gets a good couple of meters in it too, things can get pretty messy once you get out there, and not easy to tell from the shore!

We'll be doing slalom/freeride runs up and down from Swanwick to Swansea next time, making sure we have a backup plan, but on the right wind.

It's a superb area to sail, and if the wind is coming the other way, you can drive to the other side of the peninsular in around 45mins. I'd be carrying a phone or having a support craft if you're planning something big offshore though.

A great run that I used to do on my One Design was below - around 20km all up, in the summer seabreeze NE'ers 15-20kn every afternoon.
Highly recommend it.

Clarence, I hear you. Not sure if I'm game enough to head that far out with my gear though. Shorter runs???

The wind is often offshore in summer at Coles Bay, but along the western side of the bay (Swansea down the coast towards Orford) that will make it cross-onshore in those conditions.

The coast down there is pretty interesting, and has multiple pull-out/rest points (places where the other half can be waiting on the beach in a bikini with scones and tea.... while driving the taxi). The beaches and coastline are very picturesque also. In those conditions it could be run of a few km down to Spiky Beach, or 40km down to Boltons Beach. I will post some pictures soon.

By the way Johnny, how do you do that overlay map thing?

I think for the run along Dolphin Sands it needs to be timed right with the wind. I was lucky enough to be there at a good time.

On my run over to Dolphin Sands I was never more than a few hundred metres offshore. The only risk was getting blown off the water and onto the beach .

Clarence