Is it loads faster than Sandy point or are the speedsailors that go there just a lot better than the Victorian ones......?






<dons flamesuit and locks himself in cellar with five months' worth of food>

Yes it's loads faster than Sandy Pt, but so would of Sandy 24 years ago...
Why?...
The wind is obviously consistent/solid and not changing direction, the man made channel has been built to take advantage of this.
The water is very flat.

Quite simple really, solid consistent wind and flat water, good technique, some off the shelf production gear, a pair o balls, or ovaries for that matter as there is two women battling it out both with 45 500's at the moment.

As to the skill? level you refer to, well your comparing at least say for example 4 out of the 5 guys that have done a 50 knot 500m recently that are well seasoned PWA sailors! Not sure about Jurjen but he's a top GPSSS sailor like myself and others here in Vic and the rest of Australia. So are they better? well I'd hope so with all that time and experience that they have spent on the water throughout their careers, but it does not mean we can't keep em on their toes.

Don't mean to gloat but my 500 average was up there with AA's for some time, around .38 of knot off and comparable though measured differently. To note Sailrocket crew just mentioned that there Navi Gps 500m data is very close to there Trimble system they use for WR data. So you can make your own conclusions there, and as to wether who's better etc, I just like to think we do pretty well and should be proud of it. The sail, fin and board I used were all Australian designed as well.

Us Vic's/Aussies now mostly being weekend warriors compete with the rest of the world quite well considering. For Gps rankings over 500m as I write this I'm currently 8th, Chris L WA 9th, Mal W VIC 15th, Tony W VIC 16th, this will surely change again when the Luderitz comp is over and we will be pushed further down the rankings.....

www.gps-speedsurfing.com/default.aspx?mnu=rankings

If you compare my record day back in 2009 and the fact that we have not had another opportunity like it or better conditions than that day to what you see in Luderitz, its evident one can't compare the two locations except for flat water, but also how much of it for the run. Sandy is affected by tide, hence affecting windows of opportunity, and the dunes well let's not go there.

To some Luderitz may appear a walk in the park if you forget about the width of the channel but it still requires skill to get a good start get settled and enter its set course at the highest speed possible, 93 kph would be good. It will be interesting to see gps track point results when made available, and I'm pretty sure such would be the reason they moved the start gates another 20m down the course before the second onslaught of great speeds recently.

Cheers

I would say that given these guys and girls currently charging at Nambia are pretty much professionals that our weekend warriors have a better skill set(yes I will go out on a limb) to be amongst them for so long. Lets not even consider that we are comparing a man made track to take the best of the conditions compared to a natural track made and constantly altered by Mother Nature. Also to see some of the speeds achieved on Aussie designed gear ie Mistral board by C Lockwood and Sailrocket by a crew in WA again shows you the Aussie are definitely in the mix. Well done to our Aussie boys! and great to see the others charging and raising that bar yet again.

As of Friday 16 Nov this 'sailing rocket' has achieved a 500m average of just over 59 Knots in a true windspeed averaging 24 knots at an angle of approx 100 degrees to their initial take off run. Visit their www I think they are expecting to do more speed runs through to December in the expectation of achieving the mid 60's!!!

www.sailrocket.com/

Apologies for disguising my question as a troll... was genuinely interested!