My wife has a conference in Melbourne for a week starting this Saturday.
I am coming along in the supportive spouse role.
I am an avid windsurfer... the wife will be busy all day for 7 days... the mind wanders to::

What are the chances that I could get out for a day or two of sailing in the greater Melbourne area (Bay or Coast?)?
That would really check something off the bucket list. I could rent a car and I'm willing to drive as required.

My home turf is 3rd Ave, Treasure Island and Crissy Field in the SF Bay, Wadell Creek on our coast. I also get in a fair amount of sailing on the north and south shore of Maui. On a 25 mph day I might be on my 4.4 and 74l Goya wave board.

If wind and sailing are possible I was wondering if there was someone or somewhere where I could rent a kit? What are the potential sailing spots? Anyone to sail with? I was also wondering what parts of my kit I should bring. Can I rent a wetsuit... or should I bring my 4/3... bring my harness, etc ??

Thanks up front for any help.
Cheers,
erik

Hey Erik,

Down here at the Zu Boardsports we have a good selection of gear you can take out here in the bay, or if you have a car take it down to the coast!!

Check out our website - www.thezu.com.au/

Chat soon!

Steve

The bay isn't that warm but a 4/3 is probably overkill this time of year. I will likely be wearing a springsuit or 3/2 this weekend.
Chances are you will get a few days over the next week of reasonable wind.

Youll need to drive about an hour to get waves - there will be bumps in the bay, but for surfable waves look at 1-1.5 hours drive from the city. Either Torquay way (west) or the Mornington Peninsula (east). You should do both - bay and surf-coast! You've got 7 days to kill after all.

Melbourne is right on Port Philip Bay and out the back door of Zu Boardsports you are on the sand for Bay sailing. If you are staying in the city and happy with bay sailing I wouldn't worry about a car - just get on a tram or taxi to Zu - its only 5-10km from the City and you can sail directly from there. Easier than hiring a car, paying for parking etc etc. when you don't need to lug gear around.

If there's wind there will be plenty out there.

Hope this helps!

Tuesday looks OK for a Northerly, best bet is Green Point in Brighton, the guys at the ZU will be able to point you in the right direction.

Eric,

Wednesday looks good, with up to 30 kts, SW.

Go to Zu, rent gear, rig and sail behind their shop. Easy.

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SFShred said..
My wife has a conference in Melbourne for a week starting this Saturday.
I am coming along in the supportive spouse role.
I am an avid windsurfer... the wife will be busy all day for 7 days... the mind wanders to::

What are the chances that I could get out for a day or two of sailing in the greater Melbourne area (Bay or Coast?)?
That would really check something off the bucket list. I could rent a car and I'm willing to drive as required.

My home turf is 3rd Ave, Treasure Island and Crissy Field in the SF Bay, Wadell Creek on our coast. I also get in a fair amount of sailing on the north and south shore of Maui. On a 25 mph day I might be on my 4.4 and 74l Goya wave board.

If wind and sailing are possible I was wondering if there was someone or somewhere where I could rent a kit? What are the potential sailing spots? Anyone to sail with? I was also wondering what parts of my kit I should bring. Can I rent a wetsuit... or should I bring my 4/3... bring my harness, etc ??

Thanks up front for any help.
Cheers,
erik

Bucket list...

Drive the great ocean road, get a flight over the apostles, surf or sup somewhere on the peninsula (ask on their threads for forecast advice), play golf on a course where there are kangaroos around the greens, hang out in Federation square and try to work out whether you think it's nice or ugly, sit in narrow alleyways (eg de graves) wearing black drinking lots of good coffee (there is one starbucks per million people in Victoria - because people won't drink it), have some italian food on Lygon street, steak on hardware lane, go to the MCG or the other cathedrals.

Spend a day in Sandy point... in an easterly, sail off the other side of the inlet spit... called "Long arms" because it's nearly a km walk with kit across a dune.

You'll be lucky with the last one.

Hello Folks,
Thanks for all this great input.
I'm here in Melbourne. Arrived Friday mid day.
My wife had a free day from the conference on Saturday so we rented a car for the day.
First stop was Torquay. With her along the theme was touring... so we waded into the Rip Curl & co stores, waded into the surf at that first big half moon beach, then looked longingly at the surf & surfers at Bells. Impressive! Then we had lunch in Lorne drove the Great Ocean road, thoroughly enjoyed a short rain forest walk and checked out the 12 Apostles.

We also found some Melbourne alleyway restaurants. As to the coffee. Hmm. We have different concepts. I'm looking to keep the positive input coming so I will just say I need to do more Research. Will defer further coffee commentary to some other forum

Thank you for all the links. I'm excited to hear about the big blow coming Wednesday. I'll check in w/ ZU Boardsports and plan to arrive with the wind... whenever that may be. That does sound easy. In the SF Bay tides make a huge difference... big swells on our ebbs. Here to? Maybe I'll see you Wednesday.
Cheers
erik

BTW, I think the architecture in Federation Square is great. I'll probably head back to check out the Bowie exhibition some morning.
I'm sure the square is even nicer filled with folks listening to music. I see pride in architecture just about everywhere I look.
I had a great run around the Olympic Park this morning... and enjoyed a stroll in the Botanical Garden. Looked like the ball boys and girls at the Tennis Center were in training for the Australian Open in January. I can only imagine taking in one of those matches.
erik

If you're into flat water speed at all, get yourself down to Sandy Point. One of the best natural speed runs in the world. And you can go wave sailing in the bay as well.

Not sure whether it'll work for the forecast but you should really consider it.

Sandy Point speed will be ON this Wednesday! Well worth the trip if you want a taste of it. about 185km, 2-1/4 hrs drive SE of Melbourne

PM me on this forum and I can arrange suitable speed board and GPS for you, and a sail etc if you need it. There will be a few of us keen Speedies at the inlet by 8am for sure. Close to perfect speed conditions from then 'till mid afternoon by the way the forecast is shaping up and the tides. Hell, you should be able to go 30+ knots on a wave board if you want to!

Whoops!! Forecast has disappeared for Wednesday at SP. What a strange season!!

Taking the 16 out to The ZU now. Hoping that 20-30 forecast for this afternoon holds.
Worth the gamble, I figure.

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SFShred said..
Taking the 16 out to The ZU now. Hoping that 20-30 forecast for this afternoon holds.
Worth the gamble, I figure.

Looks like there might be decent wind around 4pm'ish.

Cheers Melbourne,

Thank you for all the help and advice. It worked out that I got in 2 great days of sailing at St Kilda.

The conditions exceeded my hopes. Wednesday 21 Oct was indeed windy, but not as windy as Thursday turned out to be. Both were very grey days. It even was raining out there a bit on Thursday. Wednesday I sailed about 2.5 hours. It started lighter, but the last 2 hours were about 24 knots. Thursday I was out for about 1.5 hours and it was fully 30 knots that day.

The ZU was great at getting me setup... I had brought nothing with me but a towel. I was on the smallest board they had available... an 84l Starboard Quad. This was OK for Wednesday, but quite a big board on Thursday. I was OP'd both days. Wed I was on a Saverne 5.2... should have been on a 4.7. Thursday they suggested the same 5.2 and I had to insist we find a smaller sail. I was able to hang onto the Saverne 4.7, but I did spend some mental energy out there imagining being on my home setup for those conditions... a 74l Goya single fin and my Goya Eclipse 4.1 (with my adjustable outhaul!)

The swell and rollers out there were way fun. Some very smooth head high long wavelength ramps. There was some lovely downwind swell riding from the yellow buoy, by the harbor entrance down to the beach breakwater. Good Stuff. In the San Francisco Bay we might get conditions like Thursday about 3 or 4 times a year on a flood tide. (Our ebb tides produces shorter wave length type 'half pipes'... more common).

I can say with certainty that I heretofore have never taken a tram to go to/from a windsurf outing.

We thoroughly enjoyed our 8 days in Melbourne. This beautiful city is quite functional and just seems to work!

If any of you are in San Francisco and have some time for windsurfing I would be happy to get you oriented and maybe even get in a session together.
Steve at The ZU has my email.
April and May are our windiest months. June - Sept produce our summer thermals. There is rampy SF Bay sailing and coastal wave sailing.

erik