Hi. I made a trip to WA for a week in late November and a week over December/January last year. I sailed in Safety Bay both times, and compared to Sydney, I was very impressed with the wind.

The week in November was about 3 or 4 out of 7 days sailable, with some light days, whereas the week in December/January was 6 days out of 7, with a nice 20knot wind most days. I even learnt that 36knots is too much for a 6.6m, a 6.2m, a 5.7m, a 5.4m and even a 5.0m :)

Now the question that I have for you lucky so and so's in WA, is when would you expect the season to really start blowin'? I've read on some postings that it starts in November, but when I was there in November, most of the locals were saying that it was a pretty poor start to the season. Does the windy season really start in Nov? When does the sea-breeze come to an end? March?

I'm trying to organise a few of us to come over in November, and I'm trying to decide if last year was unlucky, or whether January would be a better bet?

Also, any pointers on where to stay if I spent a week in Safety Bay? Is it worth staying in Perth or anywhere else and driving down?

Funnily enough, I didn't see too many 7.5m sails while I was there.... why is that :)

Thanks,
Dale.

The West Oz summer seabreeze season extends over 4 months of the year. Nov, Dec, Jan & Feb. I'm calling it a little conservatively here. Sometimes you might get luckly and score a month of sailing either side of early/late season. The climate pattern varies from year to year.

If you have a 50% success rate, ie, if you sail 3 or 4 days in 7, you've scored. So in reality, you only sail just over 2 months out of a whole year.
Not much really.

(But you sail more if you sail winter)

And heaps more if you kitesurf.

I guess I could actually post the data, just in case anyone cares and can't be bother looking at the BoM: (sorry about the formatting!)

Freemantle Mean 3pm Wind Speed (km/hr)
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun,
27.0, 23.2, 22.4, 20.3, 18.0, 20.9,


Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec, Avg,
20.6, 21.0, 20.4, 24.4, 26.7, 27.0, 22.6

Thanks Laurie.

I actually stayed at a place Simon rented for a few of us last year, and the owners have their own web site for it. I wanted to see if there was anything else around. I'll email him anyway, or ask him when I'm in Fiji!

The work situation means that its more likely to be one week in November/December and one week in January. That means there'll be at least two weeks without much wind!

Then again, you can go weeks in Sydney without a decent sailing day, and of course they occur mid-week :) I'll bring an 11m sail with me, which will result in a 2 weeks of 30knot winds!

Dale.