Lake Lefroy Land Sailing Club inc
Est. 1970
Lake Lefroy - Home of the Viking Land Yacht 1898

September long weekend
Speed trial and marathon results
And race report
First pilots and yachts began to arrive on the preceeding Sunday and commenced sailing on the Monday. Lake conditions at the time were smooth and dry with ample wind. Monday afternoon saw a passing front and rain over the lake. Over the next 4 days southerly winds pushed the water north and east leaving us with ample room to sail. No sailing on the Tuesday, with strong SE winds.
Wednesday saw Jim Hansen and party arrive early to represent South Australia, Thanks for making the effort to drive over Jim.
First locals arrived before lunch, Paul Day and his fleet of 6 small yachts. Due to the rains he decided that there wasn’t enough room for VINDICATOR with other yachts on the Lake.
Local Wayne Thomas and his small fleet joined the growing group late in the day.
Thursday dawned dry and windy with the first class 5’s venturing out to sail. By afternoon the winds had increased and the 5’s went for a nap whilst we attempted to sail minis . most of us managed to sail about 300m from the shelter of the sand dunes before being overcome by sheer wind and lack of traction . sails of 2 and 3m were common.
The Bridgetown team of Vic and Barry were now out and sailing minis with tiny sails and giant grins.
Wayne had now set up a weather station 0.5 kms out on the lake and gust of 70kph were recorded during Thursday night. Thursday afternoon saw common gusts of 40kph.
Friday 25th September. Day 1 of the inaugural GPS speed trials. The days average wind speed a gentle but steady 16kph! The days sailing consisted of a group about 8 yachts cruising from point to point on the lake in short 5km leaps to view the various access points and features.



GPS Results Friday 25th sept 2009. Av windspeed 16kph
Name class best speed(kph)
Vic Bermingham 5 74.52
Wayne Thomas LLMini unrestricted 61.7
Wayne Thomas 5 restricted 75.7
Paul Day LLMini restricted 74.52
Barry Pulford 5 restricted 67.7

Saturday 26th September, Day 2
1st attempt at the Lightning Nickel Marathon .
Race black flagged due to failing wind …………..
The course was set to take advantage of a 20kph easterly with 4 laps of 12 kms each. The wind shifted to a nor-easter minutes before the start and failed without any yachts achieving the second mark.

Sunday 27th September Day 3
Congratulation to all the pilots who got moving and attended the 7.30 am pilots briefing and had their yachts on the line at 8.15 on the dot for a 8.17 am start to the rerun of the Lightning Nickel Marathon.
Light easterlies overnight and a morning northerly of 16kph had caused water to start flowing onto the course.Already marker no1 was flooded and the course shortened. 10 class 5 yachts lined up for the start.The 4 lap race lasted 1hr 30mins if you were the winner with a distance sailed of around 55kms.
For those with GPS we can confirm that all the yachts completed 5 laps.It was interesting to see that no yachts were lapped , despite the distance and time involved .
Results.
1st Vic Bermingham Aus 230
2nd Paul Day AUS 3
3rd Travis Bartlett Aus 220
GPS speeds recorded for the marathon . av wind speed 12kph
Name class speed(kph)
Vic Bermingham 5 65.26
Paul Day 5restricted 65.01
Travis Bartlett 5restricted 64.4
Barry Pulford 5restricted 62.5
Wayne Thomas 5 restricted 63.3


The Andrew Bates Perpetual Marathon Shield. This is a shield presented to the club in the mid 1980’s that had never been raced for. Recently discovered in a box of club trophies, it was decided to use this as a marathon award for the Lake Lefroy Mini class .
After a short break for breakfast pilots returned to the lake to race again in minis, however the wind failed for most of the fleet at the northernmost mark leaving only Travis Bartlett sailing. Trav managed to lap the whole fleet by his second lap before being informed that the race had been cancelled due to lack of wind. Not realizing he had pulled out, the rest of the fleet got sailing again on the new westerly wind shift and completed the 4 laps.
In the second running of the race a time limit of 2 hours was set for completion of the race to avoid confusion. Congratulation to Trav Bartlett for an outstanding sailing lesson to us all.
. With water movement on the lake the rerun mini marathon was increased to 5 laps. Again Trav Bartlett got away well but a collision on lap 3 had trav worried about his borrowed yacht and he pulled out in lap 4.
Yachts completed the race with the finish line consumed by water flowing from the north. Like the class 5 race no yachts were lapped despite thelength of the race.
Results
1st Vic Bermingham AUS 230
2nd Paul Day AUS 3
3rd Barry Pulford.
GPS speeds recorded for the Marathon. av windspeed 12kph
Name class speed(kph)
Vic Bermingham LLMini unrestricted 59.2
Travis Bartlett LLMini unrestricted 55.7
Paul Day LLMini restricted 62.74
Wayne Thomas LLmini unrestricted 59.1
Barry Pulford LLmini unrestricted 56.4
Bryan Cook Blokart performance 57.0

Monday 28th September
Light winds and long drives ahead meant only 3 yachts sailing in the morning before winds died away . All yachts were off the lake by midday.
Thank you to all the sailors and families who made the effort to join us on the lake for a great weekend.
Well done Vic Bermingham ”The Marathon Man”
A special mention to young miss Diggins for joining the exlusive club of landsailors who have jumped the causeway without any choice.
Congratulations to Barry Pulford on his 3rd placing in his first mini race.
A huge cheer to Trav Bartlett for being the first to lap Paul Day, EVER, and sorry about the bump Trav.
Welcome to the thrill of sailing on salt to Steve and Brodie Napier .
A special award for enthusiasm to Jim Hansen for travelling 2300kms each way and Barry and Graeme for arriving a week early.

yep sounds good, i'm getting itchy feet for next year, see ya then!!!!

Thanks for the report Paul. Looks like there is quite a fleet of LLMinis now!

Lake Lefroy Mini Restricted. Max wheel Diameter 420mm. no carbon,Kevlar,steel or aluminium alloy mast. A 1000mm internal stiffener is permitted at the base of the mast. Body uncovered from above.

Hi Paul can you please expand on this one? Does this mean that you can not use carbon, nor kevlar, nor steel, nor aluminium for the mast (or at all) so the mast must be only wood, bamboo or fibreglass(or something I haven't thought of yet) or am I reading this incorrectly? Ta

Sorry Paul, you still have not answered my question in relation to the rule for the "standard" class. What I was asking was how to interpret the sentence relating to "No carbon, Kevlar, steel or aluminium alloy mast"
"i would consider an old ally windsurfer mast for the restricted class,. or maybe even a 2 section ally tube mast , as they are quite soft."
These two quotes from you seem to conflict with each other. Please, not criticizing, just want to get on the same page.

sorry guys , i dont get your confusion!
The club hasnt suddenly introduced some new magic rule
For the purposes of the speed trials we split minis and Cl 5's into 2 groups to give more people a chance to participate.
For the 5's it was simply a wheel diameter restriction.
for the minis it was mast type(essentially stiff or not) body covering, and wheel diameter.
If you came with a tricked out Blokart you could have entered in 4 classes over the weekend. and in a LLM youd built you could enter 2.
carbon and multi section ally masts are significantly stiffer, than a glass mast, and were put in the unrestricted class.
interestingly the fastest mini on the days( in terms of outright speed) was the glass masted yacht
Paul Day LLMini restricted 74.52(friday)Vic Bermingham 5 74.52 (friday)
Paul Day LLMini restricted 62.74(sunday)
( that boy IS quick)


I suspect the softer mast made the gusts more survivable, and hence converted to speed. having reviewed this years inaugaural Results , in future events we will probably remove this restriction( also more carbon masts should be floating around by then Might even be able to swap one for a sail )
does that all make sense now?

All understood in the philosphy, I am just trying to understand the wording.
One way of reading it says that you can not use carbon, kevlar, steel or aluminium anywhere, but you can use a stiffener up the bottom bit of the mast.
Another way to read it says that you can't use carbon or kevlar, only steel or aluminium.
Then in the following post I read that Paul talks about an alloy mast for the "standard class" and in the last a 'glass one.
as Paul well knows I am pedantic about rules being well written, largely cos it saves arguments in the "heat of the moment".
I believe it's easy to do it well in the beginning with a bit of thought, much easier than coming back later and someone saying that "this is what the rule writer meant" (and usually they don't actually know!)
Then again if the glass mast was the fastest, is the subdivision needed?

well finally the repaired camera and the repaired computer have made love and given me some photos .
Vics baby beast making its debut with a 2m chicken sail

and of course leading the marathon with a 4m recut 1990's piccaso sail

Ankle biter sailing with the 4m cut up RASTA sail

seabreeze member SN finally gets a taste of salt

the cost of getting caught on the other side of the water as it move across the lake( this is not even remotely fun)

finally a bit of dads attention and time to top off the weekend

The overalls stopped the bulk of the salt!

but the moustache was rock solid

seriously though- both Brodie, Anna and myself had a fantastic time at Lefroy and enjoyed the time spent there, and really appreciated the time spent with Paul, Susan and thier family while we were at Lefroy and later in Kalgoorlie.

We will be back for another dose of salt!