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WindFoiling - My 13th & 14th Times, Competing in the Australian 'Free Foil' Championships

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Created by berowne > 9 months ago, 4 Mar 2018
berowne
NSW, 1210 posts
4 Mar 2018 11:55PM
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Windfoiling my 13th & 14th time. at the Downunder Pro Windfoil Championships!


So I decided to enter the windfoil.com.au inaugural regatta last weekend, after just a dozen foiling sessions. Luckily the organisers had setup an 'Open' class for the more professional foilers, and a 'Free' class for the rest of us noobies.

The open attracted some awesome talent from around Sydney, Newcastle and further, such as Melbourne, Queensland and WA, and these guys were FAST! Often lapping the FreeFoilers competing over 1 lap as the Open class raced around for 2. Note the course was straight upwind from the start line, approx. 1Nm to the windward mark and back down to the bottom mark and boat to finish.


GPS top speed 21.5kts Alpha 14.9kts, NM 15.8 (Foiling PBs!)

Gear

Most of the 'Open' class sailors were on some very nice looking kit! Full Carbon Starboard Racing Foils, NP/F4 wings and a few NP Alu's. Boards include JP 135's, Starboard and other wide Formulas boards, and even a fully custom board. Interestingly a few of the JP foil boards had extended platforms to push the back foot further out! My iSonic 121L was the smallest board, and the Slingshot H4 the smallest foil!




Those Starboard foils look AWESOME!

Wind

The wind was somewhat strong, the upper end of the recommend 10-25kts for racing. Saturday started with a late N/E shift of about 12kts that steadily grew in the heat before peaking to 30kts gusts later in the day. Sunday's southerly blew between 15 and 20 kts, with some scary ugly gusts under the dark clouds (thankfully no lighting - I wonder if lighting can cancel a race).

Saturday - Day 1

Saturday's promised N/E'ster took a while to come in and started of pretty calm, with just over 12kts for the first race, enough to get the fleet foiling on their 7.0, more typical 7.7, 8.4 and even 10m sails. Over the first few races the wind quickly picked up to 20kts, then 25, gusting to 30kt NE!

The start boat was way down the coast, near the Brighton pavilion, making for a bit of a delay on the first race as it took people a while to
arrive at the start line. The course was set so we could sail upwind close to but well out of the way of the regular slalom/free sailors going across to the runway. The yellow markers along the runway and 200m off the beach also delineated the recommended racing area.

The 'Open' fleet would start first, then about 5 minutes later the 'Free Foil' fleet would start. Note to self, counting down the last minute in your head is not a good way to start a race. Get a watch!

I felt really comfortable racing upwind, foils feel controllable upwind, with a bit of rack on the board and sail power almost fully utilised. Mind you my 7.7 and freefoil was no match for the 8.5 to 10m sails powering upwind at an amazing speed.

The upwind mark was so far away it was hard to see, so I just headed in the general direction, tacking a few too many times because I wasn't exactly sure where the laylines were, eventually finding the mark and turning down-wind to the second top-mark, and then fully bearing away.. WOW. I hadn't practiced sailing directly downwind and this was an initiation by fire. Something to note for the free sailors out there, you don't actually have to sail at 90 degrees too the wind, and things can feel very 'different' at odd angles!

We had 2x races then a brake for about an hour before another 2x races (while the open class had 2x and 3x races). Our 5th race was cancelled due to the strong winds and long times to get around to the finish line.

Annoyingly, during the brake I had rolled up my 7.7 and had my 6.3 TRX ready to go. which I had tested and was happy it had enough power to lift me. But with 15 minutes to go, as I headed towards the water the wind dropped, the flags drooped and my heart sank. I ran back to my car, rigged my sail in under 10 minutes and 'raced' to the race, making it across the start line about 10s late. PHEW. But as the race progressed the wind strengthened, and I held on upwind but really struggled downwind. After too many crashes to count, I was thinking about bailing on the next race at the upwind mark so that I could have a good 5th race. Then during the 4th race I rounded the windward mark and there was a bit of a lull, so I stuck with my 7.7 and eventually made it down to the line! Thank goodness I didn't ditch the 4th race because the freefoil 5th race was postponed to Sunday, so I would have changed sail for nothing!

Sunday - Day 2

When I arrived on Sunday, my heart sank. the swell coming from the south, funnelled by the beach and the runway, coming directly through the heads was ugly. I usually sail 20+kt southerlies up Georges River near the sand-bar where the waves are manageable, but out in the middle of the runway the swell was already 1-2ft by 10AM!

Fighting the breaking waves to get out with a foil is not easy. Seriously if the shore break is above 2ft, forget it, you'll have a heard time and probably break something!

www.seabreeze.com.au/img/photos/windsurfing/12899373.jpg' />
Given the water state, and my experience of being so overpowered yesterday, I rigged conservatively, my 'tiny' 5.5m Overdrive which I usually reserve for 40kt days. And even so, I was overpowered running downwind on the foil.

The field shrank on Sunday with a bit of damage, so both the open and free-foil classes started together, and I purposefully hung back to not interfere with the open racers. And then I missed one start by about 40 seconds. Oops.


The first race started and after a moment we all lifted off and powered upwind. The swell at the start was 1-2', but after tacking, I came across some swell well in excess of a metre, and remember my foil mast is 95cm. Not fun. you can't fly over the swell, and stay in the water. I had my board railed about 20 degrees to 'slice' through the chop upwind, which seemed to help.



But downwind I got dumped about 10 times in one leg, it was ugly! I finally made it across the line feeling annoyed, confused, frustrated and tempted to pack it in, as I really was not having any fun!



I sat on my board thinking about what I did wrong, since the pro's seemed to be coping much better than me. I decided that going almost straight down wind meant I was riding up on the back of a swell, rolling over the top and nosediving into the back of the next wave, sending me over the front. If I was going to make it around faster I would have to go broader across the wind, and stop fighting the waves.

The next race (2nd on Sunday) was much better, and I managed to keep upright a lot longer, riding the swells like a surfer at times with zero power from the sail! When the waves were strong I 'flagged' the sail and went 'down the line' until the wave lost height, and I would sheet in and cross ahead to the next lineup, using any fall as an opportunity to 'gybe'. ?? Why waste a fall?


After a brake, we (reluctantly - I think if none went out none of the free-foilers would have complained) went out again and I struggled, really struggled. Near the end of the race, I came up after a 'gybe' and saw John and Ian a few metres ahead of me, so I tried to gun it, thinking if I fell, well I'd still be behind them, and I was. oh well.



GPS Top speed 20.9kts, NM at 15kts (blue line with 2 gybes - not bad!)

Winners are Grinners
Alex really did deserve to win the free-foil division (apparently, he did a second lap in one race, finishing the equivalent of 3rd against the Open fleet!). John, Ian and I ended the 7 races with 19 points each, so a three way tie, that was broken by a count-back, leaving the final free-foil division as shown below (http://windfoil.com.au/results/).

RANK SAIL No SAILOR R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 TOTAL NETT
1st AUS-2001 Alex Halank (9 DNF) 1 1 1 1 1 1 15 6
2rd AUS-1986 Berowne Hlavarty 2 2 (6) 5 4 2 4 25 19
3th AUS-817 John Doolan (6) 3 3 4 3 4 2 25 19
4th AUS-85 Ian Wright 4 (6) 4 3 2 3 3 25 19
5th AUS-81 Grae Morris 1 4 2 2 (9 DNF) 9 DNF 9 DNF 36 27
6th T Tim Marquardt 3 5 (7) 6 5 5 5 36 29
7th AUS-1 Tibor Ferenczy 5 7 5 (9 DNF) 9 DNF 9 DNF 9 DNF 53 44

I'm really glad to have taken part, and to be rewarded with a result. My aim was to simply to take part and do my best, and I was very glad to be on the podium especially after such trying conditions well beyond my experience and comfort zone. Competing was made easier by the level of professionalism from the organisers, the event was really well organised despite the trying conditions!

Great fun to have had a go, and sailed with Tibor, John, Ian, Tim, Grae (shame your foil broke!) and Alex... as well as the Open fleet. Thanks to Brett & Darryl (who gave me heaps of advice) and Sean (WA), and everyone else who took part! Until next time, happy foiling!

If you haven't seen them yet, there are more photos under the "Australian Foilers" group on facebook.

sboardcrazy
NSW, 7916 posts
5 Mar 2018 1:25PM
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A great result in challenging conditions!

da vecta
QLD, 2512 posts
5 Mar 2018 3:36PM
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Great write up. Well done. It was a excellent regatta and your story brought back some great (and not so great) memories.

It was windy that's for sure.

powersloshin
NSW, 1653 posts
5 Mar 2018 5:05PM
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you have foiling in your blood Berowne, I could tell since you used your 50cm fin.... but that's another story

Brett Morris
NSW, 1197 posts
6 Mar 2018 11:15AM
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Thanks for the report....It really was a baptism of fire. Most of us had never competed in a foil race before, yet alone in what turned out to be extreme conditions. 25+ knots of wind and steep chop, as to the the most difficult conditions to foil in huh?
That said I was really impressed how the hulk of the fleet managed to continue racing regardless....

We all learnt a lot and I think it is fair to say that next years nationals will be hotly contested....

Thanks for all the trailblazers who stepped up and gave it a go and made the event such a good time....

Sputnik11
VIC, 972 posts
6 Mar 2018 12:37PM
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Well done. If they ever make it to Melbourne, count me in!



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"WindFoiling - My 13th & 14th Times, Competing in the Australian 'Free Foil' Championships" started by berowne