Thanks for the heads-up Brett.

That interview is Gold....What a shock, Jesper Vesterstrom DEN-111 was hungry!

Brett Morris said...

That interview is Gold....What a shock, Jesper Vesterstrom DEN-111 was hungry!

Zee will ask za questions.

Brett Morris said...

That interview is Gold...

+1

First time I hear of a pita mark! lol :)

Arnon continues his form with some commentary of my horrific crash and subsequent rescue... haha.





Sorry for the sound quality; must be an iPhone thing.

Yeah they should have gone out. It looks windier than the kite course races in last years world championship at Sylt, but if the kiters can do it.....

www.surfertoday.com/kiteboarding/john-heineken-crowned-kite-racing-world-champion

That's pretty impressive of Steve and Sean. I have to hand it to you for going out on day 4 with a 10.5 and 9.5. In those conditions I would be running the other way and snuggling up to the first Latvian girl I could find.

Congratulations to Steve Allen AUS-0 won the last race to secure 2nd place overall.
Ross Williams GBR-83 was the deserving winner, with Polish Olympic bronze medalist in 3rd.

Make you wonder how Steve would have gone at the Olympics?

Why didnt you use a smaller fin?

SeanAUS120 said...

terminal said...

Yeah they should have gone out. It looks windier than the kite course races in last years world championship at Sylt, but if the kiters can do it.....

Hard to quantify whether it's harder/easier on a kite. Sylt is pretty gnarly place in wind!

I am thinking a FW board would be much, much harder to control because of the ridiculous fins we are using... I had a 73cm cutdown VMG fin in that day I went out. The same fin I used in 6 knots ....

Would be cool to see what angles/speeds the kites do in waves like that. I can get 49 degrees upwind but the speed is all over the place in the swells, ranging from 8-17 knots! Downwind I think we could clock just under 30 knots... in flatter water we are well over 30 knots!

SeanAUS120 said...

AUS4 said...

Why didnt you use a smaller fin?

Some Brazilian idiot changed us to 2 fins for events this year, so you have 2 register a lightwind fin and a backup lightwind fin if you want to do well in European contests; then just suck it up and try not to die when you get strongwinds.

When they're back in February you can ask Willy and Mathias how they liked the 2-fin rule at the Worlds! ahahahaha.

You will have to get VMG to work on an adjustable fin using velcro or sticky tape

SeanAUS120 said...

terminal said...

Yeah they should have gone out. It looks windier than the kite course races in last years world championship at Sylt, but if the kiters can do it.....

Hard to quantify whether it's harder/easier on a kite. Sylt is pretty gnarly place in wind!

I am thinking a FW board would be much, much harder to control because of the ridiculous fins we are using... I had a 73cm cutdown VMG fin in that day I went out. The same fin I used in 6 knots ....

Would be cool to see what angles/speeds the kites do in waves like that. I can get 49 degrees upwind but the speed is all over the place in the swells, ranging from 8-17 knots! Downwind I think we could clock just under 30 knots... in flatter water we are well over 30 knots!

Thanks for the explanation Sean.

I thought there would be limitations which would make it difficult, but the fin situation makes it impractical to race and verging on impossible to sail.

Its a pity because handling the gear in those conditions is really impressive, but you need to be able to get it just within what is possible.

When you say 49 degrees upwind, is that 49 off the wind or 49 off perpendicular to the wind?

I think when the wind is strong enough, formula windsurfers would win an upwind downwind course race, but in light wind over 6 knots kiters would win. Last year Kevin Prichard beat the best kiters in an upwind/downwind course race using slalom gear in about 20 something knots. This year in lighter winds, the kiters won. I think the kiters still have more room to improve into with the gear and technique though.

I don't think going back to 3 fins is that much of a big deal as traveling with 3 fins is pretty easy and getting more range from your equipment by changing a fin in- between races is super easy.

Challenging the sail manufacturers to produce 2 sails that cover the wind range in a realistic time frame (2-3yrs) would be a progressive step for the class...

There has been no real development to sail design since wides sleeves were introduced circa 2005. Surely there are some innovative methods to increase the wind range. Easily removable sail area, quick and easy batten changes etc....

Formula is a development class which has had a fantastic stable period, but surely challenging the manufacturers to push the barriers is not outside the realm of sanity? Imagine competing with 1 board, 2 sails, 1 boom, 1 or 2 masts, 3 fins...That is less than 60kgs of gear to travel with...i.e on the roof of a car or aeroplane....Thoughts?