Al McLeod said...

who else got out today in that crazy northerly?

Yeah, but we're a fair way west of you guys, watching the news, you got hammered!!! We had good wind, then no wind, then too gusty, back to no wind (etc, etc.) needed about 5 sails rigged and waiting today!

Green Point in Brighton was the place to be, with about 30 guys and quite a few chicks out.

The wind backed right off at about 8am - so there was suggestion to "rig big" as a sacrifice to the gods. After about half-hour of sitting around, one guy went out with a 6m, just as the wind hit at about 30knots - suffice to say, "deep do do" by being catapulted resulting in a torn sail. Luckily he was picked up by a yacht, which happened to be motoring past; they took him back to Sandringham yacht club, while a motorboat towed his gear back.

It was peaking well over 40kn for at least an hour - the water surface was vapourising. The gusts were quite extreme (probably the gustiest that I have ever sailed there) with a very short lull giving you a false sense of security, then a 15-20kn bullet with each one was a possible body slam. To give you an idea of the wind strength, Spotty was out on a 4.2, with most guys on 3.5-4m completely overpowered.

I noticed that there was a guy out there filming some footage, but I dont know who/where he was from.

so no air chachos fletch?
i was trying some forwards but still wasnt committing properly... its soo annoying.

Was hoping for a good day down at Rye. But it died off and even swung around to the south. How can it be howling at one end of the bay but not the other?

mathew said...

daz024 said...

Was hoping for a good day down at Rye. But it died off and even swung around to the south. How can it be howling at one end of the bay but not the other?

Welcome to Melbourne's wind, thanks for coming...

Basically, the Blue Mountains funnels the wind (aka pressure differential) from central NSW / Northern Vic, into Melbourne. Now since the bay is quite big, and so it affects the pressure difference; with a large flat expanse, eventually the pressure is minimised by the time the wind gets to the bottom of the bay.

If you check the winds around Vic for yesterday, you will notice that only Melbourne got the really strong wind; the rest got light'ish northerlies.

FWIW, I have been caught out in this same situation many times.

I was going to head down to the new speed run AKangaPub down in Swan Bay after being woken by a howling Northerly at 5 or was that 6 Sunday morning. By the time I was up and about it had dropped out to a light 10-15 Northerly on Lake Connewarre, this further dropped to 0-5 knots and brilliant sunshine for the morning. About 1.00pm black clouds rolled over in a Northerly airstream bringing a cold squall of about 20 knots from the South West that veered to the West almost immediately. Arrived at Point Henry about 10 minutes later to find a rapidly fading Westerly. Rigged the 6.6 and reached down to the S.W. corner of Stingaree Bay only to be slam dunked by a 30 knot North Westerly. Struggled back to the carpark rerigged a 5.5 and got some runs in some of the most turbulent wind imaginable in weed so thick it was dangerous. Northerlies are always inconsistent over Port Philip/Corio Bay but yesterday was probably at the extreme end of inconsistency.

WRT Seabreezes on the Bay the top end off Sandringham is always a good few knots stronger.I refuse to look at Fawkner Beacon on principle. Locally if the Seabreeze is light and forms close to shore Lake Connewarre will have a lighter seabreeze than Point Henry (almost directly upwind ) while if the seabreeze is strong and forms well offshore lake Connewarre can be stronger as there is less friction across the land of the Bellarine Peninsula.