According to my tv guide, there's stuff all on tonight, no surprises there, but at 12.00 on channel 7 there's an hour doco on some guy trying to circumnavigate Tassie on a windsurfer. No idea how old it is, or what the outcome was, but will attempt to program the PVR to record it. Allright, I'll get the wife to program it. And why do they call it a circumnavigation? There's not much navigation involved when you sail around something - leave the beach, keep Tasmania on your left, keep going until you get back to where you started.

Van Diemen's Land by Butterfly
Thursday, December 6, 12.00amChannel: SevenDuration: 60 minutesRating: GType: N/AFormat: Repeat
The story of Rich Burnup's great sailboard adventure - the circumnavigation of Tasmania in which he travels 1200 kilometres of a wild, yet beautiful, coastline.

when i worked on the dell richy a scallop boat we were mother ship for 7 days while we escorted 2 windsurfers across bass straight that was in the mid 80tys that inspired me to try it ,how you been another good north easter forcasted for tomorrow cheers bazz

I remember watching this doco probably 15-20 years ago. He did the trip with 2 other people, a guy and a girl. The all used reefer sails (not dope for all the stoners reading this) and they dropped up and down the sizes as the conditions changed. Was really interesting and incredibly scenic to watch. I actually have it recorded on VCR from back when it was on. Shame I don't own a VCR player anymore

o dear here comes the tassie jokes i wondered how long it would take [}:)]

so young bluey gets home from a day at school in hobart, and says "dad, had sex for the first time today". He says great son, sit down and tell me about it. To which Bluey replies, "okay dad, but do you mind if I don't sit down!

easty is the rest of that film on next week or sooner bazz

i taped it then edited on the computer to get rid of adds

nar it wasnt me on the odersy but you can still use the dunes , the buggy club still holds 2 races a year there, that part of the beach is a great sail when the sea breezes are blowing if your fit you can sail all the way to falmouth , that will get some replies, no wind bloody thunder storm cheers easty

What is the "butterfly" reference about?
They used F2 Lightnings, same as my rubbish tip resurrected centerboard dragger. (don't notice much pointing improvement with the centerboard down when using modern sails).
Anyway, they did a good job, 9 sail sizes and fanning and uphauling as they tried to stay off the rocks when the wind died.

Bugger, forgot to record the second episode of the Butterflies thing. Did anyone see it? I think the butterflies refer to what was in their tummies.

Watched a copy of it last night. Shame there's not more of these type of 'Reality' shows (docos). What happenned to the 3 sailors? Are they still around Tassie, or was it a slight hint of Kiwi in their voices?

I'm sure they could've included more footage of actual windsurfing, there was as much footage of the boat motoring along as there was actual sailing.

The thought entered my head..."Wonder if I could get a few sailors together, and circumnavigate Aus???".....woke up this morning and realised it was just the Coopers Pale talking!!! (10ft tall and bullet-proof!)

We missed that as it was not telecast in Vic as AFAIK. Is it possible to put the recorded show up on a FTP server somewhere or even possibly have someone post a disc to me. Very happy to reciprocate with speedsailing DVD's of Sandy Point, Namibia and/or NZ.

A couple (or 3?) of Vicco's sailed across Bass Strait in the very early '80's with a yacht for support on 'Windsurfer One Designs' I think. I can't remember their names but they were proprietors of the Victorian Windsurfing Centre shop as I remember (The biggest at the time). I don't know if it was recorded on film (Pre video tape?) but it would be nice to know if footage exists.

im rending you a copy now easty

monster said...

dont you qld landers ever pick on us tassie ,good golly miss molly just look at those gogles on golly [}:)]

Paris hilton is trying to look like him...

How was the bit where he went surfing, tucked the 'goggles' down his wetty (eewww!), and lost them?.....Navigating blind would've been a nightmare enough, let alone not being able to read the swells/chop!

I watched the 2nd half of the doco the other night; missed the first half. What I can't understand is that despite this happening during the period I pretty much lived and dreamed windsurfing, and having a stack of Freesail mags from the era, I never recall hearing of this before. I remember the Bass Strait attempt, and I recall some joker (name forgotten) wanting to Sandsail the nullarbor, but not the Tassie trip.
Great viewing though, and had to chuckle at the fluoro wetties and the sunnies with the leather side flaps. Had to sympathise with the twitchy RAF wave 4.2s on longboards, Elise putting up with a chest harness for that length of time, and bobbing around in the ocean for 2 hours while all 3 sailors changed rigs ...

On another trip topic, I did see the 2nd ever two-way mainland to Kangaroo Island to mainland crossing in the flesh. I think it was about 4 hours for the trip over in flukey winds, then lunch, then the 16kms back covered in gale conditions in about 45 minutes, mostly on standard Windsurfers. At that stage, the significantly depleted windsurfer fleet, flying in on a broad reach, daggerboards pulled and hung over the arms, were the quickest things we'd ever seen. Wish there was footage of that.