I think I might have to finally conceed that the sand dune build up at Sandy Pt is hampering our speeds.

Today was a classic speed wind: WSW 30-35 with occaisional gusts close to 40 Knots, but the speeds we got were a couple of knots lower than similar daya in past years. Either that or I am finally losing it. 

Assuming not the latter, (much anyhow), I think there is a combination of things. The wind is more gusty when you are in the lee of the small dunes, but there are still large stretches of uninterupted wind. The effect is that in those turbulent areas you slow down and the rig and board gets destablised for a couple of seconds. When you get to the laminar wind again you have to accellerate, and then the next section of turblance comes along and it repeats.

In combination with this, is the way the dunes block the sand drift to make the bank lower and shallower in spots and no longer an even curve. This means you can't sail quite as close to the bank in places and also allows a little more chop build up. By the time you get the best angle, it seems rougher and the bank is shallower which means you must run a meter ot so further out, which of course makes it even rougher.

They are subtle changes in some ways but they add up to slower water.  Having said that, I missed a few of the big squalls today, so it is possible that was a factor as well. Eight runs in around 3 hrs.

I was walking back every run for the first half of the session, but then a slight lull apeared and a slight southerly swing so I aimed to sail upwind across the channel to the green marker to get a better run into the course. Just before I reached the shallows I heard some ominous creaking and felt my boom moving. Thinking it was about to break I dropped into the water to try and save it. When I drifted into the bank, I realised it was the clamp that was broken. The boom itself was fine, but I had no easy way to attach it to the mast. I needed to sail back across the channel or it was going to be a long trip to the other side of the inlet with a big recovery effort required. Eventually, I worked out a way to use the inhaul rope and the boom head lever to tighten the rope around the mast well enough to sail across with a floppy loose boom. Walked back and switched it for a spare and had a few more runs. While I was on the other side it felt like the squall of the day came through! Even Dr Cam sat in the water and waited it out! 

It was undeniably a fun exciting day though, and the great company enhanced it even more. An interloper from the Southerly Busters doing a great job of sailing freeride gear, Peter Muffin man, Dr Cam and his step son. All going for it! 

CA40, Tribal 18 assy speed, 2016 KA Koncept 5.0m.

GW-52 posted (had 10Hz GPS-Logit and GW-60 for comparison - the former was ever so slightly faster and the latter was ever so slightly slower, but all well within the Doppler error range. Wore GW60 on my trailing, left wrist this time and error was every so slightly lower than previous session on the right wrist, but still quite a bit higher than the other two).