Albany WA. Frenchies.

Well worth the 4 Hr drive down from Mandurah. 

The wind was steady at 15-18 knots by late morning. It was slowly building so we had coffee amd found a caravan park. I rigged the 5.8m after indecision between the 5.8m and 6.2m with a steady 18-24 knots of wind, hoping it would get even stronger. At first I was a bit underpowered with the sail and the fin. After a while I came in and switched fins to give the BP 25 (20cm) 50 degree weedie a workout. This stuff is what it is designed for and it worked extremely well. It felt more like a normal raked fin than the Maui Deltas and handled small chop with no issues. The only small spinouts I had were when I exited a downwind run forgetting to pull on the outhaul before the gybe (I only run the adjuster on one saide) and sailing upwind with the sail completely bagged out put too much pressure on my back arm and foot. Otherwise, it went upwind almost as well as any other fin of the same approximate size, and better than many. Downwind runs over small 'corrugated' chop felt solid. It shed weed easily even in the densest weedbergs and I could easily start off in the very thick weed in the shallows. Big thumbs up from me for the thick weed in shallow water.

Dissapointingly, the wind didn't really get any stronger, so I was prevented from getting on the CA40 to try the BP Kestrel 16cm. Hopefully on Wednesday. 

I tried for quite a few NM's but when I analysed the results I found I had not gone far enough. The 10Hz GPS-Logit file showed a best NM of 29.996 Knots! Soooo close!  I did a lot of good 1500m runs over 31 knots.  and the best NM included a Gybe for the last few hundred meters. Now I know to go a lot higher to start!

1500m:

  time        m   [knots]

15:42:03  1500.7  31.777+/-0.027

14:17:46  1502.0  31.667+/-0.025

15:55:45  1501.7  31.321+/-0.032

Happy with the Alpha's, considering the drag in the weed during the gybes. 

It's quite amazing when you come from the small chop on a downwind run into the glass and feel the speed bump up a couple of knots. Love it! 

Great to catch up with Steve and Shane again and sail with the WA crew and another interloper from Cairns. 

I can almost certainly say that I am not sure if Hardie sailed or not. 

JP54(70L), BP weedspeed50 25, 2016 KA Koncept 5.8m. GW-52