Re-energise the One Design
April 7, 2008For the most part our gatherings are social at the moment and while there are no limitations, for the most part we have been sailing the Windsurfer One Design board and sail combination (affectionately known as Wallys). As some of us are in the process of getting full One Design Exocet Kona set ups, we are in the process of setting up a combined fleet and within 12 months I envisage that our group will be pretty much split 50/50 on Wallys and Konas (3 on Konas, 3 on Wallys). Ok, somewhat humble beginnings but as a wise person once told me “Big trees grow from little acorns”.
There have been numerous little hurdles that have been put in our way on our journey so far and no doubt there will be countless more but with a sport that is so much fun and is as colourful as ours, as long as we perservere I don’t very well see how we can fail in the long run. Make something that is fun to do and people will do it (AKA “Build it and they will come”).
The long term vision is for us to establish ourselves as a permenant club (or within an already established and suitable club, located on relatively flat water) that is local and ‘Windsurfer friendly’ racing One Design Longboards, split up into different classes but in the same field. While I see the Wally and the Kona as the logical choices, I would be very interested to hear from any Mistral One Design sailors and for that matter any person who has course raced in the past or may want to in the future.
As our group welcomes novices, we have based most of our activities so far at West Lakes, but I do recognise the limitations of basing a club there due to the very fickle, unpopular patchy wind conditions. Yes, it’s an acquired skill to race well there but there are other places more suitable and in particular I am looking at the stretch of water located out from the boat ramp at Garden Island, including the Barker Inlet as a potential regular meeting place. We are also negotiating with the Flinders Port Authority to hopefully allow us to race alongside the various boat classes from time to time at the Port River Sailing Club.
I also recognise the potential our sport has in the development of youth and plan to eventually develop a Youth Training Program as a joint partnership with various organisations. That in itself could be a great training ground to boost numbers any club that we are able to establish and form a starting point into National Junior Competition.
I would love to hear from other interested persons who in particular are interested in the Course Racing aspect of Windsurfing.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon and together as a group re-energising course racing for our sport within South Australia.
- Darrell Staight
Dear Darrell
I have just read your April 08 article.
How is the class developing and where are you sailing.
Thank you.
Regards
David
Hi David,
Always good to see there are others interested in racing.
In 2007/2008 we were so close to getting a regular thing up and running again. I was and remain very passionate about course racing on basic One Design boards and continue to be frustrated with the lack of active clubs in South Australia. We nearly got affiliated with an established sailing club but at the last hurdle, through politics, they saw reason to prevent us from being regularly involved.
Due to the nature of the boards we were sailing at the time I recognised a need to join a club on protected water and there are very few in the metro area. So when it didn’t work out with this one, there were very few places to turn. The open ocean, I feel is not a place for the Windsurfer One Design, particularly in the hands of novices. The Exocet Kona One is quite suitable but there are still issues with availability and still being so far off shore as is the case with some of the other clubs, again some sailors may feel a bit exposed. We needed to find a healthy medium and it was taken away from us through lack of vision on the part of others. Anyway, there are other places, but I had other projects that I had to work on, and in the end windsurfing got put on the shelf, although hopefully only for the time being.
This summer we haven’t been out at all. I’m hoping that next summer will be different. I still follow what is happening in the sport and from time to time get encouraged with overseas developments but we always seem to be a fair way behind. We are still in need of a basic very budget One Design package in the industry, something about half the price of what is currently available. Perhaps local industry may support this initiative at some stage. Basic, cheap, long board, sail no bigger than 7.4 metres. Price no more than $1,500. With that and cooperation from existing sailing clubs (or enough interest from local long board sailors who would want to support such an initiative, then it would be possible to get this happening again). Those are my thoughts anyway.