[05/07/2008] The first round of the KASailWINTERSERIES was held today at Boggy Lake. The forecast was very light and a few braved the cold conditions (5 deg when I got there this morning) to rig their biggest sails, boards and fins and slug it out for a figure eight one hour marathon. The fleet consisted of big slalom boards, sails around 7.5m / 9.0m and also Richard Upton on his Exocet Kona, looking very threatening in the light winds. Steve Roberts was on hand with his boat again, and after surviving a high speed blow-out whilst cornering on the way there, he eventually arrived and set the course for us with our shiny new inflatable buoys courtesy of Windsurfing SA.
The wind was slightly stronger for the first half of the event (around 15 knots max) and most of us were planing around the course. Sam Doecke took an early lead and managed to lap the entire fleet and myself (I was in second at that stage) and continued planing the whole time. The wind dropped a little towards the end and some of us could no longer get planing, but Nick Bellgrove came to the fore with his 9.0m and ended up battling it out with Sam for the lead.
In the end, the results for round one are:
1st - Sam Doecke 16 laps
2nd - Nick Bellgrove 16 laps
3rd - Chris Dimond 13 laps
4th - Joe Belluzzo 12 laps
5th - Richard Upton 10 laps
6th - Tim Hemer 8 laps
7th - Geoff Shuttleworth 7 laps
= 8th - David Lane 2 laps (retired)
= 8th - Milo Milutinovic 2 laps (retired)
Well done to Sam Doecke (can’t believe he got a 36 knot peak too!!)
bathymetry of Boggy Lake & course location
Thanks to all for participating.
Next weekend is round two. We will hold either Slalom or GPS Speed depending on the forecast. Hope to see you all there - Chris Dimond Aus06
