I’ve been on leave the last week attending the Windsurfer LT Nationals.
For those that don’t know about the Windsurfer LT. It is based on the original Windsurfer but updated to a modern construction. Nearly all Windsurf manufacturers have agreed to promote the LT as their One Design platform for Windsurfing. In just over a year 4000 boards have been sold worldwide.
SoPYC have a few of the original and LT Windsurfers and offer training. Get in touch with the OWG if you are interested.
The Nationals was won by WA’s World Champ, Tim Gourlay, who won his weight division in Course Racing, Overall Slalom, and Overall Marathon.
Competitors included 116 sailors with age range from 12 to 80 and weights from 55kg to 140kg
Fleets are split up into weight divisions and the format for racing includes:
- Course Racing
- Slalom
- Freestyle tricks
- Marathon
All but the Freestyle add up to an overall score.
Racing on day one was canceled due to too much wind and dangerous seas preventing race official boats launching. Everybody went sailing for fun anyway.
Then the rest of the regatta was in very light winds from 2 -12 knots. Not great for WA sailors but we all came away happy and as always better for the experience. The course racing is fairly similar upwind to displacement boats in light winds. Above 10 knots, racing becomes more skiff like. Downwind requires a lot of physical pumping and steering with the sail and board. Really good skills to apply to boats.
The Slalom in the light winds was a fitness and board control workout. The Marathon is a 2-hour long race with unlimited pumping.
The boards were also used for some SUP races when there was no wind.
Below are a few photos from the event.
This weekend will see many boats competing in the RPYC Mini Series. This regatta being post Nationals is normally a good chance to try something new. Maybe switch places on the boat, sail a different boat, or swap with other teams to see if anything can be learned and break up the training.
Flying 15’s are down at Fremantle doing the Worlds Practice Series, which is where I’ll be.
See you on the water soon
Denis
