Thanks to Marmong Point Club and the race crew for managing such as slick days racing. Next stop for the Formula Fleet is Heat 5 and the Down Under Pro www.fw-australia.com

Results (pdf)

Heat 4 Formula

Season Overall Pointscore (xlsx)

2012-13 results

Venue: Ramsgate Beach, Botany Bay, Sydney.

Day 1:
Course was set just off the beach with the finish only 20meters out. 5 races in cross on shore (SE) conditions that started out at 18knots, but increased in every race, finishing up at 25knots. Really challenging but rewarding day for those that had their high wind gear sorted. Not really sure of the results yet because there was so much racing going on and it was hard to keep track of who was doing well.

Brett Morris had a great day in the open fleet with 4 bullets and a 2nd but only after some super close racing with Remi and Stephen Walsh. In the Free Formula David Flanagan picked up a win in the first heat and Andrew Vacopoulos had a clean sweep winning every race after that.

There was a few drama’s on the day with a couple of rigs separating from boards and Nathan Hohnberg giving us all a scare when he was thrown from his gear and couldn’t swim fast enough to retrieve it. Luckily someone in the fleet noticed him and alerted the rescue boat before the situation got too serious

Day 2 (Report to come)

Congratulations to the following sailors:

Open
1st – Brett Morris
2nd – Remi Dunoyer
3rd – Steve Walsh

Free Formula
1st – Andrew Vacopoulos
2nd – Barry Fawkes
3rd – Roger Lucas

Grand Master
1st – Wayne Bowness AUS-98
2nd – Tibor Ferenczy AUS-1
3rd – Rick Murray AUS-4

Photos:
Facebook Photos

Results:
Heat 3 Results (pdf)

Overall Standings:
Overall Standings (xlsx)

Heat 2 of the NSW Formula Windsurfing Tour was conducted on Huskisson Beach Jervis Bay on October 20-21.
Formula Windsurfing is the box rule of windsurfing. It is a development class that encourages different designs and ideas; however the majority of the products available are starting to look very similar. Boards can be up to 1005mm wide, carbon fins are 700mm’s deep and sails can be as large as 12.5M/2. These boards have a massive wind range that enables racing in very light winds from 7 knots up to 35 knots and are capable of reaching speeds of over 30 knots.

Jervis Bay provided a spectacular location for this fast and convenient format of windsurfing. Not to mention a perfect place for a family get away. Races are about 20 minutes in length and courses are usually located about 500M’s off the beach, allowing competitor’s to return to shore between races. Two divisions are started and compete on the same course allowing new comers to the class (Free Formula) to race one lap of the course, while the expert’s complete two laps.

28 competitors lined up in five races over two days of racing. Saturdays racing was held in southerly winds of up to 20 knots and four races were conducted in quick succession. Jesper Vesterstrom (DEN111) showed the fleet how to start and displayed outstanding speed to win all four races. Steve Floyd showed some early form, however it was Steve Walsh who ended the day second overall. Meanwhile the Free Formula class saw three heat winners and a dead heat at the end of day one between Andrew Vacopoulos and James Farley.

Sunday’s racing saw a Southwest breeze of 10 – 15 knots. Racing started after a short delay and gave the fleet some very tactical racing. Large holes started to appear on the course up the first work and the right paid heavily. Jesper Vesterstrom once again picked the pressure and won the race by a huge margin. Jesper won the weekends racing on 3 points, second was Steve Walsh on 9 points and Remi Dunoyer came in third after five races on 15 points.

The next event will be held at Ramsgate Beach, Botany Bay on the weekend of the 10th and 11th of November. The Free Formula division allows any windsurfers that can complete a windward leeward course to compete. Or you could even organise to borrow the club gear and give it a try.

The NSW Formula Windsurfing tour is made up of seven events, mostly weekend regattas held in family friendly and spectacular locations. The National titles will be held at Jimmy Beach in Hawkes Nest at the end of January. This event attracts some of the world’s best windsurfers due to the brilliant venue and excellent racing.

Photos can be found here. Photos(FB)

Heat 2 Results(pdf)

2012-13 Overall Results(xlsx)

With 4 winners from 4 races in the open and 3 winners from 4 races in the Free Formula, it is obvious that we are in for a competitive season. Congratulations to Brett Morris and James Farley for winning their respective divisions.
Thanks to the new race committee who managed to pull together our first event, and also our guest Race Officer (Jesper Vesterstrom DEN-111) who really made the most of the crazy conditions to give us the maximum amount of racing. Thanks to Sean Dayhew and Adam Craven for the fantastic photos also….Some pretty special shots.
Please remember to pay for the series on line Join

We want to encourage the participation in our facebook page also, where you can comment, post photos and indicate if you are attending the next events as this make organizing so much easier. Facebook

Heat 2 is at one of the best locations in NSW (Huskisson, Jervis Bay 20-21 Oct)…. Huskisson Map

Photos can be found here. Photos(FB)

Results can be found here. Results(pdf)

28 hard core Formula races rocked up to the premier windsurfing spot in NSW for the 7th and final race event of the 2011-12 season. The new “drop” rule that stated that you can only drop the 7th event if you competed had the desired effect with all of the top competitors present to battle it out for the series honors.

Saturday: Brett Morris AUS-8 rigged a small sail anticipating the wind to build and was rewarded win in race 1. Remi Dunoyer sailed a killer race winning race 2 before Sam Parker finally pulled his finger out with 3 bullets in a row.

In the Free Formula division David Howe Aus-688, Roger Lucas AUS-303 and Tim Ford AUS-71 took turns at winning races and along with the likes of David Flanagan AUS-057 had amazing close racing often finishing within meters of each other.

5 races were plenty for one day, so it was time to pack up and head to the new and improved Husky Pub for the traditional Saturday night dinner. It is fair to say that dinner will be remembered for a long time for all the wrong reasons. Our picturesque outdoor setting was a good concept, but torrential wind and rain made it all but a farce.

Sunday: 4 more races in exactly the same conditions with race 6 starting right on the strike of 11am. Brett started the same way as the day before with a win. Remi, not to be out done and just to prove that his win yesterday was no fluke took the next 2 races before Brett finished the day off with a victory. The real battle was the ever changing minor places which were being filled by Byron AUS-747, Nathan Hohnberg AUS-11, Murray Towndrow AUS-720 and the fastest yet most inconsistent guy in the fleet Nathan Bowness AUS-70.

I’m not sure what motivated Tim Ford but the Free Formula fleet was dominated by him with 3 bullets.

Overall it was some of the best racing of the season, even if it did rain constantly. Brett secured a victor from the ever consistent Byron and the rapidly improving Remi in 3rd. Free Formula was convincingly won by Tim ford with David Howe and Roger Lucas 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Huge thanks to our race OD, Nick Nelson who ran a slick event in truly miserable conditions. 9 races in 2 days is enough of a testimony, but Sunday was competed by 1.30pm which allowed ample time to get to the prize giving and enjoy lunch before heading home tired, but extremely satisfied.

Photos are coming shortly, and results can be found here.

Ramsgate Beach, Botany Bay, Sydney

Saturday 10Dec-11

With mid-season upon us, the stakes to the game were lifted with Heat 4 of the NSW Windsurfing Tour and the Formula NSW State Championship all wrapped up into one event. The titles attract the trophy hunters and in true Queensland spirit, Sean O’Brien AUS-120 arrived, fresh from the professional European season with a new Formula board and sails in tow, ready to rip our NSW title from our grasp.

The weather was always going to be the biggest challenge of the weekend with 10knot NE forecast for Saturday and potentially nothing on Sunday. This put the Race Officer (RO) under immense pressure to race whenever the wind was at the championship limit (basically 8+ knots from a stationary boat). The wind filled in at about 3pm to the minimum and we were away for what was always going to be a tough session. Steve Floyd AUS-222 bolted on port to lead at the 1st mark on his 11m, only to be tracked down by Sean, with Sam Parker AUS-3 coming in 3rd. In the Free Formula (the old FE+) Barry Fawkes AUS-2111 continued his winning season beating David Flanagan AUS-057 who was sporting a brand new NP EvoIV 10m. Mick Saunders AUS-149 was 3rd.

With the wind still hovering above the limit another race was set in motion. Brett Morris AUS-8 and Sean decided to take the port start option which resulted in a large lead at the 1st mark, which Sean expanded on to win easily. Brett on the other only received a box seat to watch the new and improved (12kgs lighter) Glen Morrell AUS-83, Mike Nelson AUS-12 and Steve Walsh AUS-55 mow him down on the final downwind for a 5th. Barry dominated the FF, but Roger Lucas AUS-303 proved his light wind potential with a 2nd.

With 3 races required for a championship, little chance of racing on Sunday and the wind dying but swinging to the predicted NE, the RO decided to wait until the last possible minute to get in the decisive last race of the day. This proved to be a wise move with the wind swinging and filling in to the best conditions of the day. Sean made it 3 bullets on the hop (welcome back!!!), with Mike and Steve Floyd having strong finishes for the minor places. Barry Fawkes had the same result in the FF with 3 bullets, but 2nd place when to David Howe AUS-688 who is now consistently in the top 5. Mick Saunders produced his third 3rd for the day. With a 7pm finish there was no socializing (that I know of?), just home to a meal and well earned sleep.

Sunday 11 DEc-11

30+ degrees, and a nicely developing easterly breeze surprised us all, and the course was set for more racing until….the sky turned black and the lightening began. Racing was cancelled for safety reasons as the storm was predicted, with no wind to follow, which is exactly what happened. Congratulations to QLD’s Sean O’Brien on getting bragging rights on NSW for another year and also to Barry Fawkes on winning the FF division, which is growing in participation at every event.

Thanks to Nick Nelson our RO, who produced the best possible result from an almost impossible forecast?

Reminder to pre-register and pay for the biggest event of the 2011-12 season, where we are hoping to attract up to 100 competitors. http://www.fw-australia.com/race-office/registration/

Merry Xmas,

Brett Morris

Final Results can be found here:
NSW Formula State Championships Results

Overall Season Pointscore (After Heat 4):
Season Pointscore

32 keen sailors rolled up to the test launch site behind Swansea on the Saturday greeted by a building nor-easter. The location was near perfect – aside from the long shallow to get past, this location was an idyllic paradise. Bit of tide running past the beach – note to all, don’t fall asleep on a couple of flotation noodles for too long unless you’re tethered to something fixed.

And after the debut of the new Starboard at the last event, some more new boards had arrived. Exocet have gone from a very cool looking, manly black board to a lightish grey, pink and purple motif – very, well..umm… french….plus a new JP, with the graphics designed in MS Word (and possibly the shape as well?).

Quite a few new boards….except notably for Brett, who although has a new board, decided that the peculiarities of the forecast meant that his older board would be the go….hmmm, interesting choice…..possibly influenced by his new power band?

The Power band website claims its products use “holograms embedded with frequencies that react positively with your body’s natural energy field” to improve core strength and power. It certainly had some sort of effect on his natural energy field – normally a top 3 competitor, Brett came 7th……….it is possible though that having just one band, on one arm might throw the body out of balance, and what’s really needed is a second band on the other arm. Hopefully Brett isn’t to perturbed by the experiment and will persevere for all our amusements….

The first two races were in an ENE gusting around the 14kn mark. Sam, who didn’t have the option of a 10.7 looked at the wind and decided the 12.0 would be fine, in no way supported by the rest of us smirking at the concept, as we rigged 11’s and 10.7’s. But the smirks flipped around rather quickly as Sam got to the front of the first two races and was never headed, followed by yours truly and Rick in third (who always seems to go really well at lake maq….)

Roger had the best of the ‘Free’ fleet with a 2nd and a 1st to Chris’s win in the first race, and mixed bag of results for the minor placings – showing just how competitive it is.

After lunch we got back out and the wind had swung a bit into a true NE and picked up, gusting to about 18kn. By this stage Sam had stolen a 10.7 from Barry (some sort of strategic alliance by the two? Team Pawkes?) and Remi had busted out a new exocet sail. And the course was now getting really rough from boat wake plus had the horrible inclusion of weed, which effected everybody to various levels at different times, and helped to mix the racing up a bit.

I arguably had the best of the weed in the 3rd race taking it from Byron, but karma caught up with me in the 4th race with weed up the first work, and any slim chance of tying it up with Sam disappeared with him sailing off in the distance.

The Free fleet mixed it up as well with Adam Craven winning the 4th race by a nose hair and Mr Lake Maq, and Team Pawkes Ninja Baz mixing it up for the top places with Baz heading the points overall with morning leader Roger in second and Ad’s 3rd. Four races, four different winners and four runners-ups confirms how keen the lads are taking it – great to see.

Sunday was a lovely day sitting around debating wether the wind was going to come in or not before finally deciding it wasn’t and calling it quits around 3pm. After Sam and I, was the next 8 sailors covered by less than 8 points with Byron taking 3rd overall, just edging out Rick on a count back, and taking the series lead outright heading into the half-way heat at Sydney.

Great to see a Qld contingent with long time friend of the fleet David Middleton and new friend Clayton McDonald making the journey down.

Massive shout out to the Marmong guys who manned the boat and set the biggest course we’ve had in a while.

Heat 3 results:
Heat 3 – Results

Overall Season Pointscore after Heat 3:
Overall after Heat 3

Heat 2 Results:
Heat 2 – NSW Formula Series 2012

Overall Series (to date):
Overall – NSW Formula Series 2012