jase54 said..
So guys my next bit of advice I need, is how do you guys get to bare away on a 60 degree broad reach for the fastest speeds at Primbee? It all seemed a bit shallow and suicidal to me when there was a straight Westerly on Friday.I assume Primbee is best in a SW or NW?cheers
Best thing you can do is check out the tracks of the really good sailors on KA72 website. You can see precisely where they beared away, where they hit top speed, what angles they beared away to etc.
In a pure westerly, the bearaway is indeed very short, but you can sail constantly up and down looking for the right gust and the right patch of water. The guys that frequently score the highest speeds are the ones doing the most Ks because they are most often likely to be in the right place at the right time to bear off into a ripper gust (+ great gear and skills of course!). Big gusts are far less intimidating and the acceleration far less challenging to handle if you're entering them with 30 knots of board speed. You might get 5 or so seconds at full speed before you have to start pulling up.
NW and SW allow you to chase nautical miles by bearing away down the whole length of the speed strip. The tradeoff is that often you need to tack your way upwind to get back to the other end which can be a pain. The NW or WNW wind direction generally offers up the flattest water as there's a little less fetch upwind of the speed strip in which chop can build. Much longer fetches to the west and SW so more chop.
