What a Race that was.
Here is how I saw it.
I think position on the beach was the key today. After the first lap, 26 sets of tyre tracks had made the surface very rough and slow. It was difficult to figure out whether to sail on the dry scuffed up sand or on the flat wet sand in a sometimes light breeze. Both surfaces seemed to slow my kart down about 3–4 km/h if I picked wrong. Going by feel you could pick a pretty drunken looking course through the worst of it while trying to avoid oncoming traffic. By about the 60 km mark, the tyre tracks had become pretty compacted and the sailing became a lot easier. The wind stayed pretty consistent throughout the race except in the last kilometer before the 65 km mark. After a squall that had passed through during that leg, the wind lightened and veered around to the NW. I had to put 4 tacks in to reach the mark. The guys behind me weren't affected by this change and took a huge bite out of my lead. At the 80km mark I was exhausted. My legs had cramped up and my sheeting hand had stopped working. I had to keep telling myself that I'm doing this because somehow it's fun. The last leg was one of the faster ones of the race and crossing the finish line was an absolute relief. It was a pretty slow race, my average speed was 38.9km/h and max speed was 55.7km/h. The highlight of the race was watching the battle for 3rd place. At every mark rounding there was someone new in 3rd. Barry, Orca and Wayne O were going at it, wheel to wheel the entire race! Overall it was a fantastic race and i can't wait to do it again next year.

Thanks Russell for organising the event and for running the race when you could have been sailing yourself.

Haydn

Jon, I didn't get any photos of you, the camera can only zoom in so far.