Hot on the heals of the Queenstown downwinder race, Wellington is putting on its own race, the Harbour Blast. Well actually it is an established windsurf race but they have been nice in inviting us kiters back again this year.

For those of you not familiar with the race it is held on the Wellington harbour. It starts at either Eastbourne in a southerly and runs though to Petone. In a Northerly it will be run from Petone finishing in Eastborne. Its roughly 20-30 minutes for the fastest competitors. It was a really good social event last year and is wide open for anyone with solid kite skills and ability to handle gusty conditions.

If you are interested in entering could you please reply back to this thread. We also need to supply 2 people as support crew on the boast and handlers on the beach. Can you please also indicate if you can supply any support people either on the boat or beach.

Oh and here is a map of the course. It is roughly 9km so more of a sprint rather than long distance.

maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl...00480ed9219b36424e00

Yep, yep.
Im there

Hi Louis

All of us at KiteForum NZ are wishing you heaps of wind for Sunday. Have stickied the post as requested and posted a message in the anouncements, and emailed out the masses... just gotta finish buliding that Liar Jet in my garage so I can attend these Island events!

Ummm..... slightly suspect that you may well have an advantage with all the down winders you have been doing!

Anyone think that they can outrun the Yakermiester.... Wind Warrior Butch maybe?

Enjoy and safe racing.

Jase

I am hoping to turn up as a newbie and check out the action, what time does it kick off?

pobman wrote:


All details of the event can be found here on the offical flyer:
wellingtonkitesurfers.googlegroups.com/w...yri9xS_LjcV0AXVwxLgr

Current wind forecast is Northerly 20knots, so that would mean its going to start at Petone & finish at Eastbourne.

ooh good luck guys! can you beat the windsurfers? i don't believe the 20 knots i recon it will be 30 knots. brings some small kites boys. i can't make it even tho i'm in wellington right now i wonr be on sunday... downer.

We race separate but I think the windsurfers might be faster anyway. Plenty of competition this year so beating the kites will be a good enough achievement. We have 32 entries so far and have had to limit it to 25. Far more people entered than we were expecting. Shows there is some real interest there for this sort of event.

Kites came in first and second at last months Queenstown race - no reason why kiters can't beat the windsurfers Louis!

Cheers

DK

DK Yep agree, but we don't get to line up head to head (and will be starting 200m off the beach)so its a moot point. I think we have the edge over the windsurfers if the angle is directly downwind and over 500m but anything off the wind, the stats show different over a longer distance. Not sure why but I suspect it is due to their efficiency. Not even in the same league if you look at the 1 hour stats.

kite 1 hour ranking
www.gps-kitesurfing.com/default.aspx?mnu...ss=0&SpeedType=4

Windsurf 1 hour ranking
www.gps-speedsurfing.com/default.aspx?mn...ss=0&SpeedType=4

A few of us have talked about a proper long distance race (not a 20 min sprint!) from say Tangi to Waikanae. Would need a serious amount of orgnaistion and backing to make it work safely, for the numbers I think it might attract. Anyone keen on exploring the idea or help organise? The vision I had was to include windsurfers as well with a staggered start. Maybe this would really put to bed who is faster

i am in boots and all for the tangi-wai challenge.... on my landboard tho! with the home made cut down surfboard for the river crossings!!! i've laid a challenge to the buggiers too. I recon it would be a really even race. hell leave the race open to anything that doesn't have an engine....!!!! the kiters will kick arse.

Lake taupo is also an idea thats simmering in my head.

bombing muriwai, baylys, 90 mile as races would also be on. since yourve go a massive beach right next to you then then if the shit hits the fan all you need to do is drag yourself to shore.

it gets super tricky when theres no beach to land on though. it would a lot harder to organise an even when theres no down wind self rescure option.

A huge thanks to Wind Warriors, DK from Decay Kiteboards, and to Matt & Hugh from Ozone for supporting me with kick ass kit for the race. The Decay Cutlass and Ozone Zephyr proved to be the right combination in the light winds we were presented with on the day.
STOKED to have made it to the beach 1st, and well before the windsurfers!
My first water race, and first session in Welly so even more stoked.

Mad props to The Stig for hounding me the whole way.... Animal!!

some pics here
picasaweb.google.com/1121219977148566537...lingtonHarbourBlast#

Awesome pics Butch! Look like you guys had a great day. Very well sponsored too which is great to see.

Must be noted as well, that my prediction was correct!

is there a write up anywhere? results? what was the wind speed? how long did it take?

ps good work Butch.

Plummet
the race was run in light fickle conditions and most had trouble even getting off the beach with less than 6 knots then gusts of 15-18. Chris got a flyer with a gust at the start but then lost the race right at the end. I had my donkey d. pop just on the start line and simultaneously broke the safety line at the same time so kite flew off without me. Was pretty much a disaster for me and spent half hour re-rigging and pumping up kite again. Spent half hour floating around the back of the island as did the second wave of competitors. The pod of dolphins did add to the scenery as we all floated by the island.

Congratulations to Butch on the win. No one down here owns a 17m kite, no need for it, but maybe we could make a exception for light harbour blasts next time. There was some good wind at times but also big holes, meaning pretty much everyone had their kite down at some point. It was a close race with the result changing only 200m from the beach. Second and 3rd were hot on the heals with their 12m Switchblades so showed they could be competitive despite the size. There was some luck involved with those that caught gusts initially only to be passed by those that got gusts at the end. Great race, great day, lets hope for more wind next time.

Results
wellingtonkitesurfers.googlegroups.com/w...T87b-6LJDQlJht4XHCPK

Dom Post article
wellingtonkitesurfers.googlegroups.com/w...T87b-6LJDQlJht4XHCPK

GPS track- louis
www.sportstracklive.com/track/map#yakern...last-2010/11361/full

Did try and redeem myself yesterday with a fast hour run down the Kapati Coast. Maybe the scene for the next race. When are going to join us?
www.sportstracklive.com/live/track/detai...n-to-Waikanaie/11362

And the results. On the day the Kiters were definitely faster in the light downwind conditions.

WindSurfer
Position
Name Class Time
Class
Position
Overall
Position
1 Clayton Dougan Windsurfer-Open 0:45:05 1 7
2 James Court Windsurfer-Open 0:47:49 2 9
3 Tim Wood Windsurfer-Senior 0:50:18 1 10
4 Tom Taylor Windsurfer-Open 0:52:31 3 12
5 Laurence Carey Windsurfer-Junior 0:59:51 1 13
6 Andrew Cathie Windsurfer-Open 1:04:35 4 14
7 Dave Steele Windsurfer-Senior 1:05:38 2 15
8 Ian Lovegrove Windsurfer-Senior 1:08:54 3 17
9 Paul Cooper Windsurfer-Senior 1:09:20 4 18
10 Richard Greenfield Windsurfer-Open 1:11:32 5 19
11 Eric Torvelainen Windsurfer-Open 1:12:58 6 21
12 Marinka Teague Windsurfer-Open 1:27:02 7 24
13 Tim Haxell Windsurfer-Open 1:29:10 8 25
14 Karol Wojasz Windsurfer-Senior 1:33:09 5 26
15 Mike Hood Windsurfer-Senior 1:34:30 6 27
16 Peter Wilkinson Windsurfer-Senior 1:36:37 7 30
17 Mark Dean Windsurfer-Senior 1:49:25 8 31
18 Bronwyn Ward Windsurfer-Open 1:54:40 9 32
19 Toby King Windsurfer-Open 2:07:00 10 33
Kitesurfer
Position
Name Class Time
Class
Position
Overall
Position
1 Glen Butcher Kitesurfer-Open 0:36:20 1 1
2 Chris Hourigan Kitesurfer-Open 0:36:55 2 2
3 Kevan Anderton Kitesurfer-Senior 0:37:40 1 3
4 Scott Collins Kitesurfer-Open 0:38:55 3 4
5 Kavae Tamariki Kitesurfer-Senior 0:39:55 2 5
6 Mike Lissington Kitesurfer-Senior 0:39:58 3 6
7 Jimmie Fourie Kitesurfer-Open 0:47:20 4 8
8 Paul Young Kitesurfer-Open 0:50:40 5 11
9 Simon Gardiner Kitesurfer-Open 1:08:48 6 16
10 Mark Gee Kitesurfer-Open 1:12:12 7 20
11 Louis Tapper Kitesurfer-Open 1:16:30 8 22
11 Kevan Brown Kitesurfer-Senior 1:16:30 4 22
13 Laurie Petherick Kitesurfer-Senior 1:35:05 5 28
14 Jaz Heperi Kitesurfer-Open 1:35:14 9 29

..and the Dom post article

I suppose thats racing yaker....

i'll be keen for a down winder race in kapiti. or series of races. maybe do some shorter ones culminating in the tangi to waikanai. get the guys not used to massive distances doings some shorter ones first.


will help with organising too if there's anything i can do remotley.

going to be out for most of the winter tho. having my wrist opertated on in may, cast for 2 months and another month or 2 of physio before i'm back to strength. maybe hold the tangi-wai event in late nov early dec when the winds are more guranteed to be westerly. some smaller warm up down winders between now and then.

haha the dom post has it backwards! clayton the kiter? butch the windsurfer? good to see Skip Gardiner in the results.. learnt to kite down here in the 'nedin!

Plumet, yeas there is talk of a smaller race first so will be in contact.
I Liked this writeup from James who was the second windsurfer. It conveyed some of the drama of racing we all felt out there.
www.wildwinds.co.nz/windsurfing/team-riders.htm