Steve Flanagan reports with all the information needed for the Irish Speed Sailing Championships this weekend.

Looks like we’re getting a wind forecast for this weekend, this is an official announcement that Round 5 of the Irish Speed Sailing Championships will be taking place this weekend in Ladies Island Lake in Co Wexford. We will hold a fun competition with the possibility of trying out the GPS devices plus we will have some of the fastest sailors in Ireland on hand to give rigging and technique advice. Oisin will be on hand with some demo gear from Surf Dock including a few speed boards and Loft Blade Sails if the conditions are suitable. The main competition will be run on Sunday which has the best forecast.

Current forecast outlook as per WindGuru is 19-24knots E-NE for Sunday

The plan for the weekend is as follows:

Dates: Saturday (Optional – Fun Racing) / Sunday (Main Competition) October 9th/10th

(Results for the main competition will only be included from Sundays GPS tracks)

Location: Ladies Island Lake (West side near Rostonstown see link here for directions)

Registration: 10:00 on the beach Saturday/Sunday

Briefing: 10:30 both days

First Possible Start: 11:00

Entry fee: €30

Lunch: Saturday, none provided, please bring your own. Sunday a sandwich & drink (depending on numbers)

Prizes: Split down through the fleet, Race and Freeride Fleet guidelines are available in the Events section on our website.

Results: Based on fastest runs recorded over the day, at briefing a distance of 250m or 10 second Average will be decided based on racing conditions

Competition: Official racing will take place if the average wind speed is 18knots or above, below this wind strength will count for fun racing. Racing will only commence following official briefing, no competitors GPS logs will be counted for time periods prior to this if they happen to be sailing before briefing.

IWA Membership: All competitors must be paid up members of the IWA for 2010, membership forms will be available at registration

GPS Devices: Where possible please bring your own, however a small number of spare GPS units will be available to those who don’t have one. These may need to be shared among competitors, so time slots may be allocated.

Pre-Entry – Can you please email [email protected] or text/phone 087 283 1377 to confirm your intention to come along and compete. This is to give us an idea of numbers and will also allow us to contact you in case of a last minute location change.

Speeds will be recorded by GPS devices attached to each competitor; common compatible devices include the Navi GT-31, GT-11 and Garmin Foretrex 201. Other devices may be used as long as they comply with the recommendations on GPS-SpeedSurfing.com and the competitor brings the relevant cables and software for their device to an event with them. It is a competitor’s responsibility to ensure that their GPS device is logging correctly and the results can be downloaded before competing in an event.

Check out www.IrishSpeedSailing.com for more information.

Thanks all and see you over the weekend

Regards,

Steve Flanagan