Speed Sailing at Ma'alaea

Photos by Nathalie Vaglio

This is me (Tom Hammerton) after a speed sailing session at Ma'alaea. It was an official V-max speed day (http://www.mauispeed.com/) and the Northshore was rained out. With poor wind conditions at Sprecks we decided to hold it at Ma'alaea as the wind was smoking in the bay. Organiser Erik Beale went over first to check the conditions and discovered what seemed to be ideal conditions. I quickly headed over from work to meet Eric at about 2pm. The wind was very strong so I rigged my 5.5 GPS prototype which should be good for 35 knots of wind.
I was the first on the water and soon discovered it was challenging conditions. The wind was almost dead offshore and a kink in the coastline allowed for broad reaching on both tacks. The starboard tack run seemed faster, but was still very tight. The problem with the offshore wind was that it was very gusty. It was in fact the hardest session I have ever sailed. The wind was coming in 35 knot gusts with giant 10 knot holes in between. The wind was more consistent a hundred yards off-shore, but out there it was choppy. After I downloaded my tracks I found that my fastest run was the furthest off-shore where the wind was stronger. I hit a 10 second run of 34.8 knots which is my personal best with a peak speed of 35.4 knots. That speed put me in the lead until Alex Aguera found a puff and posted a 35.9 knot 10 second run. According to the GPS results software I actually hit a peak speed of 37.5 knots on one short lived run - if only that puff had kept going.
I finished the day with my personal best and the second fastest speed so I was stoked! It was a brutal session however and there was general agreement about that! There was not a second of relaxing on the water. Everything was a struggle from waterstarting to getting back to the beach. I have definitely paid for it as I am super sore and I need a couple of days off sailing to recover.