My Ranking on GPS team challenge

I am posting my rankings here for the GPS team challenge windsurfing competition. These are the worlds best amateur (and some professional) speedsailors that I am ranked against.

Overall I am about halfway up/down the ranking list, with much higher ranking for 1hour and Total Distance Travelled.

My Alpha (500m with a gybe halfway, ending within 50m of start) and Nautical mile speeds are quite low and hopefully will improve as soon as we get a consistent south west wind and mid to high tide.

I am pleased so far, seeing as I only joined the site in September 2010.  The creators of the site need thanking, the idea is brilliant and the team aspect is fantastic. Every month it is pushing me to perform better and learn quickly, both to get scores for the team and to improve my own ranking (this I have only just realised - hence todays post!).

Here are the results for last Saturday,  sorted by 500m run - the benchmark for competing. I am really pleased with these, some of the other sailors on here have been doing this for 20+ years and I am getting speeds near theirs. Steve Corps partcularly is a very skilled sailor and amazing to watch, his flare in turning which ever way he chooses to is second to none!

 For Sunday, there were no where near as many sailors out, the wind was more southerly so it means you have to go out into the middle of the harbour or stick near the speed run at the academy end. I am still really pleased that I finally joined the 30knot club!

Other things on the melting pot this week are ideas to raise more money. One of which was to create a logo for the Portland Pirates, and start looking at getting some rash vests made up. Here is the logo that I am happy with (so far....it is still in development).

I wanted something simple but gets the point across. I had a little help with the idea from Sam Latham - a fellow windsurfer and design student. A few other friends on Facebook have said they will have a go at logo's as well.

There does not seem to be much good wind forecast, there is some from the North, which at this time of year is not very nice to sail in, as the air temperature drops below 6deg. Anything less than 8deg is painful, but manageable if the wind is onshore. A north wind is cross which means straight out to sea, if any cramps happen, or a gybe is dropped it can be horrible getting back as you have no grip on the boom. The long range forecast is looking more promising with a return of the jet stream forecast at the end of the month into February.