Owner:
squiz
Member
Member#: 9786 Location: Registered: 25-03-2011 Diary Entries: 3
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1st July 2019
Windsurfing: Bradfield Wind Direction: WNW Wind Stength: 15/25 Surf / Sea State: river chop Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunny periods Max Speed: 27.50 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 46.60 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise)
Monday 1st July – Windsurf ***** Wrabness on the River Stour – sunny
periods
Fin – 27.50 knot max., 26.35 knot ave., 16.62 knot hour, 24.53 knot mile,
86.34 km., 18.21 (spot PB) knot alpha.
F2 Zantos 295 with Tushingham Lightning 7.8 and 39 fin.
After June a top month for windsurfing July started with an absolute
cracker and I sailed 54 miles on the very pretty River Stour at Wrabness:)
With 15 knots of wind from the WNW and high water around 11 Wrabness on the
River Stour in Essex was the best bet but as parking is tight it was best
to get there early. I was aiming to arrive about nine to join Felixstowe
sailors Neil Hurrell and Andy Mexome along with local Jason Powell but we
woke early and decided to make the most of another lovely day leaving
Felixstowe just after 7 arriving at the beach 7.45 and had pick of the
parking spaces. While Mag prepared her breakfast in the van, I went to
check the conditions over the sea wall. With the tide still fairly low and
my wind gauge not working, sadly it didn’t survive being left out on the
beach here for several days a few weeks ago and it has rusted:( so it was a
job to chose what to rig and I nearly rigged 8.5 for the 310 Zantos. In the
end I came down a size rigging the 7.8 for my Zantos 295 which is a dream
to gybe although the 7.8 is not my fastest sail but they are a good
combination:) I then had to walk nearly 100m to find water deep enough to
sail at 8.15 with the aim to try for an hour which I like to do and am
second in the UK on the gps in this category:) I was still not sure that I
had rigged a big enough sail but I soon found out that this set up was
pretty much perfect for river sailing where there was some pretty big gusts
coming down the river. It is always best to sail big on the gusty rivers
around here as all you have to do when the big wind comes is to bear off or
head up. I had over an hour with the river all to myself and stayed pretty
much in front of Wrabness. It was far from flat and going broad for fast
runs was at best challenging but nothing beats going flat out over the
lumpy river, I might have been slightly faster in the gusts with 7m and my
282 but I was able to plan much more on the bigger kit. I was then joined
on the water by Neil, Andy and Jason with James out launching from
Bradfield. I then decided to beat up to Bradfield to say hello to James
which was great fun and I had some mega broad mile runs with a best of
24.53 with my top 10 mile runs over 19 knots, not bad for a river venue
where you can run out of wind over the far side. It was also a good gybing
day and with 18.21 alpha, a spot PB :) After being on the water well over
three hours and with the wind going patchy, I headed back to the van to say
hello to Mag who had been for a nice walk. Andy had already gone back to
work so I didn’t even have a chance to say hello, still after a nice chat
with Neil and Jason I decided to have one more go to try for 100km but with
the tide now going out and the wind dropping away it was time to call it a
day and was more than pleased with my 86 KM a years best:) I was starving
so tucked into my yummy chicken salad and we had a cuppa with Neil. It was
then time for me to pack up, then Mag and I went for a nice walk past the
beach huts before heading for home. Mag had to take over the driving at
Ipswich as I was dead on my feet, there was a long que of traffic on the
Orwell Bridge so we made a detour through Ipswich finally getting home at
5, the end of a 5 star day and with not much wind forecast for several days
that might be it for a while, time to get the bikes out.
Photo Gallery Here
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