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squiz Member  Member#: 9786 Location: Registered: 25-03-2011 Diary Entries: 3 |
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 MK Booms here |
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