Owner:
squiz
Member
Fashion Victim 2003
Member#: 33 Location: Birmingham Registered: 07-08-2002 Diary Entries: 117
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2nd January 2020
Windsurfing: Levington Wind Direction: SW Wind Stength: 5/18 Surf / Sea State: flatish Air Temperature: 9 Sea Temperature: Weather: cloudy Max Speed: 21.96 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered:
Thursday 2nd – Windsurf ** - River Orwell, Levington – cloudy.
F2 Zantos 295 with 36 fin and Tushingham Lightning 7m.
Fin – 21.96 knot max., 21.19 knot ave., 6.39 knot hour, 10.54 knot mile,
20.50 km., 8.35 knot Alpha.
I was keen to get out for my first session of 2020 today as an OK SW breeze
and 9 degrees forecast even if the tide on the Orwell was not idea, high at
3.45. So, I headed down to the marina just before midday and the water was
still fairly low and the parking area is still blocked by a large dredging
pipe:( So I read my book and listened to the radio for awhile waiting for
the tide to come in. It didn’t look overly windy and to be honest it
would have been better to sail in the open sea but being chilly and I back
playing up the river is always a safer option. Also, you can sail in
shallow water, which means you can stay dry and sail longer. I tried the
wind gauge and the onshore winds were gusting well over 20 mph with it
forecast to pick up I went for 7m on my 133lt board. I had to walk a long
way to find someone to zip me into my wetsuit and by the time I had carried
my kit to the water the wind looked marginal at best and in the end, I
should have rigged 8.5 and taken out the 147lt. board but hindsight is a
wonderful thing. Also, it would have been better to foil but there was a
lot of shallow water limiting where you could foil! So, I spent over two
hours sailing across the bay end getting the odd gust so I managed a 20
average, managing to keep completely dry with only my hands getting cold.
Towards the end of the session the wind picked up slightly and I had a
couple of runs towards Pin Mill seeing loads birds, the highlight of the
session! I do dislike the winter and finding enthusiasm to sail is hard, we
could do with a Portland Harbour type venue on our doorstop! As it was
cloudy miserable day I decided to call it a day as the light faded and had
a nice chat with a wildfowler out to bag himself a couple of duck for tea
and managed to pack up before it got too dark but did have to drive home in
my sunglasses!
Photo Gallery Here
MK booms Here
Windsurfing report for 2019.
I have had a good windsurfing 2019 with 101 sessions including 29 on a foil
but for the first time in a few years there were none abroad! I have sailed
ten different venues spending a lot of time on my local rivers the Orwell
and Stour. I have done next to no proper speedsailing but had two
successful trips The Ray, first time getting 8 mile runs over 30 knots 30
including a 32.05 mile, best in the UK I believe:) also I improved my
average to 37.71 just missing out on breaking 40 knots for the first time
in the UK with a 39.81 knot max:) I also gave the Portland sailors a run
for their money coming 3rd in the GPS team challenge, top in two
categories, mile and distance covered, including a memorable day at
Portland where I sailed 193km:) I sailed every month and concentrated on
trying for sailing an hour and was actually the second highest rated UK
sailor in the GPS Speedsurfing rankings:) I have taken up foiling this
year and after a slow start using the dodgy pink NP foil which I couldn’t
get to fly I switched to the Slingshot 76 and things have really improved,
getting some nice long flights now and am now looking for a slingshot foil
board! Other highlights of the year including a longboard sail up the coast
from Felixstowe to Orford lighthouse, I managed to break 30 knots on 13
sessions at 5 different venues covering a total of 4111 km, that’s 2554
miles, so not bad for a pensioner, lets hope 2020 is as good!
Venues :-
River Orwell – Levington – 35 times
River Stour – Wrabness & Bradfield – 16 times
Felixstowe – The Dip & The Manor – 32 times
Point Clear – 10 times
West Mersea – 1 time
Portland Harbour – 3 times
The Ray – 2 times
Alton Water – 1 time.
Equipment used – Boards :-
Fanatic Cat (longboard) – 12 times
Starboard Formula – 29 times
F2 Xantos 310 – 13 times
F2 Xantos 295 – 30 times
F2 Ride 282 – 21 times
F2 Ride 277 4 times
Fanatic Falcon 80 – 5 times
Fanatic Falcon Speed – 1 time
Sails :-
Tushingham Lightning 9.4 – 7 times
Tushingham Lightning 8.5 – 25 times
Tushingham Lightning 7.8 – 19 times
Tushingham Lightning 7 – 21
Tushingham Lightning 6.5 – 14 times
Tushingham X 15 7 – 11 times
Tushingham X 15 6.4 – 3 times
Tushingham X 15 5.8 - 8 times
Tushingham X 15 5.2 – 2 times
Tushingham Vulcan 6 – 1 time
Tushingham Storm 5.2 – 1 time
Naish Nalu 4.7 – 1 time
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