Owner:
squiz
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Member#: 6644 Location: Registered: 27-05-2007 Diary Entries: 3070
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28th August 2021
Windsurfing: Bradfield Wind Direction: NNE Wind Stength: 5/20 Surf / Sea State: flat Air Temperature: Sea Temperature: Weather: sunshine and showers Max Speed: 18.97 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 12 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise)
Saturday 28th August - Windsurf ** River Stour at Bradfield – sunshine
and showers.
Foil – 18.97 knot max, 17.40 knot ave ., 7.24 knot hour, 14.68 knot mile,
18.88 km ., 13.35 knot alpha.
Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning
7.8m.
The forecast looked good for another trip over to the River Stour at
Bradfield my third of the week with Mag coming every time:) Wind 15 to 20
maybe starting north but turning more east as the day progressed with sunny
periods so with lunch packed we left Felixstowe at midday arriving 40
minutes later to get out favourite parking spot with the only other person
there at the time was fin sailor Jason who was busy rigging his 7.3, which
to be optimistic when you looked at the river as the onshore wind looked
pretty light and gusty! Still, we had a nice chat with Jason as several
others arrived, it was going to be fairly busy as this is the only local
venue that works with the wind in the north! I then set up my foil board
and took it to the waters edge as the wind really picked up to a good 20
knots, things were looking very promising! I wanted to rig an easy use
sail, not too big with the idea of trying to sort out my foiling gybes so
rigged my nice Tushingham Thunderbird 6.5 and put my full wetsuit on as the
sun was in short supply. By the time I was ready to set off the wind had
disappeared so I quickly rigged my 7.8 and did not want to be caught out on
the water with my 8.5 if the big wind returned! On attaching my sail to the
board at the waters edge I noticed my mast had not sleeved together fully
so had to de-rigg and sort that out! Wading out in light airs it was a case
of floundering about waiting for a gust to pump up on, not great and we
were getting rain showers too being very gloomy now:( I did not fancy
venturing too far away from Bradfield today with the wind all over the
place so stayed in front of the launch beach and am glad I did because the
wind switched a little more east and really picked up. I had several lovely
long diagonal runs up river in super flat water trying to go fast but not
helped by the fact I probably had over a metre too much sail! I even
considered returning for my fin board or change down to my already rigged
6.5 but the big wind did not stay long and quickly became very up and down,
shame really as I was only a couple of runs off getting a nice average for
me on the Stour breaking 18 knots four times! I had a few OK attempts at
gybing and am getting braver now going in much faster, just got to get my
feet switch sorted out! Then the wind turned back more north and all but
disappeared so I did a wobbly run back to join Mag for a cuppa and cake,
she had been on a nice walk to Wrabness nature reserve collecting another
pot of blackberries:) Although the wind returned in patches it was not
enough to tempt me out again so I packed up and got a few pics of the
others sailing before heading for home. The wind continues to blow from the
north for several more day, fingers crossed it swings more NE so I can get
out at Felixstowe as high water is getting a little late in the afternoon
to make it worth while me driving 50 miles for a session here!
PS - good day as got another pic in the local paper:)
Photo Album Here
MK booms here
77 Sports (Exocet) Here
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