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mas Member Member#: 7693 Location: Registered: 29-06-2008 Diary Entries: 381 |
1st May 2017 Windsurfing: Bradfield Wind Direction: ESE Wind Stength: 20kts Surf / Sea State: Bumpy/flat Air Temperature: 13C Sea Temperature: OK Weather: cloudy Max Speed: 26.82 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 19.45 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Was about to spend the Bank hol afternoon hanging out in the motorhome when I saw a posting from Dave Coles around saying windy at Bradfield and perfect on the river. A quick £20 bribe cleared the path with her indoors, hooked up the trailer and shot off to Bradfield. Windier that Sunday and big gusts were coming thru. The wind was cross off on the incoming tide so bumpy in the middle. Colsey, Nick, James and 3 others were there, those on the water flying. Dave / Nick had 7.0 up on their limit so rigged same as yesterday 7.8 3cam RRD SL sail with max downhaul. A huge gust / squall came thru whilst rigging so had to take cover behind trailer and thought about derigging, fortunately it subsided. Kept with the 146 JP Excite pro-ed because the wind switched to offshore without warning yesterday. Shot off the beach again, straight on the plane, but had to keep up wind, to avoid losing ground on the return leg. This was the order of the day, even though I wanted to do some drag racing downwind. The water was just too bumpy in the middle with very big swells rolling thru on the incoming tide - and you hit them smack on. The North shoxs extension was working flat out damping the bumps as I deliberately stuff it on the ramps to test its limit. Great design, just bottoming out a couple of times but not stalling out. Best speed was going high coming back from Holbrook side, then bearing off close to the Bradfield beach, but alas never timed it right with the gusts so only hit a normal 26.82 kts which wasn't great given the fast kit I was on, although using a full 50cm G10 race fin, didn't help speed. DC, Nick, James and 2 formula heads were going great, with 1 on 8.8M! He wiped out big time leaving the beach, snapping the batten as he hit the sail, ouch! Runs were great straight across the Stour to Holbrook, tanking on a close reach all the way, (1750mtrs) just fantastic! Thought about hitting Harkstead bay, but the risks were too high if gear failure, as I would be out of site of the others. DC Nick James and the formula heads were all planing hard through the rough middle and you could come off some huge swells to hit the speed but you had to kick back up quickly to avoid ground loss. After a brilliant 2 hours, about 4.30 the wind started twitching offish as I left Holbrook bay and I thought it was game over. DC had gone in leaving me and Nick struggling to make it back. Luckily I hit a gust to leave me 25mtrs off the beach whilst Nick had a longer 100 mtr hike along the beach. I had a seal as company walking back to the beach in the water, popping up all around me. It then left and checked out Nick behind me. This is probably my best sail for a year or so. Gybes weren't 100%, as its seemed everytime I went for a gybe, a gust came thru. Cam sails are great till you drop them and try water starting. The RRD was a pig to drain the sail and pop the cams to waterstart. Def won’t be using it at the Dip! Dave said best sail yet and now Nick loves his new 7.0 Gaastra slalom sail and Tabou 116. Wish I could have hooked up the 130, but glad I didn't and wish the wind stayed up longer because as the tide turned the water went glassy, bugger. Left Bradfield 5ish for a long Steam and Sauna, although lost my appetite as still trying to get rid of a Thai curry night....... |
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