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| Owner:
mas Member Member#: 7693 Location: Registered: 29-06-2008 Diary Entries: 399 |
3rd September 2026 Windsurfing: Bradfield Wind Direction: W/SW Wind Stength: 15/30kts Surf / Sea State: Mid Swell Air Temperature: warm Sea Temperature: warm Weather: Cloudy / sunny Max Speed: 17.1 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 10.2 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Bradfield Session Report – Thursday 3.9.26 The forecast looked good: W 14–25 kts, so gusty was always on the cards. High tide was 4:30pm, with plenty of water on arrival at 1:30pm. Very warm for September, and seven sailors out today. The usual split across venues — Levington, Alton, Mersea — but Bradfield had 3 wingers, 2 fins and 2 windfoilers. After the standard wind debate, it looked tame enough on land, but the river was showing F4 gusting 5. Wingers went 4m, windfoilers 6m, fins 7m, and incredibly DC rigged 8.5 on his race board. AI setup for me today was 800/330, 95 fuse, shim –0.5 with the 5.8 E?Pace (5.0 if I owned one). With some south in the wind making it slightly offshore here, I chose the 900 front wing. The others launched well before me and seemed to be doing fine, with Pete on slalom fin absolutely burning the river with impressive speed. By now it was very windy — sensors showing 30?kt gusts. I definitely shouldn’t have launched, but thought I could shelter towards Wrabness or Holbrook Bay while the others stayed around the Mistley end. My first run across the river was a full battering: big waves, heavy gusts, and the foil almost breaching whenever I tried to sheet in. I had to keep the sail open the whole way, which is exhausting. It was my first proper Stour nightmare of the season until I reached the far side and took shelter. The river was white water, gusting 25/30 kts, and both sail and front wing were far too big. Thankfully it eased just enough for me to get back to base, where I took a long coffee break. The wingers were doing brilliantly in the strong wind — Keith changed down from 6 to 5 and was foiling constantly. As the wind eased near high tide, I tried again and managed a decent 45 minutes. I didn’t let the foil go half?mast at any point — the 900 was breaching unless I stayed upwind or dead downwind. With no smaller sail than 5.8, I was out of luck today and had a poor session overall, covering just 10 nautical miles and finishing absolutely shattered. I really should have joined Pete on fin — he had his best day for a while, clocking over 30 kts and skimming across the river in full control. Not sure I’ve got the energy for the same forecast tomorrow. To round things off, I couldn’t get a car park space at the spa with the trailer, so no sauna or steam. A day that went from bad to worse. |
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