I never seem to get round to any UK coastal sailing, Bray is conveniently close and easy – the sun and wind in Egypt or Greece always seems more tempting… However, following our recent (very enjoyable) club trip to El Tur I got myself a nice new board from the Bray shop and at 100 litres no further excuses to put off that trip to the coast.
Candice’s round robin emails to get coastal (contact her if you want to get on the distribution list) provided the right opportunity. Hamworthy F5 forecast on windguru, grassy rigging area and cafe close by seemed to be perfect.
A terrible three hour holiday traffic drive later I arrived in Hamworthy Park (Poole) where it was chucking down rain and looking very gloomy indeed. I was wondering if this really had been such a good idea, but there was no denying it was very windy.
As the first to arrive I rigged up my 6.1 and got some tips from a friendly local, a windsurfer gone over to the dark side (kite surfer) and after a few tentative runs realised that even in the rain UK coastal sailing is definitely worth the effort. The sailing is straight off the beach, the first bit fairly flat, more chop further out. The day bought a consistent strong wind and great blasting.
As the rain disappeared the rest of the Bray contingent (Candice, Claire, Gavin and Lynn) turned into the car park and rigged up. Everybody got some pretty good runs in throughout the day, all having a good sail. Lynn not having done a beach start for a while, also got some practice in with a helping hand from Candice. Claire sought to perfect that jibe and Gavin went for a blast between messing about with his harness lines. My new board felt faster than I’ve ever been, thanks for the advice Simon and James, the new toy is great!
I left a little before the rest. Gavin I hear was last off the water as usual at dusk. Despite the slightly longer journey, I think all had a good sail. I certainly did and hope for more wind soon, in the mean time I’m off to Turkey for some sunny windsurfing.
September diary busy with the National Windsurfing Festival and the Club Trip to Dale, West Wales, so I understand Candice is planning the next trip for 16/17 October, hopefully I’ll see you there.
Contributed by: Jeremy
