BUCS/SWA Nationals!

Last weekend, I enjoyed the many student windsurfers from across the country at Calshot near Southampton to compete in the BUCS nationals, which is also the last event of the SWA series.

After a mini disaster on finding out that the Bristol minibus we booked didn’t exist, the car convoy got underway (shout out to Dave Cox for making a detor to get my Raceboard from the kit store!). We pitched our tents in the dark and found everyone else partying in the hanger.

Saturday saw racing for Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced divisions. Whilst the beginners and intermediates competed in the flatter water of the lagoon, the advanced division raced around a triangle course on the Solent side of the spit.

Initially, the wind was quite strong, and I was pretty fully powered on the old IMCO 7.4 I found. I didn't have the best start in the first race, but managed to finish a comfortable 2nd behind Sam Sills, who lead from start to finish.

The wind had begun to drop and become pretty gusty by the next race. I got a better start, but still arrived to the windward mark behind Sam. The first reach was very broad, and I pumped hard to get a deep angle. It paid off, and I just managed to overtake Sam shortly before the gybe mark. Unfortunately, this didn’t leave me in the best position for the gybe itself, and he gybed inside to lead me down the last reach to the finish.

By the start of the 3^rd race, the tide had begun to ebb, and the wind-with-tide conditions made the upwind leg tactical and challenging. I got the best start, and headed into the beach to avoid the tide as long as possible. Sam still managed to get ahead and cover me for the second half of the beat, but I managed to get past just before the windward mark, before his fin got stuck on the anchor line, allowing me to pump into a strong lead down the reach. Sam found a good gust and made up some ground, I messed up my gybe big time, and allowed Sam to claim is 3^rd consecutive race win. 

It was decided to finish the 5 race series without a lunch break, since the tide was really racing. I knew I would have to pull something pretty special out of the bag to win the event.

I got the start spot on in the next two races, heading straight into the beach, where there was no tide, and allowing me to make a big gain before hitting the strong tide past the point. Sam unfortunately fell victim to the strong tide in race 4, getting pushed off the line, forcing him to start behind most of the fleet and allowing me and Kirsten O'Callaghan from Exeter to lead the fleet to the windward mark. Sam still managed to finish 2^nd, just ahead of Kirsten.

The last race was the most exciting. I started slightly ahead of Sam, and managed to point a little higher to get into a decent lead and loosely cover him to the windward mark. I didn’t fall in on my gybe this time, and managed to win the race.

In the end, my two race wins weren't quite enough to get the win, and with Sam winning 3 of the 5 races, he took first place, with me in second, and Tom Firth from Cardiff counting some consistent results to take 3^rd. Kirsten was first woman with Jo Wright in 2^nd and Rachael Ince in 3^rd.

Photo: Duncan Dumbreck

The rest of the day was spent having a blast on the Futura 111 and T4 7.0, and trying a bit of old-school freestyle on Storm 5.2 and Kode 94.

Needless to say, the traditional Saturday night boat party lived up to all expectations, with some pretty amazing fancy dress around! I think Bristol pulled off morris dancing pretty well, bells and all, and UWE went to their usual outrageous lengths to make an incredible marching band.

This ended badly! (photo George Curtis)

Sunday started pretty slowly, and once the lagoon had filled with water, the team racing got underway. The competition was pretty fierce with 13 teams competing, and the wind was marginal planing/non-planing. Team Bristol managed to get to the final, but couldn't quite replicate such an amazing performance in the Final, oh well, maybe next year we'll get the chance to better last years silver medal. I think we finished 6^th. Cardiff and Southampton Solent had an excitingly close battle for 1^st, but in the end it was Solent who took the win, successfully defending their 2012 title.

The freestyle was next, I felt fairly confident, since the light winds meant that it would be non-planing freestyle on big boards. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the form that I discovered at Aussie Kiss, and Nottingham, and struggled to find my style, dropping a few moves, and losing to Tushingham team-mates Ollie Acton and Jo Wright in my first heat.

As well as second in the BUCS racing, I won the SWA racing series for the second year in a row, which is pretty amazing. I also got joint second in the overall SWA series (combined disciplines).

Next year, I’m going to miss all the SWA events apart from Aussie Kiss perhaps due to my placement. But it’s been an amazingly fun 2 years at the events, I allready can't wait for AK! Thanks to all the amazing SWA sponsors for letting the events happen and giving some incredible prizes!

Next stop is Weymouth for the first event of the UKWA cup series this weekend!

UPDATE:
Event video by Duncan Dumbreck now up!

UKWA Inlands 1

Had an amazing weekend at the first UKWA inland series event last weekend, which was held at Northampton Sailing Club, Pitsford Reservoir.

We had fantastic weather all weekend, although the wind kept teasing us on Saturday. It would fill in occasionally, but never stayed for more than 20 minutes or so, shifting all over the place. It was a relaxed start to the season, most people got out on the water for a bit to make the most of what wind there was to dust off some winter cobwebs. Race officer Mike Dempsey decided to run a few fun/training races. I spent most of the day revising in my tent: fun, fun, fun!

Sunday's forecast was gave 10-14 knots or so, so 6 races were run to make up for the lack of racing on Saturday. The forecast wind did not appear, until the afternoon and 3 races were run before lunch in a shifty 4-8 knots. I played it safe, keeping to the middle of the course although I made some losses and gains with the shifts, I worked hard to pull back to the front of the fleet, and my conservative tactics paid off with a consistent 2,3,1. Alan Jackson destroyed everyone in the first two races, deciding to head right out to the left, and winning by miles!

After lunch, the wind picked up, although still in a very shifty, gusty form! In race 4, I got a decent start, but struggled to find my speed upwind as a big bust came through. However, I pulled back some places on the downwind and next upwind to finish 2nd behind Mark Kay, who got a great start and had good board speed.

Mike Dempsey chose to change the course for the last two races to an "L" course, which added some fun reaching to the finish. I had a good start and managed to get a really good angle upwind too arrive at the windward mark first. The wind was still very patchy, and whilst I managed to find follow a gust on the downwind leg, others weren't so lucky; Mark Kay and Tom Naylor managed to find a hole in the wind, allowing Rob Kent and Guy Spreckly to take 2nd and 3rd. The last race saw a big wind shift leading to a very starboard biased start line. Unfortunately I went over the line during the last 30 seconds, so had to go round the end... to find a big long queue behind the committee boat for the favoured end of the line, so I started last! Somehow, I managed to outpoint the fleet upwind, and arrived at the windward mark in 2nd behind Mark. Again, I managed to find all the gusts downwind, and after the 3 lap race, I had a healthy lead. The gusty, shifty conditions shuffled the fleet up, giving some exciting racing

The new kit was working great, with the sail offering plenty of power in the light winds, whilst being easily adjusted as the gusts came through, it's light weight 6 batten design helped downwind pumping. The board allowed me to get on the rail in the smallest of gust, and point high upwind, and most critically: get planing, and stay planing on the gusty downwind legs.

In the end, finding consistency in the tricky conditions was the key, I took the win, and one discard saw Mark Kay and Rob Kent count consistent top 5 results to finish on tied points. Annette Kent won the ladies, whilst Aidan Liddy was first youth. With many of the top guys in the fleet now sailing the Starboard Phantom 377, expect the competition to only get hotter as the season gets going. Can't wait until the next event at Weymouth in a couple of weeks.

Results:
1st:  Louis Morris (Starboard Phantom 377, Tushingham XR Race 9.5)
2nd: Mark Kay (Starboard Phantom 377, Demon 9.5) (1st master and heavyweight)
3rd: Rob Kent (Starboard Phantom 377, Tushingham XR Race 9.5)
1st super veteran: Alan Jackson, 4th overall (Starboard Phantom 380, Demon 9.5)
1st veteran: Tom Naylor, 5th overall (Starboard Phantom 380, Tushingham XR Race 9.5)
1st Lady: Annette Kent, 7th overall (Starboard Phantom 377, Tushingham XR Race 8.5)
1st Youth: Aidan Liddy, 16th overall (Tushingham XR Race 8.5)

Full results here

All ready for the 2013 season?

Had a great few weeks home in Cornwall. Done a lot of windsurfing which is nice, both on my Phantom Raceboard and on the waves. The first couple of weeks were pretty cold and easterly, but I've had some great raceboard sessions at Torpoint and Siblyback and really feel like I've got to know my new kit well. I've sailed it quite a lot in stronger wind conditions, and feel much more confident than I used to, since these conditions aren't my strength.

Photo by Paul Wright

Unfortunately, the wind is looking pretty light for the first UKWA course racing event of the season at Pitsford this weekend, but  I'm really looking forward to getting racing again, it's been a while, just got to hope that there is enough to race! In the mean time, there is one more day of strong wind and waves left!