Mountains, Bridlington, Polkerris and Weymouth

I've not been so good at updating my blog lately, but a lot has happened.

For a start there was the second round of the UKWA national championship series at Bridlington. The forecast was looking pretty awful to be honest, but we got two good races in on Saturday morning; one in fairly strong wind, and one in marginal wind. I'd been doing a little bit of training before the event, and I felt a lot faster upwind than I did at Whitwell. Combined with some good downwind speed, I won both races by quite a margin. Another race was started, but the wind disappeared completely and although it teased us on Sunday, it was never consistent or steady enough for racing, although good light wind training.

Bridlington results:
1. Louis Morris (Tushingham)
2. Robert Kent (Tushingham)
3. Mark Kay (Demon)
4. Tom Naylor (Tushingham)

After that I finished off my placement in St Andrews, and went on holiday for a week, hiking in the west of Scotland (Knoydart, Skye and Glen Coe).

Then I came home to Cornwall and resumed work as a watersports instructor, now at Polkerris Beach instead of Siblyback. Got out for some fun freeride and freestyle.

Photo taken by Bob Shillito

Photo taken by Chris Bilkey

Then I went to Weymouth for the 3rd event of the UKWA national championship series. The conditions were almost perfect all weekend, with sunshine and 8 races in 10-20 knots. I hadn't been training since Bridlington, and felt slow upwind in the gusts, but fast downwind, and occasionally fast upwind (in the lulls). However Mark Kay and Tom Naylor really put the pressure on and frequently sailed straight past me upwind. In my efforts to regain the lead, I made lots of silly mistakes: got my laylines all wrong, dropped a gybe, crashed into Mark and broke his batten at the windward mark etc. The event win went right down to the last race, with me and Mark on tied points. I got a good start, but tacked a bit too early then caught
some weed, then tacked too early again, then my hand slipped off the boom gybing downwind and I couldn't catch up! I settled for 2nd (the first time I've lost a national event since June 2012), but I have plenty of time before the next event to do some training and get my racing head back on. I also plan to rig my sail correctly if it is windy next time (I'd forgotten how long my boom should be and didn't have enough outhaul).

Photo by Paul Wright

Tom Naylor was super quick upwind on his Tushingham XR-Race, Rob Kent was super quick downwind on his, and I was quick enough on mine to almost make up for my mistakes! Well done to Mark for winning, I'll be back on top next time!

Weymouth results:
1. Mark Kay (Demon)
2. Louis Morris (Tushingham)
3. Tom Naylor (Tushingham)
4. Rob Kent (Tushingham)