Raceboard Worlds: Day 1

Hello from a rather gusty and cloudy Czech Republic!

Today was the first day of the event. We registered and got our kit inspected on Sunday, arrived Saturday, and this afternoon (Monday) had the practice race.

There are 102 competitors entered, which will be in 3 fleets: two mens fleet (Yellow and Blue/Gold and Silver), and one womens fleet.

Mark Roberts

The conditions here are very gusty. Yesterday we had a nice NW cross shore wind, which was pretty clean coming down the valley, but very up and down with lulls of 8 knots and gusts of up to 18 ish. Today the wind was a little more offshore. We had about 14 knots when we lauched, but the wind shifted and dropped significantly by the time we started the race. The course was in the shadow of a great big hill, resulting in winds from 6 to 11 knots, and 30 degree wind shifts!

Me on Sunday.

I set my watch wrong, so had a late start but fought back to 2nd place in the blue fleet behind a ESP-9 (I think). Paul chose to use his 7.5 so suffered when the wind dropped, he also missed his start. Mark finished about mid fleet.

Paul Wright.

Proper racing starts tomorrow, and the forecast looks mental: 11 gusting 30 offshore in the morning, 10 gusting 20 cross-shore in the afternoon, and after the last couple of days, I believe it!

Raceboard world championships 1: Off we go!

This is the first of my updates from the Raceboard world championships.

The journey to the Czech Republic starts now. Next stop Leicester to meet up with Paul.
Looks like we'll have a bit of wind at the start of the week at least: http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=3

UKWA Cup 4. Pwllheli.

The UKWA Cup series continued where it left off in Bridlington this weekend with event 4 which took place from the beautiful Abererch Sands near Pwllheli in north Wales.

The northerly and north-westerly winds bought sunshine, and gusty, shifty conditions to the 66 competitors. This meant that racing was very tactical: those who could seek out the gusts and play the shifts did well, those that didn't had to rely on luck!

This report is mainly about the Raceboard class since I know what happened more or less, I've also reported a bit of the other classes, but don't know the details of the racing.

Myself at Farmoor earlier this year. Photo: John Liddy.

Saturday morning had winds between about 8 and 14 knots. I got some good starts, but with the gusty and shifty conditions, there was a lot of swapping of places. I felt fast downwind in these conditions, but it was critical to find the gusts other wise you'd be in a hole and struggling to plane. Mark Kay pushed me all the way around the course to take 2nd behind me in both races whilst Tom Naylor and Rob Kent got a 3rd and 4th each.

Tom Naylor: got some speed upwind! Photo by Dave White.

Race officer Tessa Ingram decided to send all the fleets in for lunch whilst the Formula fleet completed a further 2 races before the wind died as forecast to that afternoon.With the gusty wind, it was tricky enough for them even on their biggest sails.

The wind did indeed drop to light non-planing conditions in the afternoon This made life easier for me to keep Mark Kay at a more comfortable distance behind me as he battled with Rob Kent for 2nd. Tom Naylor didn't have such impressive speed in the light conditions, but Harriet Ellis and Annette Kent each had a top 5 finish. Youth Raceboard Gemma Grayston had some perfect starts and impressive upwind speed all day, but lost out downwind and finished the day just 1 point behind a slightly less consistent Aiden Liddy.

The wind was back up to marginal, gusty conditions on Sunday morning. More offshore this time. In the first race of the day, Annette Kent made a risky port flyer on the start line, but it worked out well. However, the fickle wind meant that others were able to catch up quick. Tom Naylor and Mark Kay both had amazing upwind speed, but it was Mark who worked harder downwind, allowing him to take 2nd in both races behind myself, with Rob Kent, getting past Tom to take 3rd.

Mark Kay. Picture by Andy Watkinson.

The wind picked up in the afternoon and suddenly some guy called Chris Guest started making an appearance at the front of the fleet! He hadn't sailed a longboard for 3 months, so was a little rusty, but his straight line speed is impressive when it's windy. He couldn't quite hold it together enough to finish higher than 4th though, but he wasn't the only one making mistakes: me and Mark both sailed the wrong course a couple of times in the one of the morning races, luckily for me, Mark made his mistake on the last reach so I won that one. I also decided to stick with my big 52cm fin: big mistake, I really wanted my 46 down those reaches!

In the first race of the afternoon, I had good speed off the line, but soon found myself between Mark and Tom, and there was no catching them upwind. I managed to catch Tom downwind, but spent the rest of the race playing catch up with Mark. He also lead the last race perfectly from start to finish. In the end, I won the event with 6 out of 8 race winds, with Mark in 2nd and Rob Kent in 3rd. Annette Kent was only 1 point ahead of Harriet Ellis to be first lady. Aiden Liddy had the edge over Gemma Grayston on Sunday, so he was 1st youth.

Chris Bond. By John Liddy

In the formula fleet, Chris Bond and Dave Coles finished the event on equal points, both dominating the top two places in almost every race. Unfortunately for Dave, he sailed the wrong course in the last race, handing the win to Chris. Jason Clarke took 3rd, winning both races on Sunday morning to add to his super consistent performance.

Most of the Techno fleet had at least one big score to discard, proving the high level of the fleet and the tactical conditions. The win came down to the tie break as Henry Bloodworth just won ahead of first girl Sarah Labourne in 2nd, and Matt Carey in 3rd. Josh Carey finished 1st 6.8, miles ahead of his nearest competition.

Rob York dominated the 16 strong RSX fleet, with the Sills twins taking the remaining podium places. Saskia was a little more consistent, but both had a few big scores. With 2 discards, Imogen took 2nd and first girl, two points ahead of her sister Saskia in 3rd.

Results:
Full results here: https://ukwindsurfing.com/results/
Raceboard:
1st. Louis Morris, 1st lightweight (Starboard Phantom 377, Tushingham XR Race 9.5)
2nd Mark Kay, 1st master and 1st heavyweight (SB Phantom 377, Demon 9.5)
3rd Robert Kent, (SB Phantom 377, Tushingham XR Race 9.5)
1st woman: Annette Kent (SB Phantom 377, Tushingham XR Race 8.5)
1st Youth: Aidan Liddy (Fanatic Megacat, Tushingham XR Rce 8.5)

RSX:
1st Robert York
2nd Imogen Sills, 1st girl
3rd Saskia Sills

Techno:
1st. Henry Bloodworth
2nd Sarah Labourne, 1st girl
3rd Matt Carey
1st 6.8 boy: Joshua Carey
1st 6.8 girl: Marina Round

Formula:
1st Chris Bond (Point 7 sails, Gaastra board)
2nd Dave Coles (Severne sails, Gaastra board)
3rd Jason Clarke (Severne, Starboard)
1st National 11m: Adrian Wallis (Gaastra sails and board)

I'm now leading the UKWA Inland series, and I'm 7th in the Cup series having only competed in two of the 4 events so far.

Stay tuned for my daily updates from the Raceboard World championships next week!

Worlds training and other stuff!

It's been a while since my last post, I've been pretty busy.

I've started my year in industry placement at Sasol in St Andrews now, which means working 5 days a week full time, eek! It's interesting work though, I'm enjoying being a researcher, which obviously is something I've never done before.

I'm really excited to be going to the Raceboard world championships in a couple of weeks. It'll be my first international competition since the Techno worlds in 2009 at Weymouth. Back then my best conditions were 15-25 knots, which is what we had most of the time, but I messed up every start and got 38th under 17 boy, I was pleased to get gold fleet though, and just loved sailing in windy conditions all week!

Something going a bit wrong at the Techno worlds in 2009!

Now I'm only about 6 or 7 kilos heavier than I was then, I'm on a 9.5 sail and my best conditions are 8-15 knots, just as well the Raceboard worlds are at a light wind venue! They are at Pavlov, Nove Mlyny reseviour in the south of the Czech republic. Actually, I never used to sailed in really light winds, so I've been working on that as much as possible, so that I feel confident in those conditions as well as the marginal stuff.

Nove Mlyny: light wind venue by the looks of things. There is lots of local wine though!

In light and marginal conditions, it gets very hard work with lots of pumping, so I've been trying to get fit on my bike as well as getting on the water in light winds. It hasn't been particularly windy since I moved to Scotland, so I've been practicing quite a lot. I've been going for a bike ride around the countryside of Fife or windsurfing after work every day.

Machrihanish

Up a mountain with
Overboard adventure bag

I've been missing wave sailing with all this light wind training, but a couple of weeks ago a bit of a swell was forecast with some south wind. Getting a ferry to Tiree would have meant missing the best conditions on Saturday morning, so I drove to Machrihanish and was on the water by 8am. It was pretty difficult conditions, with the waves peaking all over the place on the various sand banks of the beach (there is virtually no tidal range there for some reason), and the gusty wind a little bit onshore rather than cross shore as I expected. It was still good fun to get out in some waves again though, there was an hour of full power 5.0, several more hours of underpowered 5.0, and some head high sets. The conditions didn't look so good on Sunday and the Scottish bank holiday Monday, so I spend the rest of the long weekend hill walking.

Somewhere near Crianlarich

 Right now I'm finalising arrangements with Paul Wright, who I'm travelling to the contest with. It's all very exciting. I feel much more ready than I did a few months ago, but it's quite difficult to gauge how I'm doing. I knew I was fast compared to the rest of the UK fleet in marginal and medium winds, but I still feel a little uncomfortable in the really light stuff. I've certainly improved a lot; I've just got to stay focussed and pump like crazy!

Next weekend is UKWA Cup 4 at Pwllheli in north Wales, looking forward to getting back on the race course, it'll be a good warm up for the worlds, which start the week after. I'll have a lot of driving in between though!

Stay tuned for my updates from Pwllheli. I also hope to give a daily update from the Czech Republic here and probably on boards.co.uk as well.

Windy Whitwell

Actually, not very windy.
Whilst the wind didn't see the windier side of 8 knots all weekend, some great racing was still had for the 23 Raceboard's, 43 Techno's, 1 RSX, and 26 juniors.

Saturday morning was bright and sunny, with a light (and dropping) breeze. Everyone rigged their sails ready for an 11am start, but the wind had dropped to less than 5 knots, and was very unstable and shifty.

I just wanted to go windsurfing, so went out anyway, and although the wind was patchy and shifty, got some good light wind training in with Jamie Ingram. This seems to have convinced the committee that there was enough to race, and two races were completed on the main course, with 3 races completed by the juniors.

The fickle wind made for some interesting racing on the windward/leeward course, with those who could seek out the gusts and stay in sync with the shifts upwind finishing well, if they could pump enough downwind that is!

Race 1 saw a dramatic wind shift just before the starting sequence, leading to a very port biased line. Whilst most of the fleet started on port, myself, Jamie, and a couple of others opted for a starboard tack start, which lead to a bit of carnage at the pin end. I got away with it, and ended up in a good position in clean air, where I could cover the fleet up the very skewed beat. Jamie was less lucky, but some good speed saw him take 2nd behind myself. Mark Kay was impressive upwind, but couldn't hold off Harriet Ellis and Andy Lacy to the finish.

With the wind coming down the course in the traditional manner for the 2nd race, the start was a bit less of a mess. However, as the fleet approached the windward mark, those on the left side of the course suddenly found themselves in virtually no wind. I had tacked off early, so suffered less and managed to arrive first to the windward mark and win the race. Tim Colles arrived 2nd to the windward mark, but couldn't keep his strong position, allowing Jamie to take 2nd again, with Annette Kent in 3rd, Rob Kent improving on a disappointing first race in 4th, and a consistent Mark Kay in 5th again.

The tricky conditions showed themselves on the Techno results, with many sailors struggling to find consistency. Their second race had to be restarted after the wind shifted and dropped, making it virtually impossible for most of the fleet to make it off the line.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough wind to run any further races on Saturday.

Photo by John Liddy (from UKWA Farmoor event)

The wind was offshore on Sunday, and a little light, but after a short wait, the main course fleets (Techno and Raceboard), headed out to the start, and both completed 1 race in 1-6 knots, less than 4 knots for most of the race, really really light conditions. I got a good start, but Jamie got a slightly better one it was difficult to get past in the light conditions, so I took 2nd, with Mark Kay in 3rd and Rob Kent in 4th again.

Unfortunately, we were unable to run any further races, and the famous Rutland Marathon couldn't take place this year despite the patchy wind teasing us all day. The Junior windsurfers didn't race at all on Sunday, but had luckily managed 3 races the previous day.

With three races allowing 1 discard, the results were shuffled up somewhat as people could discard their bad race, this made a big impact in the Techno fleet, allowing Alexei Murphy to win the 7.8's, and Joe Parrot to win the 6.8's, discarding an OCS (over the start line early). It made less of an impact on the Raceboard results, with a consistent Mark Kay taking 3rd on tied points with Rob Kent.

Raceboard results Summary:
1. Louis Morris, 1st Lightweight (Tushingham XR Race 9.5, Starboard Phantom 377)
2. Jamie Ingram (RSX 9.5, Starboard Phantom 377)
3. Mark Kay, 1st master, 1st Heavyweight (Demon 9.5, Starboard Phantom 377)

Thanks to Ian from Boardwise for sponsoring the event. (Photo by Paul Wright)

1st Lady, 5th overall. Annette Kent (Tushingham XR Race 8.5, Starboard Phantom 377)
1st Youth, 15th overall. Gemma Grayston (RSX 8.5, Fanatic megacat)
1st Veteran, 6th overall. Tom Naylor (Tushingham, Starboard)
1st Super Veteran, 7th overall. Andy Lacy (Demon, Starboard)

Full results here: https://ukwindsurfing.com/results/

Home delivers some wind, hello Scotland

I was great to get back on a windsurfing board after my exams by competing at the 3rd event of the UKWA Inlands at Farmoor, even better to win it! However, something was missing: wave riding and jumping! Luckily for me, the week following Farmoor was windy, and I scored some great sessions at Wonwell, Bigbury, The Bluff, Marazion, and Siblyback. I feel like I've finally cracked the forward loop on Port tack, consistency needs to be worked on, and although my Starboard tack jumping is pretty atrocious, I'm at least trying on my bad side. It sounds simple, but the key thing that made the difference for me was making sure my feet were really deep in the footstraps so that I didn't loose the board, and getting the front hand back as well as the backhand. Need to try some more backlooops now, and see if I can get flat water spin loops.

Two sessions really stand out for me. One was when I headed west to sail The Bluff and Marazion. The waves were small, but it was really windy, making it simply a really fun jumping and riding session: bright sunshine and 4.2 all day! The other was just 5 minutes down the road at Siblyback lake. The wind was southerly, pretty clean, and was a great opportunity to do some much needed high wind raceboard training. I'm pretty impressed with the Lightning 8.5, it is actually really powerful and great upwind, downwind, it lacks power compared to the XR 9.5, but in 18 knots+, it's the ideal raceboard sail for me. 

8.5 Tushingham Lightning + Starboard Phantom 377: ulimate high -wind racing combo! Pic by Paul Wright

The wind then picked up, full power 5.0, and I put the Kode 86 through it's paces, I just couldn't bring myself off the water! It really bought back to me back to just loving windsurfing without having and waves, whitewater, startlines etc. just blasting, chop hopping, and cranking around gybes and downwind 360's! I was pretty stacked on my 5.0 in the gusts, 4.2 would have been fine, but decided to head out on my 8.5 and Starboard Phantom again! I haven't sailed a longboard in this much wind for a very long time, but it was fine, fun, and I felt nicely in control with the 8.5 lightning and a 46cm fin.

Starboard Kode 86: carving machine! Pic by Paul Wright

Testing. Pic by Jacob Henning

It was also great to catch up with the Siblyback Waterwarriors Team 15 club at the weekend as well. They competed in the second even of the season, and finished 3rd team in a close battle with arch rivals from Roseland. Aside from the home made tropies, the new feature this year is the total domination of the Polkerris Pirates, who absolutely smashed the last two events! It was a nice force 4 wind for them, my brother Ross finished 2nd in the 6.8's on tied points with first, luckily for him it was windy, because he hasn't sailed in non planing conditions for a very very long time! I also managed to get out on the water to test an interesting prototype race sail.

I've also just moved house to St Andrews for a 12 month work placement, so once I come back from touring (ok, holiday) Croatia with the Bristol University Big Bands, I've got some exploring to find the best windsurfing spots on the east coast of Scotland, as well as two month to get fit and fast for the Raceboard world championships in the Czech Republic in September.

Fully loaded: there was just about room for me inside.

UKWA Inland 3: Farmoor

This weekend saw the third event of the UKWA Inland series, which was hosted by the London Windsurfing Association at Farmoor reservoir near Oxford. The Raceboard fleet was well represented with 24 competitors registering for the two day event including 5 youths.

Whilst Saturday saw plenty of juniors compete in the Team 15 event, only three stayed for the 2^nd day of the UKWA event. The Inland series is a great introduction to national level racing for all ages, and the next event (at Whitwell, Rutland water) runs alongside the RYA Junior National championships, which is a perfect event for all Team 15 windsurfers. 17 young windsurfers raced in the Techno class, and the promising forecast enticed four Formula racers to the gusty lake.

With a really gusty offshore wind, it was difficult to judge the wind strength from the ‘beach’. Race officer James Palin set a box course, with the Raceboards sailing an Inner loop course, with an Outer loop for the Techno’s, and a windward/leeward for Formula. The wind was pretty strong, with some big gusts in excess of 20 knots sweeping down the course.

Rigged and ready, it's windier than it looks!

Tom Naylor flew past me soon after the start, but decided to take a trip to the other side of the lake, missing the layline and handing me the win. James Moon delivered a strong performance to take 3^rd ahead of Rob and Annette Kent, with 15 year old Lewis Barnes delivering a solid 6^th place.

I got a pretty bad start in the next race, but managed to get some good upwind speed and get the gusts and shifts right to arrive at the windward mark first and take the race, with Rob Kent in second.

After lunch, it looked like the wind had dropped, it had but there were still some pretty strong gusts coming through. I won both races, but didn’t get it all my own way; the gusty, shifty conditions causing big mix ups in the fleet each upwind leg. Downwind, some were unlucky to get stuck in a hole, whilst others could carry a gust to the leeward mark. A mixture of lots of pumping and following the gusts downwind helped me recover from some bad positions. Tom Naylor and James Moon seemed to be having their own private battle, with Tom just edging ahead in each race. Rob Kent found some good consistency, ending the day in 3^rd behind Tom Naylor and ahead of James Moon. Consistency was hard to find in the tricky conditions, and whilst Tim Colles had some impressive speed to get a couple of top 6 results, Alan Jackson, Annette Kent, and Adrian Rippington fared better with their top 10 consistency.

The Techno and Formula fleets also managed 4 races, with Henry Bloodworth and James Hatcher showing the way around the course with four bullets and four seconds respectively in the Techno fleet, and Chris Bond dominating the Formulas.

Raceboards ready to go

The wind was much lighter and very shifty on Sunday, especially in the afternoon. I won each of the four races, with marginal winds rewarding me downwind, allowing me to make up for any mistakes on the shifty upwind legs. Rob Kent is quick in this wind, and was consistently 3^rd except in the last race where he got done by a big wind shift. Tom Naylor was less consistent, but with two discards, he counted only 2^nd and 3^rd places to take 2^nd place in the event, following his win at Rutland a few weeks ago. James Moon started the day well with a 3^rd place, but couldn’t keep it up, and ended the event in fourth. Annette Kent performed well in the light winds, showing the fleet how it is done with her 8.5. It was Nick Welsh’s first time on a Raceboard, but some impressive results saw him finish first youth and 12^th overall.

HB and James Hatcher were absent from the Techno fleet on Sunday, but Alice Read destroyed everyone with straight bullets to win overall as well as first 7.8 and first girl. Hugo Thomas was first 6.8, and Rebecca Kent first 6.8 girl.

Full results at https://ukwindsurfing.com/results/

Raceboard results summary:

1. Louis Morris, 1^st Lightweight (Tushingham XR Race 9.5/Starboard Phantom 377)
2. Tom Naylor, 1^st Veteran (Tushingham XR Race 9.5/Starboard Phantom 380)
3. Robert Kent, 1^st Master (Tushingham XR Race 9.5/Starboard Phantom 377)

1^st Woman: Annette Kent, 5^th overall (Tushingham XR 8.5/Phantom 377)

1^st Senior Veteran: Alan Jackson, 6^th overall (Tushingham XR 8.5/Demon 9.5/Phantom 380)

1^st Heavyweight: Tim Colles, 9^th overall (Tushingham XR 9.5/Phantom 380)

1^st Youth: Nick Welsh, 12^th overall (RSX 8.5/Phantom 380)