Stena Line Cup 4

Last weekend was Stena Line Cup 4 at Christchurch, and I won! That makes it two events in a row!
A big thanks to event sponsors Stena Line, and also to all the UKWA team that make it possible.

It was an awesome weekend racing in the Raceboard Fleet. Saturday morning was overcast, with light westerlies giving gusty and shifty conditions. I had a great start in Race 1, but dropped to 4th on the second beat in the unpredictable conditions. With the wind becoming increasingly unstable the race committee postponed until after lunch.

After lunch, the sun appeared, and we were greeted by a consistent cross onshore wind of 9-11 knots SW, which built to 12-14 knots during the afternoon, my favourite conditions! Comfortably planing, but not too overpowered for 9.5. We managed to complete 4 more races, I continued to have good starts, surprising myself with my acceleration off the line, and won race 2 and 5, with a second place behind Mark Kay in race 4. I was leading Race 3 until I over-stood the mark on the last downwind, allowing Mark Kay and Marc Carney to overtake. I felt like I had really good speed upwind, and pumped hard downwind to point deeper than anyone else, but Marc Carney was flying upwind on his Mega Cat, and I felt I lacked a bit of straight line speed from Mark Kay.

I started on Sunday in 2nd place, trailing Mark Kay by only 1 point. With overcast conditions, and drizzle, the wind was not able to increase to the strength we had yesterday, but there was enough wind for close racing, and more wind than on Saturday morning. I won the first race, I was just on the edge of planing downwind, so pumped hard all the way to stay planing and put a sizeable margin between myself and Mark. This put me on tied points with Mark Kay. The wind dropped below the planing threshold, and it was neck and neck until I squeaked past Mark after he misread the number of laps. Mark needed to finish two places ahead of me in the last race to win outright and looked comfortable after my shocking port tack start due to the strong tide flowing up the course. I managed to claw back a 2nd place in the race to take the event win.

Results:
1 - Louis Morris 8 points (Tushingham XR 9.5, Phantom 380)
2 - Mark Kay 9 points (Demon VG7, Phantom 377)
3 - Tom Naylor 21 points (Tushingham XR 9.5, Phantom 380)
Full Results
Official Event Video:

New (to me) board! I now have a Starboard Phantom 380, super fast board, can't wait till the next event! 1-2 Sept, UKWA Stena Line Cup 4 at Christchurch.

I won!

UKWA Inlands 4 at Whitwell saw light non planing winds on Saturday, and gusty marginal/planing winds on Sunday. With a borrowed Starboard Phantom 380, I found a level of performance I didn't know I had, and won 5 races out of the 8 race series. It was a fantastic weekend of racing, with some physical, tactical, close racing. My starts seemed particularly good this weekend, and I was flying upwind on the new board, which with its bigger fin and fat tail allowed me to plane earlier and head deeper downwind. I think I need to find some money to  buy one!                                                                                               

Results:

1st Louis Morris (Starboard Phantom 380, Tushingham XR 9.5)

2nd Rob Kent (Starboard Phantom 377, Tushingham XR 9.5)

3rd Jamie Ingram (Starboard Phantom 380, Tushingham XR 9.5, RSX 9.5)

Photo by Andy Watkinson

June 18-19th was event 3 of the UKWA Inland series at Oxford Sailing Club, and I got 3rd Raceboard! So happy with my first UKWA podium result, some fantastic racing. Only one race was completed on Saturday, with 25 knot gusts, it was pretty hard work but felt confident on my 8.4, just had to hold my gybes together! Sunday was very different, and 5 gruelling races were completed in very tricky, shifty marginal conditions, there was some really close racing which was fantastic, with several different people taking race wins - sadly not me, but I managed to be pretty consistent over the series of races, with the exception of the disastrous last race! This weekend it is off to the Midlands for the next event of the Inland series on Rutland water, looks like light wind Saturday and marginal Sunday - hard work!

Farmoor results:

1. Rob Kent, Starboard Phantom 377, Tushingham XR

2. Mark Kay, Starboard Phantom 380, Demon VG7 

3. Louis Morris, Fanatic Cat Class X, Tushingham XR/North Ram F8

Picture by Andy Watkinson

Last weekend 28-29th April, The forecast was looking amazing for Weymouth so me and some friends headed down there. The OTC was hosting the second round of the BSA (British Slalom Association) series 2012. I entered for a bit of fun, found my self some shiny demo kit from JP/Neilpryde and finished 4th in the Amateur fleet! Saturday was really fun, we ran 3 races, the wind was ENE so it was quite choppy out there but I felt comfortable on the JP Supersport 109 and Neilpryde Fusion 6.7. I was a little underpowered to start with, but come the afternoon I was fully powered and loving it. I really wanted to race on Sunday as I was only one point off the podium. Unfortunately it was too windy for most of the day, with 50 knot gusts recorded! When the wind finally dropped, it did so with a huge shift, by the time the course had been relayed for the pro's the wind still wasn't settled, so there was no more racing for any fleets. Still, it was such a fun event, I did better than I expected, and I'm pretty keen on entering another BSA event when time and money allows!

After two weekends away, I think it's time to get some revision done!

Picture by Dave White http://www.davewhite.me/

On the weekend of 21-22nd of April it was the BUCS windsurfing nationals at Calshot near Southampton. It was an awesome event with a variety of wind conditions, some amazing demo kit from the sponsors, and of course, the legendary boat party!


Saturday saw individual racing. Division 1 raced on the Solent, and the first couple of races went fairly well for me in the light shifty wind, choppy water and strong tide. The wind then increaced and I strugged for control on the old longboard I found - mainly because the daggerboard got stuck! In the end I finished 6th. Sam Sills from Southampton Solent won it.


Sunday was Team racing day. We raced in the flat water of the lagoon, away from the tidal currents, and Bristol managed 2nd place which is pretty awesome! At the time I was pretty gutted that we missed out on 1st place by 1 point from Southampton Solent.


After some fun freesailing in the stronger winds that afternoon, and the amazingly impressive freestyle competition, it was time for the prize giving. I did rather better in the overall SWA series than in the event itself, winning a boom and a Spartan xtr wetsuit for 1st place in the Tushingham/Starboard/Spartan Individual racing series, Bristol won the RRD/Boardwise Team race series - collecting an RRD Firerace 120 from Boardwise. Bristol also came second in the overall University series, which won us a demo day from Tushingham and Starboard!





That was the last event of the SWA season unfortunately, but there is a whole new one after the summer!

Hey, welcome to my new blog.
I'll try and keep it updated so that you can find out how I'm doing in my windsurfing competitions, and what I've been up to.