Sunny Portland Sat 5th July

DanO · Post by **DanO** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 09:31

Sunny morning, 20 knots SSW gusting to 30+.
Rain held off til 5pm when wind picked up further.

5 hours exhausting fun getting to grips in the gusty conditions with my new Carve 122 and a 5.5m sail.

Chuffed to bits I managed my first every 'feet can't touch the bottom' waterstarts.

Thanks for the waterstart tips to fellow Nomad Simon, who I havn't seen since the Roadford Lake weekend (another windy one). Nice one mate.

Post by **MartinF** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:22

Excellent - well done. A hurdle overcome.

I STILL remember my 1st waterstart - 1982. Some small reservoir near Ipswich. An F2 demo day. Happy days!

Post by **Ian Long** » Sun Jul 06, 2008 18:21

Well done.

Neroli and I headed down to Hayling Island to meet up with some long lost London and Guildford based windsurfing friends. By the chance, we ended up in a queue just south of Salisbury, immediately behind Adrian who was en-route to Avon beach at the time.

Arrived at Hayling to find (Spring) High Tide crashing onto the sea defences with a dead onshore wind making a launch from our usual spot looking very difficult. We paused for lunch and then headed back to the (rather run down) "Inn on the Beach" which was were most of the windsurfing vans were. Shortly after we got out of the van, we were greeted by Sue Day - she had heading down early for a Simon Bornhoft social on the Sunday and was waiting for the tide to recede a bit before venturing out.

Impatience got the better of Neroli and I, so we rigged 4.6 and 5.2 on K-Bay custom and Acid 77 respectively and headed out do to battle with the shore dump. I went first and after pushing through a few breakers, managed to water start and wallow out beyond the impact area. Alas when I got there I didn't find any wind. I did a short leg out and back where I just got onto the plane before coming in so that Neroli could nick my kit while I rigged something bigger.

I rigged the 6.0 and headed back to battle on the 87 Kombat - same kit as my last two outings at Weston. This time was much better and managed to get out and get onto the plane, sufficient for Neroli to also battle her way out - She succeded on second attempt, the first was rather un-dignified and she has a suitably bruised forearm for her troubles.

Alas I managed to twinge my hamstring during a waterstart early in the session, so made frequent trips back in to encourage our friends out into the fray and also to rest it. Neroli on the other hand decided that once out, stay out, and proceeded to amaze my friends with a marathon session. In all she spent longer sailing that myself and all our friends put together with out coming in for a rest!

One of the trips in through the shore break delivered the final blow for my hamstring and I had to retire back to the van to lick my wounds. In the mean time, Sue decided that the tide had dropped sufficiently to make a launch worthwhile and she set off on a marathon session of her own - Sue finally came off the water around 6:45pm, having had to swap boards when a mystery hole appeared on the underside of her JP.

The photo below is of Neroli mid gybe, early in the session. We were lucky, rain on the way down but glourious sunshine all the time we were at Hayling. We eventually left at 8pm after an excellent day out. I love Hayling, just wish it was closer

.

Graham_U · Post by **Graham_U** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 09:19

Despite the forecast I had myself a reasonably sunny and warm day at Hamworthy. I had thought of joining Danny in Portland, but the last time I tried that in the Summer I got snagged in the traffic from Blanford to Weymouth, and with the forecasts looking hairy I went for the easier option.

The car park was reasonably clear, drove straight into a place on the second row of the grid. The wind, unlike the sun and rain, was just as forecast. Very similar to llandegfedd the other week, southerly and reasonably strong but incredibly gusty. Hence the water was way too choppy for my liking.

This forced me straight onto the Orange peril for the first time in the best part of a year without the normal confidence building start on Cyrano the Techno. Other people were on anything from 4.0 to 5.5m so went for the the same 4.7 NP NR as last time which was big enough most of the time, and too big in the gust, but as its only the third time I've used this sail, and second I've used this combo, I'm still not confident with the set up.

No a great session, plenty of planning, but I have lost the ability to turn that board, so plenty of water start practice. I'm still not good at getting back up on the board in the choppy stuff out by the marina. I'm so rusty that I didn't even try gybing!

In all I spent something between 3 and 4 hours on the water, and was so knackered that carry the kit off the beach was a real struggle. I was packing up about 5 just as the rain finally decided to put in an appearance, which meant a pretty awful drive home. But at least the roads were relatively clear for July.

Not sure if I enjoyed it or not but it was good to get out on the water. However my body has been complaining ever since. If I'd had a little more practice/confidence under my belt I think it would have been a much more enjoyable session.

Adrian · Post by **Adrian** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 16:40

I thought of Ian and neroli when I ran into a guy at Avon Beach that I had met the year before at El Medano. He is a Hayling regular but said that with the tide and wind direction Hayling would be c**p so had headed over to Avon Beach which is pretty easy to get out even at High tide especially as it was only cross on.

Ian I am impressed with your flexiblity but if you are going to lick your wound I suggest you take care where you get hurt

Adrian

Sue · Post by **Sue** » Mon Jul 07, 2008 21:10

Thought I'd better make some sort of posting seeing I was spotted by Ian and Neroli at Hayling at the weekend. I'd gone down for the weekend mainly because of a Simon Bornhoff social sailing day organised for Sunday. Overall had a good weekend although I didn't meet up with Simon and crew in the end!
I went down to Hayling on Saturday and got there about lunchtime. It was high tide with (what I thought was) a vicious shore break and v windy, but at least sunny. I hadn't been there long before Ian and Neroli arrived. It was good to see some familiar faces - and in Nomad style they immediately asked me if I wanted a coffee (v kind of them). They assured me the shore break would flatten as tide went out, and it did - after about 2 1/2 hours. Ian and Neroli were out for a long time having fun and displaying perfect gybes. I had a great sail in the end (after the shore break had subsided a little) on a 5.5 on my 105. I had intended using my 85 litre board - but i managed to put a small hole in the base of it before it even got wet, and not sure how I did it. The only thing I can think of is that I may have applied too much pressure when tightening the deck plate as I had laid the board directly on the shingle beach (another time I'll keep the board on top of the board bag!).
Anyway, Sunday morning I was at the beach at 7.15am planning to have a full morning sail whilst low tide and before the waves got up. Arrived and it was blowing a gale with 30mph+ winds. The water didn't look v flat even at low tide and the big beefy guys were out on 4.2s and wave boards. I only had a 4.7 and my bigger board and I was told I'd die by someone (think he was exaggerating) if I went out on it. It was so windy though I could hardly open the car door and I knew I wouldn't be able to even rig up in it. Then the rain arrived and after sitting around for 2 hours i made the decision to go home. Turns out that Simon B etc all went elsewhere (Esso Beach) later in the day for a more sheltered sail - so perhaps I should have stayed in retrospect.

So that was the weekend. Really pleased I went and I'll make the effort to go again - but not if gales are forecast as my kit is not small enough.
I enjoyed the start of the Grand Prix and the whole of 'The Tennis Match' when I got home ....