Made it into the Local Paper again

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Both goals complete this week - 1006nmi total, 35knot Speed.

First I want to say thank you to all that have donated and helped me along the way, my first set of goals are complete. Its best to extend them now as I wanted this challenge to last all year.

I knew that the 1000 goal was soon going to be finished, but I cant quite believe that at the end of it enough wind came to allow me to get the 35knot speed as well. I woke up at 6am and knew I had to go and get my final 20 nautical miles so went down to the harbour and rigged my big kit. I only dropped a couple of gybes in an hour so one this session I managed to get my hour best average speed as well, something I have not been able to beat since I got it in September last year.

26nmi sailed, 1006 is the new total.

My new goal is now to get 2011nmi, it seems appropriate this year.

Return of the Westerlies (I hope)

There is a brief return of the good winds from the west this week, the forecast is only giving them for a few hours at the weekend though so we will see if it actually happens. I have my palmless mitts ready and have hopefully started to recover from the man flu/ cold I have had for the past 5 days. I had started my training to keep my fitness levels up over the cold months but the illness stopped it after 2sessions.

I am doing basic floor exercises with 60+press ups and sit ups, along with some basic free weights and cardio work for at least half an hour per day. Over the month I will build up with some jogging and maybe cycling as well. I have never been good at running, always pacing myself wrong and going too fast. When I last went with Kat I managed about twice the distance I have ever run (6miles apx) as she was keeping the pace slow - in all honesty I can nearly walk as fast as we were jogging! This is how I will start though, on the flat along the sea front and then build in some inclines in the holidays next week.

In the holidays I will do some work on the SUP as well as this is great for core fitness levels and weather permitting means I should not get too cold.

Basically the temperature cut off can be seen in this chart.

This means that I can get on the water as long as the air temperature is above 5deg, any lower with decent winds means more than -10deg. Its not too bad for 10minutes but derigging is hard as your hands stop working. I will get out in January even if it is with little wind on my SUP with a small sail to do a couple of miles.

Best wishes to all for the holidays.

Longest time off the water since April

Finally a windy day at the weekend. I tried to get out on Thursday but as I rigged up the wind dropped off and it was already getting dark 20 minutes after work finished.

Today the wind was easterly, which makes the harbour very choppy. I usually rig wave kit for a bit of jumping but there was not quite enough wind so I opted for my speed sail and freestyle wave board. With it I got my best mile so far, 23.2 knots of bumpy chop avoiding fun! I learnt a lot today and used the advice that my fellow Portland Pirates gave me, to bear off the wind in stages as each gust hits. It worked and gave me some good speeds considering the water state.

There were a lot out today as well as the water is still not very cold, and the air temperature was not too bad. I guess it will be the last time I see a few of them before next March or April as a few were saying it would be the last session of the year. It certainly wont be for me - 74 and counting, I want to hit 90!

 

 I am quite happy with the ranking from the sportstracklive website! And I have only just got started.

It has been very windy the past 48hours, I tried to get out yesterday but my board was too big for my sail, or vice versa. The volume at the back of the board was too much to get stable when setting off, I wanted a big sail for big speeds though. I got there about 3.30pm so the wind was gusting to 50knots by the time I had rigged up. So I either need to get a smaller speed sail, or a smaller board. I can't justify this though for at most 4 sessions per year.

Great session to wind down after a hard week at work.

Managed to get on the water by about 3.45pm, rigged the 7.0m Tushingham X15 which was perhaps a little big but I did not trust the wind. Also took out a bigger board instead of the slalom board. The sail is now brilliant thanks to Dave and Paul at Tushingham HQ who have sorted me out with a matching mast. They sent two masts, the speed - flex top, and last years 100% pro carbon models. I tried the speed mast today knowing the sail would be over-powered so was a perfect opportunity to try it. It rigged with a huge belly around the boom unlike on its old mast. It rotated a lot better, not perfect but that was probably more due to me rushing onto the water.

Once out on the water it was totally flat and a mid to high tide meaning lots of flat runs. The wind was direct off shore which meant that I had to sail parallel to the shore to about mid harbour, then bear off with the wind. It was good practice. I went for a couple of mile runs but span the fin out each time once out in the chop so gave up with that. I then sailed non stop for an hour and beat my hour personal best speed. The gybes seemed to come more naturally today, I hardly dropped one until dark set in. Once the sun had set it was a bit dangerous as there were a few freestylers out and they were all just sitting ducks when approaching at 25-28knots and as I didn't want to decapitate someone with the fin I headed to shore.

Great session to end a hard week, I just hope there is a bit of wind this weekend or what will I do? Oh if this bruise above my eye gets worse by the morning I will post a picture, the mast hit me just on hte edge of my eye socket!

Quick after work session. Winter time means it must be quick.

Got to the harbour at about 3.25pm, was rigged and nearly out by 3.45pm, not bad with a fully cambered sail. A kite dangly delayed it though as he needed help launching, bless em, useless on their own.

A few runs and I was glad I chose the bigger board, the wind dropped by a good 5 knots. There was the odd gust to get going on, but with the Simmer SCRace sail it wouldnt pick up enough speed to make it to the next to get my feet in the straps. It was a shame as I was making some good gybes on it. I am remebering to bend my knees more, and not go on such a tight arc. I really wanted to do a mile run across the harbour, but the wind direction meant it would take me downwind. I was having to bear off to get going a lot so didnt trust the light, time or wind to let me get back to shore easily. Built my confidence on a difficult sail so not a bad session, wish it was about 2 hours longer though.

I have just checked the scores for the day on GPS Team Challenge and seen that Pete Young has just done 265km, or 150nautical miles! Very well done Pete, thats a huge distance for one day on Portland Harbour in November in gusty conditions. The only thing on his side was a good tide time.

Learning how to control the speed kit

I now have an increased respect for all the speed sailors out there, today I should have gone faster but just couldn't get things correct. I had my real speed sail and slalom board rigged and went out into what were very gusty conditions. The Simmer SCRace sail is a lot heavier and fuller than the Tushingham x-15. I am not sure which I prefer to use, the x-15's seem to be easier to tame and get going more easily and has so far given me faster speeds. Perhaps I am just not used to such a heavy sail in that size after sailing rotational kit for the past 3 years. When it comes to 7m+ then I expect the heavy clew feeling so I am used to it.

I am happy to say that I got going easily enough, but there were such holes in the wind that I couldnt keep accelerating. It was a good session for me to learn more and get my confidence back with that sail and board although I noticed I am not commiting enough to the harness due to the worry of going over the front, and maybe incorrect settings with my lines and not enough time in the quickly fading light to adjust them.

I wanted to go for a few more runs but decided to sail in, and it was a good job I did. As soon as I had derigged the sail it was dark, really dark. This time of year is rubbish!

Last wind of the Holiday, Last day before the clocks go back

The winter is coming very quickly. As I rigged up today in a t-shirt it certainly did not feel like it. Monday though I will know about it as there wil only be an hour or so of light after work, and that reduces every day. Today was nice warm sunny weather and reasonably warm air and water temperatures, but I did feel tired quickly.

My fiancee came with me today to get some pictures, Kat clearly does not find autumnal winds as warm as I do though.

The wind was a bit fickle and it was hard to stay planing when close in to the shore. It is really good to see the pictures afterwards as I can see where I am going wrong. This is the first time I have seen myself from a third person perspective since I got a seat harness and now can see that my stance needs adjusting - but I am not quite sure how yet. 

This picture was taken just before I turned into a gybe. 

There are a lot of huge tanker ships moored in Weymouth bay and Portland Harbour at the moment, the one in the distance is huge when you get close up to it like I was doing yesterday.

Entering the gybe I can see where I am going wrong, I need to bend my knees more and look out of the turn, not at the mast. I seem to be halfway between a normal gybe and a laydown.


I am trying to get my laydown gybes sorted as my slalom board requires them to turn well.  I will try to pull more with my back hand to lift the clew and drop the mast more with my front hand, again with my knees more bent.

Flipping the rig with the duck gybe here I can see that my hand is no where near far enough down the boom, I did duck it okay and turned out of the gybe but stalled the board as my trim was all wrong.

All in all it was a nice day, with Kat to help me. She said I looked like I had improved a lot since last time, and that she needs to come when its actually windy so she can see me with smaller kit and sails going at real speeds. She thought that I was going fast today, but there wasnt enough wind to go really fast.

Days like today are a bit frustrating with my current kit, my biggest board - Starboard Carve 133l gets going about the same time as my next board down - Kode 112l which is a lot more fun to sail. In winds like this though I think I need a bigger sail, as my old north xtype 7.8 is not as good as my 7m x15. Ideally I would go for a 140l slalom board for light winds like today, with an 8.5/9m twin cam sail to power through the lulls and get going easily. I love just cruising in light winds, but today was a bit too light for some of the time, hence the short session. Maybe if I win the lottery tonight I will upgrade my big kit.

Thankyou to my sponsors so far, 20% of target has been reached and I have not even started begging at work yet.

Southerly Jumping

Great fun today, lots of ramps to jump off and good strong winds. Sailing with normal kit as opposed to slalom kit is so much easier. Hoping for a bit more tomorrow. I have some video that I will try to edit tonight and post at some point. Must do my marking as the holidays are already drawing to a close.

I would like to thank Paul and Dave at Tushingham sails for helping me with my rigging problems. They are going to sort out a mast for me that will work and have advertised the challenge on their website - you can see it here

http://www.tushingham.com/information/sail-archive/menu-for-all-except-current-range/2001/test-2010/776-lea-spencer-weymouth

Things are starting to move, I have 15% of my target already so thankyou to all who have donated.

What is so good about windsurfing that makes me like a kid the night before christmas on the promise of a good forecast?

Last night I lay in bed wishing myself to sleep, I could hear the wind in the trees outside the window (and the damn coucil workers with their drain clearance noise making lorry about 500metres down the road!). With a few days of wind in a row you would think that the desire to sail gets less but it never does.

I woke at 6am, gutted that it was dark as the wind was perfect for some record runs. I got down to the water at 7.30 for first light, don't you just hate the winter when the sun is only on part time hours.

When I rigged up there was no-one out on the water. I had a blast on my speed kit but the wind was dropping quickly. The first people I saw on the water were on a trawler going right up to the shore dropping lines for something - one of which caused a big catapult as they were not visible until too late. I shouted some nice things to them, wishing them well after I recovered ;-)


I was the only one out so I wore my bouyancy aid for a change, and remebered why I dont usually bother - it is so uncomfortable. The water feels a lot warmer again compared to 5 days ago in the north westerly winds, the daft hat soon came off as the daytime air temperature rose.

I had to rig my biggest kit by the end of the session, a friend who seems to jinx the wind arrived just in time for the wind to drop. Called it a day at lunch time, when my friend had loaded his boards back on his car the wind seemed to pick up again but I had de-rigged by this time. More tomorrow and hopefully some jumping as the wind swings southerly.

Beaten 30knot Barrier

Now I need to do it 5 times in a session or my scores do not count. It was my first time with a small speed sail on my slalom board so quite pleased but I can do better.

Was first out on the water this morning, beat my personal best with a 30.907 knot max speed. Then spent the following 45minutes trying to get back upwind. Had one more run but didnt go as far and went for a break. Nick Dempsey (World Champion!) was there and he offered me a bit of advice for getting back upwind on the slalom kit - thanks Nick it did help.

I went back out on the water, had another near 30knot run and while slogging back upwind had a minor catapult and the fin got caught in the harness line. When I went to release it I sliced my index finger open, which did not hurt but did bleed a lot, I couldnt help being glad there are no sharks around here. 

As I returned to the other launching point downwind there was a stream of blood flowing behind. I put my kit on the beach with the intention of getting a plaster, the cut would not stop bleeding though so I called it a day and de-rigged and readied myself for the walk of shame back up to the sailing academy where I was parked.

I must say a big thankyou to Sarah and her husband Graham who saw the blood and offered me a lift to get the van.

Sunny Autumn Holiday Sailing

Woke in the night to howling winds and heavy rains. My alarm was set for 6am, when it went off there wasn't a leaf moving in the trees. I turned over and went back to sleep.

I got up at about 830 and still there was not enough wind so resigned myself to a boring day. The wind started to increase, I checked the speeds on the harbour wall and they were showing 20knots. Within 5 minutes I was driving down to the Academy for a session, only stopping on route for a breakfast baguette and a coffee - which got spilt down the dashboard of the van!

On arrival I rigged a 7m speed sail and big board, changed to small board, then changed to big board again and realised it could be one of those days. I had a good hour sailing in the chop from the north-west wind and the hundreds of people out. It was the finals for the BSA slalom so many people were competing. I saw my friend from work racing some of the competitors and winning - I did laugh when I noticed that it was the kids race though, still I am sure he will be proud of himself as he is definitely the competitive dad type.

I had a break when a squall came through, got the smaller kit out and also met a famous windsurfer who many will know - Dave White. I had a brief chat and got a picture, I hope he will advertise the BHF Challenge in Boards Magazine for me.

I went back out on the water on my original sail and board after putting the smaller kit back in van - every time it comes out the wind drops! Did a few more runs and came back in as the wind dropped more.

The wind picked up again but I had already started derigging and changed into dry clothes. All in all not a bad start to the holidays.

Time for a winter wetsuit I think

Its definitely getting colder. The water did not feel too bad as I walked through the shallows, but I didnt fall in for about half an hour, when I did I changed my mind. It was a light wind big sail and big board session today, first time I have used that setup for a couple of months. I found it really easy to gybe compared to my cammed sails and speed boards, which is probably why I didnt fall in for so long.

Tomorrow the big winds are coming, early night for me.

Last of the easterlies

Today I had another frustrating rigging session. I fixed the bracket on the car door that snapped when the wind caught it and it flew open, it wouldnt close without removing the snapped metal rod. It was windy, I rigged a 5.5 and waveboard, walked out and felt the wind drop, I had 2 runs before I decided to put up a bigger sail, gybed into the shore, grounded the fin and hit my already broken toe on the mastfoot.

I hobbled up the rocks and rerigged a bigger sail. Back in the sea the wind dropped a bit more so I gave up.

Before and after shots of the toe break that I found on the film of the day.

Now I am looking forward to the return of the south westerly winds, with speedweek in a few days I think I will have to wait until that is over before we are graced with good winds.

When things don't go as planned

Second time this week where I have judged the conditions incorrectly, or maybe I am being too hard on myself. The conditions kept changing today. I rigged light wind wave kit, and the wind dropped. Pete warned it would and that I would need a bigger board, I should have listened to the guru of Portland Harbour.

I came in and rigged up my speed kit but the tide was low as I set off out. It was just confused chop, I tried to look ahead as Pete told me to, I found a few runs between the waves but all the other people out meant that even these were full of chop. The wind dropped again so I called it a day and came in to shore.

Hopefully I will get my replacement boom this week after sending the last one back as it was too small. It fitted the sails but they needed a long extension and this gave too much flex. I cant afford a carbon one this time around, maybe next time.

One of those sessions where the sail size was never right.

Most of the time I rig correctly, unless the wind changes I seem to get it right. Not today. The wind did not appear as strong as it was. I rigged the 7.0 x15 speed sail and my Kode 112l, then got blown out of the water. I found the slalom stance not too good for overpowered sailing in waist to chest high swell, the power in the sail made me take off but the back foot pressure meant the landings were not pretty.

I went back to shore and got the 6.5 out and the bigger wave board, then took the 6.5 back to the van and got the 5.5 out. With this I felt a lot more in control, and made 2 dry gybes in the chop so was happy. I am getting better at jumping as well, choosing the vertical ramps rather than trying to jump off the swell got me a lot more height. If I span out when landing it took a fraction of a second to correct.

Not much distance over the past two sessions either but totally different conditions so not too worried. More of the same tomorrow.

South Easterly wind is fun but hard work

Had a quick hour after work, only did 10nm and felt worn out. Initially rigged too big on my wave board, didnt dare jump it for fear of taking off and not coming back for a while. Rigged a smaller sail and had a few good runs but found it hard work in messy waist-head high confused chop out in the middle of the harbour. Five more days of this as well :-D

Sunny Autumn Millionairres Windsurfing

A friend from work always classes a session as 'Millionairres Windsurfing' if he is one of the only ones on the water. This evening was like that.

I had to pick the van up as it needed new shoes, then negotiate traffic home and back to the harbour. Don't you just love it when the lights go green as you approach, and at 4.30pm I felt like the road had been cleared to get me on the water as soon as possible.

On arrival I got my Kode 112 out of the van, a fellow Pirate walked past and commented that I should be out on the smaller slalom board. I cant gybe that as well as the Kode, and the harbour was full of my students learning to sail Picos, I couldn't embarrass myself by falling in too much. Fortunately the wind dropped a bit so the bigger board was the best choice.

Out on the water my first run was the fastest as the wind was dropping, but it held at about 18knots. My 7.0 x15 speed sail was a handful to get going some of the time, but it was very good practice looking for the gusts and kicking the nose downwind to get going.

After about 15nm the wind dropped more and the sun had dropped behind Chesil beach, I wanted to go on into the dark but did not trust the wind to stay so headed back to shore with a big grin.

First time properly powered up on speed kit

Went to sleep last night a little gutted that the forecast for today had dropped to 8knots. Woke up at 8am with the trees rustling a lot, turned over and went back to sleep. Wish I hadnt, woke again at 10am and checked the wind - it was 30knots.

I rushed down to the van, loaded it and headed off to the harbour, luckily there was not a lot of traffic so got there and on the water quite quickly. I decided to rig my wave kit and small sail as it was southerly, I fancied doing a bit of jumping and sorting out some moves. The wind swung round straight away to west - I got to the speed run and the rest of the pirates shouted 'what the #@<{ are you sailing that for'. I dropped my head in shame, set off back to Ferrybridge and re-rigged my speed kit.

First run out I beat my speed record, it was nice and easy,I wasnt even trying. Second run out I was lining myself up as close to shore as I could get for a flat out run when the boom bent, I looked at the bend and flew over the top. Ribs, stomach and back are a little bruised, and I am glad I used to free-dive in my teens as I was stuck under the sail for a while.You can see in the picture the redesigned shape of the boom, I wasn't happy with it from the moment I bought it, now I know why.

Even plodding upwind I was equaling some of my previous bests with this kit, and some of you may laugh at the 'Jez's Knob' in the picture, I have never used it before but was glad I did today. It probably saved me an expensive nose job on the board.

Luckily the boom is under warranty and is getting replaced, shame my back, ribs and stomach are not.