Ghosts at The Brace

Jurjen van de Noord captured on film by Angelo Pecere for the Ghosts of Speed Documentary

I think this is the best Speed Windsurfing picture I have ever seen. It somehow demonstrates the tranquil zone that you enter as you get close to your top speed. It shows the perfect tuning of the body and the rig. You can almost feel the power in the sail as you look at the stance and twist of the sail. It was taken by Angelo Pecere who is currently building up a lot of film and pictures for what is already a film I cannot wait to see, The Ghosts of Speed. You can follow the progress here on stalkerbook.

Trying out new camera functions.

Some big news for Redsurfbus.com is we now have confirmation from Surfkraft who is the UK agent for Exocet boards and XO sails to do some testing and reviews. In the next couple of weeks we will start a full review of their SL Sport boards (some of the best looking boards on the market, we are looking forward to see how they perform) and their Freerace twin cam 'Silverline' sails.

For this I have been out practising my novice photography skills. Some of you regular readers may have also noticed I have been editing a bit with a photo editor as the header has changed a couple of times, this one at the top now is my favourite but am open to advice and help with it.

These are a few shots from the weekend. Portland Pirates machine The Matrix can be seen in the top two. He had already been sailing over 4 hours none stop in these to aim for some distance for the team. Unfortunately no one else in the team put that much effort in so although we are second for distance for the month thanks to his efforts, we are quite easy to catch.

The following photos were taken by Portland Pirates team captain Swagger. It is Kev Greenslade the current Speed Week champion and Simon Pettifer, it is one of many where they were doing the most fantastic synchronised laydown gybes. I think they scared a few of the less confident sailors as they flew past them at over 30 knots into their gybes.

Jim at PuraVida Boardriders should feel proud of himself. Look at all his sails and boards on Portland Harbour.

I was leading into the gybe and trailing after it, must work on my gybes, I can see from this one photo that the gybe masters have their sails far more upright than mine. It was great to get a few minutes on the water with lots of people around who were checking I was okay. I certainly felt it afterwards and will do for a few days yet. I think this was my shortest session since I started windsurfing, it was probably good that I didn't get wet.

Here the Matrix clearly was trying to get the two posers to do some work for the team by spoiling their fun.

By 'The Bus'
Pictures by 'The Bus' and 'Swagger'

Mistral SL95 RD Review

This is a fast board that you need to tame. When I bought it I was just getting confident on sub 100l boards but had never sailed a dedicated slalom board so at first I found it difficult, probably due to the extra muscles it needed in my shins. It feels quite a bit less than 95l as well. My Fanatic Freewave 95 is uphaulable without sinking, it is a similar width with what appears to be similar volume distribution, but the Mistral sinks slightly when I uphaul. I would estimate it to be about 90l. The weight is like a feather at 4.5kgs, and as such I seem to have a habit of using a Jez's Knob with it even though I dont with any other board. Maybe this is because on my first outing I catapulted and wrecked a boom at 30knots (faster than I had ever gone before possibly).

It is 59cm wide which makes it a good medium wind slalom board (15-25knots). The Mistral website states 7m being the biggest sail it will carry but I now use it with a 7.6 Tushingham x15 which actually feels perfect for it. I have used sail sizes down to a 5.8 Tushingham x15 with a 7m x15 and a 6.3 Simmer SCR. Most often I use the 7m with it, but now I am confident with the board my 7.6 is getting used more and more.

At the end of 2010 I was struggling with the board due to the very outboard footstraps and the full carbon feel. It certainly rattled my bones until I got used to driving it harder. By the first few months of 2011 I was getting on with the board a lot better, and could have much longer sessions with it without getting as tired. Now I can happily be out on it for hours without tiring or feeling under volumed.

As I have progressed with the board my optimal fin choice has changed, I started with a 34cm Simmer slalom fin made from g10 that went perfectly with my 7m. More recently I have been using a Select Caspar speed 31cm made from carbon. This Select fin really suits the board, it rarely spins out and is only difficult upwind when overpowered through chop, which in fairness most fins are. With my 7.6 I have used the Simmer fin and a 37cm Select Elite Slam S11, which was a little large by the end of the session but felt good when the wind was right for it.

My top speeds so far with the board are low 33knots but I know it will do more, a lot more. It is fast in light winds as well, one session with 18knot ish winds I had a couple of 32knot runs which surprised one of the very skilled speedsailors at our local salty lake.

In the past couple of months this board has really improved my sailing, forcing me to sail with a good stance and commitment to my gybes. It is a fantastic looking bit of kit, and will get me a 28knot nautical mile by the end of the year (I hope). I started the year rarely getting off my Starboard Kode which is a very forgiving board, in my last session I actually changed to the Mistral as the Kode felt a little slow and boring in comparison, it did however mean that I lost out on a good hour speed which in turn meant I lost a £10 bet to my cause.

These boards can be found very reasonably priced as can a lot of specialist boards, it took a while to tame but now I really enjoy sailing it.

by 'The Bus'

Carve Gybe Consistency Improving

Last Saturday I did more good gybes to earn my Alpha scores than ever before, each session my times are improving. An Alpha is sailing 500m with a gybe, the end has to be within 50m of the start. Last year I was getting the odd 16knot alpha. As we have progressed though this year they have slowly increased, but my gybes have got a lot better. I just need to make the turn tighter for more of the planing ones to count. In April my fastest was still low 18knots, now I am getting a few a session faster than that, and most of them around the 17knot mark.

The good sailors get 20knots, the excellent sailors get 22knots+. It is now my goal to get a 20knot Alpha in the next few sessions. My primary distance goal is complete nearly so I can turn more and go on shorter reaches to practice them until I hit the goal.

Unhooking and bending the knees ready to power further downwind

Need to get front arm straighter and knees more bent in the above picture, this will power the sail up more and allow me to absorb more chop.

Again knees should bend more

Saturday I started to practice my hand positions more, rather than grasping for the mast to pull the sail into the wind I was going for Boom to Boom gybes, by the end of the day I was doing them every time and they are faster. Some gybes I can pull the boom head into the wind a let go while the sail rotates, these feel really natural and fast.

My exits are getting better, I can see by the photos that I am driving the board through the mastfoot rather than weighting the tail and slowing down.

Tushingham X15 7.6 2010 Review

This sail was bought to replace a North XType 7.8m which was my most used sail, taking me from barely planing through to getting into the harness and footstraps and dry gybes. After buying a Tushingham X15 7m and using that a lot more last autumn and winter I went back on the North which had no cams. It felt awful in gusty winds in when compared to cammed sails so I knew that I must upgrade. I was slightly hesitant to get them in  such small increments as the size is very similar, but the range of the 7m meant it was a no brainer really. The sail is to be used as the biggest on my Mistral RD SL95 which is bigger than should be used with the board but for speed it is ideal, and also as the biggest on my Starboard Kode 112l in marginal winds. I can step down from the 7.6 to a 6.3 as the wind increases from marginal to 25+knots, and likewise drop from the 7m to a 5.8m in more wind.

For the first few weeks I had the sail the conditions were really marginal but the sail performed well. At first I thought I could have got going better with the North, so I had a go and it was only my imagination. For a 4 cammed sail it is very light and easy to use in transitions, this was my only worry changing my biggest 'cruising' sail for a more dedicated slalom/speed sail. 

In the photo above I was using the sail for my marathon 200km at the end of May as part of the GPS Team Challenge for the Portland Pirates. As you can see from the white horses it was windy, gusting above 30knots at points but staying mainly in the 20-25knot range. In the gusts the sail did lift me a lot but was very controllable and it allowed my to complete the first 120+km with relative ease considering the conditions. I usually would have changed down but this in itself would waste time and energy so I kept going with the bigger board and sail.

I rig it with a Tushingham Ultimate Pro 460 mast from 2009, it rotates fine when powered up and just needs a little encouragement in less powered conditions. Now my gybes are faster I am having less problems rotating the cammed sails and a good pump knocks the cams round on the other tack. It rigs with ease, and required very little batten adjustment from new. The cams go on the mast easily, simply slide the mast in above the cams, pull on some downhaul to allow easy access for the boom clamp, put on boom and fully outhaul, let off a little downhaul and pop on the cams, then put the downhaul back on fully and tune the outhaul. More recently I have used it with adjustable outhaul and this has extended the sails range even further.

In the future I would like the bigger version to use with a bigger board in lighter winds, but my lottery numbers still have not come up so I will have to wait for that.

Tushingham X15 7.6m first impressions

This is the replacement sail for my freeride North Xtype 7.8. When I got the Tushingham X15 7.0m I stopped using the Xtype and found that it would get me going in virtually the same wind strengths. So I chose to go for the X15 7.6m to complement it and go out in slightly less winds.

On initial rigging it shows a good profile and feels like it will be easy to pump onto the plane in light winds like the smaller model is. It rigged with the same settings as printed on the sail which is a rare thing. The luff is 495cm with a boom length of 211cm. I will be using it with a 460 Tushingham ultimate pro mast until I can afford the Speed Pro in that size for more overpowered sailing. If it is similar to the 7m then I would expect to still be holding it down in gusts up to 28/30knots but this is not really what I have bought it for.

My most used sail was my 7.8 due to the nature of conditions at Portland Harbour. This time of year the 'sea-breeze' usually starts, when the wind swings to the south west at midday it usually builds up to readings of 16-20knots on the harbour wall which equates to 12-15 at the shore. More often than not we get a good hour or so of stronger winds with marginal either side, I am hoping this will be the perfect sail for those conditions.

I cant wait to get it wet and let it 'bed' in, now where is the wind?