My first proper speed sailing day on good kit.  Took a while to get used to small kit and tuning the kit to get quicker runs.

The wind picked up towards the end and my speeds increased but I was too tired to continue and the wife wanted me home!!!!  lol

A bit more practice and 40 knots could be possible - especially if I had a speed board!

Great day at Kirby, unbelievable for July! launched at 10.20 and finished at 8pm! Very cold and wet but can't complain with all the wind we had.

I struggled to go quick for some reason, same set-up as my 48knot day so maybe just me having an off day or not windy enough for the 5.5 and 40 wide. Plenty of power in the top corner but soon ran out of steam after the bear off and into the pretty big chop.

Good to see MVM and Serg over from Holland for a play, think we can expect some very good times from them. And well done to Ian Richards too who sounds like he had a blinder and has definitely put himself right at the sharp end with his keeness paying off. :)

Looks like they had more wind this morning..

Yeehaa, sure was a blinder Steve, super stoked with some nice PRs though only decided to go at the last minute as forecast was a bit iffy.

Arrived midday to not much wind but perfect broad angle on the wall, wind filled in to a solid 30 gusting 35 and my old 5.8 felt about right all day.Speed and acceleration coming out the top corner was awesome but hitting the rolling chop halfway down the course kept the speeds down a tad.

Tried everything to get 46 knots but no cigar this time, nice to meet Martin VM and Serge from Holland, glad the trip was worthwile this time guys, Congrats on winning the day and to Serge your amazing PRs. nice one

What a weekend! Martin called me Saturday evening at around 9 PM and at 10 I was in the car on my way to West Kirby. We arrived at around 8AM on Sunday morning with hardly any sleep and I beleive we sailed from about 11 AM to about 7-8 PM! The wind was not super strong but I guess the gusts hit 35 knots and the course was very broad, so halfway the run you had to bear off into the chop. Very pleased with the ouitcome, finally a new PR on average and top speed and probabakly some more. Martin, this was the best phonecall I received this year ha ha!

The board and sail were just great! So much control in the Loft Racing Blade 5.6 and so much speed potential. The C3 Strike 20 asy is still my favourite speedfin at this time. Super controllable and not a single problem with it's behaviour.

I hope to be back for more. It  was great fun with the West Kirby pack!

Sorry for posting this late. Totally wasted from the trip we made and no internet connection any earlier. It all started when I came back from my holiday. After relaxing on the couch from the trip home,  I decided to check the GPS-speedsurifng site and the weather forecast for the first time in two weeks. I noticed Spotty sailed a new World Record (huge congratulations!!).  Possibly I could get a nice sail in at strand Horst. Just for fun I also checked the WK forecast to find. This got me awake immediately. I gave Serge a call and told him he should pack and come with me to drive through the night to be in time for a hopefully epic session. Luckily for me he was crazy enough to pack and the next morning after having hardly any sleep, we were finding ourselves in West Kirby, pouring rain, wind and all.

We all rigged. I took my 5.6 and just went for it. After a few runs I was feeling disappointed as my arm was still holding back my speeds. Just like the last times I felt myself crouching into the boom and couldn’t do anything against it. Just when I thought I’d better quit for this year and purely focus on  gear development  I saw a couple strawling down the wall in the puring rain and hammering wind for a romantic walk. There were small kids in way too cold suits getting kayak lessons, parents watching them and staying loyal by getting cold and very wet watching them do their best. On our trip toward West Kirby we saw kids dressed in shorts while we were freezing our asses off in our warm coat with our caps on our heads. I got a smile back on my face when I realized once again what the English people are made off. The English crew we sailed with was pleasant as always, the atmosphere relaxed, so why bother about a minor inconvenience keeping down my speeds a little. I decided to rig down to a 5.0 while the lighter guys were still on 5.5/5.8 sails. I took weight which helped to stretch my arm and finally the fun returned.

I realized I got down here to go for the record and decided to fine tune my gear for the day to come and make the best out of this day. Finally I sort of found my stance back and even though the sail was way too small for the super broad course I felt the speeds were OK and more important, I felt I still had it in me to really go for it when the time comes. More smiling couples were strawling down the dam watching the crazy dogs going like madmen down the brick wall. I finished of the day with what possibly has been my heaviest crash ever. I fell flat on my back and had no air left. Luckily my arm held, by I realized this was a warning not to push it too far this time. Steve got after my gear, thanks for that mate, and I called it a day (or better night haha).

After a short night sleep we went to the water again. I couldn’t move my arm enough to rig my sail so I left it to Serge to go for it. The wind swung around even braoader and we decided to call it a day, but not after watching a fitness class at 7 oçlock in the morning doing their training on the rigging tarmac in the pouring rain and wind. Those English…. All in all it was a great and memorable trip. Congratulations to Serge and Ian on their personal bests and for sure we will be coming back for more.

Great stuff, and interesting to see the little clusters where we all had our best runs at similer times. Very impressive the speeds you guys achieved for those conditions, and shows what's possible.

Here are the weather stats for the day, I did n't manage to grab the 12z Sunday chart, but the 00z Sunday and 00z Monday charts will suffice. The Hilbre weather station albeit about 10% higher wind speeds than lakeside , ties in nicely with the fast clusters Steve mentions above.

Well done to all, and always great to see pb's at WK.  Despite not being able to sail,  a cetrain amount of satisfaction is enjoyed knowing the stormtrack came good, especially after all the two'ing and fro'ing at the 11th.

The Met Charts show how crucial the track, intensity and merging of the two centres, over the north sea, in order the for the flow to hit..... and that occlusion pretty much was static all day delivering copious amounts for rain.