Tuesday 4th August - Windsurf ***** - The Manor at Felixstowe – sunny periods.

F2 282 Ride with Tushingham Lightning 6.5m and 38 fin.

Fin – 26.92 knot max, 24.83 knot ave., 16.38 knot hour, 22.24 knot mile, 68.73 km., 16.06 knot alpha.

Exocet RF 91 AST with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 6.5m.

Foil – 14.03 knot max, 10.58 knot ave ., 0.00 knot hour, 0.00 knot mile, 3.78 km., 0.00 knot alpha.

What a top 5 star day, it started off with an early morning bike ride over to Levington Marina for a cuppa and admire the River Orwell views in still airs, absolutely stunning. Then home to do my exercises in the sunny back garden waiting for the wind to settle as it had picked up as we left the marina. After lunch I headed down to The Manor, the best venue today as high had just passed and expected it to be a foiling day. Rob was already there with only his foil kit but it did not look very inviting being a little lumpy with a bit of a shore break and the sun had gone too! While Rob nipped home to get his fin board, I set up my F2 Ride 282 (115 lt) and with the wind gusting over 20 mph I took a chance with my 6.5 as it was expected to build. Shortie on I set off not expecting too much as it was wind with tide but and looked bumpy and I was very pleasantly surprised just how good it was :) With the wind from the south you could run up the coast towards The Dip really smoothing out the sea, the sun even came out:) I had four three mile runs up the coast and sailing at Felixstowe doesn’t get any better, nothing over fast as I could have done with my 7m but I stuck with the 6.5 and had great fun until the wind dropped and I had a slow sail back, making it OK! Rob and Ian had given up with their fin gear and set up foil boards. I hummed and harred about setting up my foil but in the end, I did as the others were flying in the lighter wind. In the end it was a complete waste of my time as soon as I set off on the foil the wind really picked up now SW making the sea even bigger. One run out to Wadgate Post was enough so I returned and switched back to my 282! I then had over an hour blasting out to Wadgate eight times getting a nice hour of over 16 knots as well as my top speed of nearly 27 knots, not too bad in a fairly big sea. By the look of things I am going to have to do it all again tomorrow!

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http://mkwindsurfing.co.uk/booms/

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