Boards Magazine British GPS Speed Ladder 2011- 2012 Notice of Race

We are very pleased to announce the British GPS Speed Ladder sponsored by Boards Magazine. The event will start from the 15^th of October 2011 which is the beginning of Weymouth Speed Week and run until the beginning of Weymouth Speed Week in October 2012.

You can view your ranking onwww.gps-speedsurfing.comand the Boards Web site www.boards.co.uk this will rank the fastest in the UK, for that year. Based only on sessions from UK waters. There will be an annual trophy and prizes. So at any windy day you can set out with your GPS at your favourite speed spot, which could be on the sea or your local lake and set your own personal record. Then see how you did against the rest of the UK. The prizes will be drawn randomly at the end of the year out of ALL posts submitted. So the more times you post a speed the better chance you have of winning.

To register for the Event:

http://www.gps-speedsurfing.com/

Boards Speed Forum

To help promote the British ladder there will be a heading on Boards forum for Speed Sailing. There you can suggest a day or place that you think would be good to get a great speed and hook up with other speed freaks. This way you can log in and check if anyone else is up for a session on a speed strip and with a given venue with the right wind conditions to set the highest speeds who knows what you could achieve? The top sites include premier spots such as West Kirby, The Ray Southend, Weymouth and Daymer Bay. But any venue will be included if the competitors want it. Flat speed sailing conditions are great but not imperative. 40 knot averages are nice but 30 knot averages are just as impressive in choppy conditions at your local lake. This is hopefully a system that will give great wind conditions for your sessions.

Rules

Video timing equipment is not used at these events. Only hand held gps units are used. This enables sessions be made at very short notice. The rulesare based on the rules dictated by gps-speedsurfing. An average of the best five ten second times will give the speed for each sailor.

The main unit used is the Navi GT31 (£130 approximately with a memory card and Aquapack). www.gps-speed.co.ukis a preferred supplier and very competitively priced. But other older units like the Garmin Foretrex and Geko are still acceptable but are not as accurate and do not have the Doppler system. Top riders are advised to use a Navi as a small speed deduction can be applied for units that do not have Doppler system.

Depending on the GPS unit interval must be set to one or two seconds (Garmins). The GPS tracks are up-loaded to a computer and speeds are calculated on gps software such as gps action replay or GPS Results (free for 30 days then 29 Euros) Downloadable from the website www.gps-speed.com). Each competitor will then post his or her time (via the auto feature in the software) on gps-speedsurfing and clicking British Speed Championship as the event. (The event can be added under My GPS, My Equipment).

The results will then automatically appear on the gps speedsurfingforum page and the British only results page.

Registration on www.gps-speedsurfing.comand the event is for free, but it is suggested to be become a Gold Member where you will have extra features available and support the website.

Windsurfing Equipment

Any equipment is allowed. It's not only speed boards that are quick. A wave board attained an average of 40 knots at Sandy Point in Australia. So speed or slalom boards are not a must.

There has never been a better time to try out your speed skills, gain some bragging rights over your mates and win some great prizes.