Saturday 6th June - Windsurf **** - Point Clear – mainly cloudy with sunshine and rain.

F2 282 Ride with Tushingham X-15 5.8 and Lightning 6.5m and 36 fin.

Fin – 31.62 knot max, 29.57 knot ave ., 14.00 knot hour, 21.11 knot mile, 64 km., 18.68 knot alpha

With the wind forecast to gust to 40 knots there was only one venue for me Point Clear, despite it becoming very crowded and the lagoon full of weed and no beach now at high water:( Mag and I left Felixstowe at 8.45 in lovely sunshine but sadly it was not expected to last with rain coming. We were the first windsurfers to arrive at the Green at PC but the kitsurfers were already there in force parking in a clump to reserve their launching area, sadly some pillock in a huge white van decided to park very near the ramp to the beach making it very awkward to get your kit onto the beach! I decided to park right over to the right hoping it would be quieter there and hopefully with a little more beach at high water. I got that wrong on both accounts as we were soon surrounded as the windsurfers arrived in force.  This little spot is becoming very popular and am thinking the locals are far from impressed! Sadly our poor old van took a battering today being hit by a board and a mast as people tried to get their kit to the beach in the strong winds.  The thing that irked the most was that both sailors involved, one 20, one 60 showed a total disregard to hitting the van and both just kept walking without checking if they had caused any damage:( Luckily there was no serious damage but that’s not the point! So back to the sailing - we had a bit of time to decide as the tide was out.  The wind was coming from the west, not the best here as it comes off Mersea Island. I started off rigging my 4 cam 5.8 but Roger Vickers was the first to hit the water with 6.5 which seemed fine so I quickly rigged my 6.5 and took my 115 lt F2 Ride out with a 36 fin. I sailed straight into the lagoon and the sail was OK but sadly again there was a lot of weed there again and it was already full of kiters. Up to 30 kites up during the day, much too many for the limited space out in the lagoon! Again, there were several near misses and I think it’s only a matter of time before there is a serious accident. Sadly, the kiters show very little awareness and very rarely look behind them before jumping!!!! :( Also, I don’t think they are overly welcome when they sail up the dykes behind the lagoon where there are lots of birds, I heard that it might be getting close to the time they ban kitesurfing here for this reason! It was very bumpy and with the crowds and weed it was not much fun. I then had a harness line break so had to head back and replace it! Back on the water had had some runs with local slalom sailor Shaun Cook but could not get anywhere near his speeds, old age and old kit is definably much slower than modern equipment but also it is not much fun trying to do 30 knots in weed and horrendous chop! As high water approached conditions got worse so it was time to head back and have a yummy chicken sandwich with Mag:) but had a job to land as there was no beach left! It was raining nicely now and a few were packing up as the wind increased, it was not very inviting to get back out on the water. With the tide dropping I decided to see if the conditions had improved as the wind had picked up so went out with the 5.8. I am so glad I did as the 2 star session quickly turned into a 4 star one and although I didn’t manage any really fast times I did get over 30 knots six times but couldn’t hang on for ten seconds to get a good average:( This was like Point Clear from the good old days, having the shingle bank nearly all to myself with hardly a kiter in sight:) It was great fun trying for some nice gybes and the sun even came out from time to time. I did have a kiter try to sail me into the shingle bank and had to shoot. In the end I was getting short of water at the far end of the lagoon so decided to call it a day, after sailing 40 miles, not bad in a little lagoon! With wind gusting to 30 knots I managed to pack up and get everything on the trailer with no issues! Time for a cuppa and a rock cake and with all the windsurfers gone Mag and I chatted while watching three kiters in the lagoon as the water disappeared! Then time for the 40 mile trip home without incident.  In the end it was a good second half of the session, I will definitely think twice about making the trip here in the future and this was a rare session on the fin and actually missed the excitement of the foil, still cant believe how much fun sailing at 16 knots can be:)

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