Saturday 4th September - Windsurf ***** The Dip at Felixstowe – sunny and warm :).

Foil – 18.88 knot max, 17.20 knot ave ., 11.30 knot hour, 14.91 knot mile, 59.30 km ., 11.86 knot alpha.

Exocet RF AST 91 with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Lightning 7.8m.

The forecast was pretty much as yesterday but with high water at 10.45 we were in no hurry to get down to The Dip but it was definitely the windiest part of the day, gusting 20 knots, sadly no beach. The sun was a little slow coming out today but still managed my exercises in the back garden, repaired a big hole in my 7.8, that and the 7m Lightning are pretty much on their last legs so will have to start looking for a couple of replacements soon, there is always something with windsurfing gear, especially when it is as old as mine! Packed lunch, hitched the trailer and headed off taking Mag for her daily walk arriving around 1.45 with David Coles already there, considering it was a Saturday, sunny, good tide and nice foiling breeze it was another low turn out with only Robert, Ian, Mark and Nick putting in an appearance! Rigged as yesterday but it did not look as windy as yesterday and it was a fraction lighter, I think but still enough to do what I did yesterday:) If I was sensible, I should have stayed in the smooth water at The Dip to perfect my gybing but I get bored easily so headed off down the coast on some mega broad runs just playing with the swell, a little underpowered but still flying. Made it to Landguard and tacked for the return taking care to avoid the shallow bit. There was enough wind for the beat but the sea again was very big, after some advice from David about foiling in big sea conditions, he said fly high with weight on the back leg and that certainly worked well managing to miss all but the biggest waves! The sea was big all the way back to The Dip where again the water became very smooth just perfect for foil gybing but sadly, I was knackered and didn’t have the best gybing day, I know the theory just got to put it into practice! I get it into my head to sail further than yesterday and ended up the only one left on the water apart from a few kiters in the Deben, they arrived late and nowhere near as many as yesterday! Still another 5 Star Day was had by all I think, well perhaps not Robert those bolts holding this mast to the fuselage sheared off, lucky it happened right by the beach so did not lose his foil! Yet another Slingshot failure, they definitely don’t fill you with confidence when using them, shame they are not better made as every other foil has now improved leaving this foil way behind. Slingshot have just introduced a carbon Phantasm foil which looks absolutely amazing but at £2300 it’s way too expensive for most and the ones that have just arrived here in the UK have a plate fitting mast, I cant believe they are not making a tuttle mast as well :( Hopefully that is it for wind so can have a few days off and that the sun continues to shine!

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