A huge personal best - highest average on GPSSS - Highest 2 sec. - great 500m. - on an open sea venue - with standard material: I'm very happy!

The day started rather disappointing. The plan was to go to Da Curve with a big Rib. The motor of the Rib was broken so we couldn't go. The alternative was The Brace.  Jacques and Hans were planning to go to Da Curve and also had motor problems with the water scooter. So they also went to The Brace.  

As I parked the car the wind had already picked up. On the dike we measured 35 knots, gusting 43 knots. I decided to take my smallest sail, the Severne Reflex III 5.6 and my smallest board, the Starboard iSonic Speedspecial W44. I already knew this could be a very good day so I took my time to rig my gear as good as possible.  The guys from the Ghosts of Speed movie joined us and made some shots of speedies rigging their gear to the max. Then the long long walk to the sand bar, approx. 1800m. started.

Because the wind was so strong the tide dropped faster the normal, so our time window was bigger. After 10 minutes the tide dropped enough, so Jacques and I went out. The other guys came 30 minutes later. From time to time the wind was hauling and the water got smokey. The wind was between 38 and 50 knots. My first 2 runs 10 sec. were both 82 km/h. Nice peakspeeds, but the runs weren't good enough. Jacques told me he was doing 87 km/h runs at that time. After that my runs became much faster, thanks Jacques ;). My third run was 85 km/h. My forth, sixth and seventh run were really fast, approx. 90 km/h (48.5 knots). My gear was perfectly balanced. Downwind a bit more wind wouldn't had been a problem, upwind 50 knots is really too much.

The first place from Anders Bringdal came in sight. Two more fast runs and I was there.  At that time Jacques broke his mast and was out of the race, to bad. Hope you have better luck next time. My runs suddenly weren't that fast anymore. 82..84..86..84..86...Hans was flying in the meantime doing very fast runs. Congratulations with your amazing run, Mr. Blue Steel!!

My energy level dropped rapidly, so I decided to have a short brake. During my brake I noticed that my boom was more than 10 cm lower and my mastfoot had slid all the way to the front of the masttrack.  I quickly fixed it and used the last bit of energy I had left to do 2 more good runs. And yes, I made 2 more good runs! 2x 89 km/h with a good 500 meter and a very good peak of 50.51 knots. I decided to call it a day.

Angelo and Walter were shooting pictures and film for The Ghost of Speed all day. For them it was also a great day. Hope you got some nice material for the movie.

The way back was very easy this time, pumped up with adrenaline.

The day ended great at Angelo's place with some real Italian pasta and a nice cold beer!