| Spot | Rutland Water, United Kingdom | |
| Board | F2 Lightning World Cup Edition, 1992 |  |
| Sail | Neilpryde RS Slalom MKIII 9.5, 2009 |  |
| Average speed | 20.16 knots ( 20.91 20.59 20.12 19.97 19.2 ) | |
| Remarks | My RaceBoard had been sat idle in my parents garage roof for at least the last 4 years. Forecast today wasn't looking epic but I needed to visit Rutland to drop off my old Sputnik 265 which I'd sold on ebay. To make the trip worthwhile and make sure I got a decent sail in I thought the RaceBoard would be an excellent choice whatever the wind conditions.
When I got to Rutland the wind had just started to fill in for the afternoon, would have been fine out on the SS136/79 and the 9.5 but decided to take the RaceBoard for a spin anyway seeing as I'd carted it all the way here... It was excellent fun, I'd forgotten how physically and technically challenging a beast it can be to sail but soon got into the swing of things. Initially heading upwind in the Southern arm loving planing upwind on the rail and having to control all the lift that the massive daggerboard generates. Coming back downwind really broad was interesting too, it's a long way to get back into the straps on one of these and you really have to hang off the back - there's also a LOT of board flying out in front of you!!!
Got back to in front of the clubhouse and it seemed the wind had dropped a little so headed round to the other side of the lake where there were a load of chaps out from Whitwell. Headed upwind again in the Northern arm all the way to the limit of the sailing area and then back to check out the Eastern end. There's quite a bit of fetch for the chop to gather size and in the middle where the swell from both arms meet/collide it makes for some interesting water conditions!
By the time I was making my way back towards the sailing club the wind had really stepped up a gear. Would have been very fine out on much smaller kit, 7.8 or even 7.0 would've been fine!
All in all, a quality days sailing - really enjoying the room that Rutland has to offer. Roll on the next decent forecast...
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