The last time I had sailed a speed board was back in January so it was nice to get a speed session under my belt before the best of the autumn winds arrive.

Today would have been better on my 5.5m but since that is in for repair I opted for the 6.2m which was the biggest of anyone on the water today!

When the winds picked up it was a bit on the large side but it was good fun and it gave me a chance to get re-acquainted with the sensation of speed.

No PBs in proper categories but I did manage to peak over >43 knots a couple of times and didn't have any crashes for a change!

I was keeping an eye on the forecasts for days and decided at the last minute to make the trip to West Kirby, leaving after i finished work at 9pm yesterday, getting up there just before 1am and then slept in the van to be ready for a dawn session as i would only have a 1-2 hours before heading back to Birmingham to start work at 12. I knew i would be kicking myself if i missed what was looking to be an epic forecast.

It was also my first session on my new Mistral Speed after taking delivery of it earlier in the week so that was my other reason for heading up as i wanted to get my new toy on the water 

I got on the water at around 6.45 and i was stoked to find out how easy the Mistral Speed was to sail on my first run where i clocked just over 39 knots which was a new PB  but the best was still to come on my 4th run when i locked onto a gust at the start of the run and when i got off my board at the end of the run i was stoked to finally see that i had broken through 40 knots and got a new PB max speed of 41.22 knots , asyou can imagine i was pretty happy and you couldn't shift the smile off my face. 

I managed to get in another couple of runs before i had to get off the water and head back to Birmingham. Can't wait for my next trip back up there to try and get my next goal of a 40 knot 5x10 second average

awesome day , pbs too :)

finally broke the 40 knots barrier ,love the moo and the slingshot , loads more to give

next time 40 knot aveage

well done to alistar who also broke the big 40

OK. Keeping this brief.... Well done Matt, Andy Holland and Alistair on your PB's !! Top speeds

For me, first time out on Thorpy's Moo. First impression - LOVE IT - easy to sail and flattens the chop ! BUT ... I should have known better than to put the new Moo 17cm K4 fin on it.. just too small... I know that in hindsight - at the time I thought my "slowness" was down to bad sail trim... some of it was, but the majority, I think, was not enough fin LIFT. Small is not always fastest. Wasted two hours farting around with rig, when really I just needed a 20-22 fin with the 5.8 X15. Not the epic session I hoped for, but sometimes you have to mess up to learn !

Thanks everyone who gave me positive feedback. NEXT TIME :-)

After only 2 sessions with the summer suit this year it was back to the winter suit today and although the sun was out there was a bit of a chill to it.

Speedwise I was hoping for greater things but it just didn't quite deliver, it wasn't as windy as we hoped for and we had a choppy course which isn't my strong point !

I got to try the 22cm Lessacher fin for the first time and although we didn't have the conditions to really let it fly it did feel very solid and resistant to spin out which for me is a good thing.

Highlights were defo seeing Alastair and Matt break the 40kt barrier for the first time after banging on the door for ages. Alastair was super stoked when it happened and Matt took 5 mins out to enjoy the moment and convince himself he wasn't dreaming - nice one to both of you and anyone else who broke pb's today.

I was not going to post this crap session, but my surf buddy shamed me into posting so  thought best to swallow my pride:))

A few rookie mistakes and I managed to turn what should have been a 5 x 10'sec 40k session into mid 30k session. Thought I'd list the BIG four mistakes I made to remind me NOT to do these mistakes again.

(1) Don't rig to be under-powered. The course was to broad for a 5.7m to keep me powered up down the course.

(2) Don't arrive two hours late, get out of bed you lazy git:)

(3) Be faster to react to the conditions, IE change sail faster.

(4) Don't let negetive thoughts get into my head cause I got it wrong.

Wont get caught out again:))

On a positive note, well done Ali and Matty on both cracking 40k peaks. Matty looked well chuffed:) Ali had gone by the time I got there, but Im sure he will have been grinning all day:) Nice one lads. 

Great to be at West Kirby again, last session here was 8 months ago, managed to test plenty of board/sails and fin combinations, so interesting session.  Conditions were far from epic , very patchy wind, often windy on the corner but nothing on the course.

Thanks to Alastair who left me his brand new Mistral 47 while he went off to work....top man and Congrats on breaking 40 knots to you and Matty .

I sailed from 0630 till 1130 & only got 8.6km on my tracks is because after the first couple of hours the screen went blank on my GPS so I had a look & the back had come off & water had got in. DOH !   Lost all data & it's still not working.  

Anyway !  Got a spare in the car so I used that for the rest of the session.

First time out on my new MOO & loved it.

I jumped straight onit like I've been sailing it for years. It was like slipping on my old pair of slippers I've been wearing for years.

Soooooo easy to sail & glides through the death chop like it was on flat water & works perfect with the Simmers, 

On the same kind of day I would never sail so far down the wall on my W44 without spinning out or being chucked off by the chop...I never span out once or had the fear of spinning out like I did on the W44 !!!     I had the new K4/Custom 24cm which was rock solid all session.

My knees & ankles took alot less of a battering !!!

Top board & totally made up with it !   

A Massive Congratulations goes out to Alastair & Matt for breaking 40knots


Ohhh & ! ! !      Does anybody want to buy a shitty Starboard W44 ???

My first trip to West Kirby in over twenty year,Tris has got me back and hooked on speed again.

Started day on Falcon 45 and 22 fin and Serverne reflex 6.2 ,this set up felt unsetled and thinking a big crash was on the way.

Thanks to Tris mate Cleggy for the use of his Simmer 5.0 as my smaller reflex is in a container on the sea's some where.The 5.0  and board/felt very good and was going faster but was under powered.

At the end of session changed back up tp 6.2 and up one fin size and the set up felt great,this is what i should have been on earlier changed fin not sail.

On our long drive home Tris and I talked about the lessons learn't today ,we can go faster if we run the right kit !

Good to meet you guys ,thanks to Tris for hounding me to make the trip,looking forwards to the next speed days.

Superb speeds Andy Holland - only his second time on this sail and board.... so I think we can expect more from Andy.

I did tell him it was a bit rude gate crashing WK usual suspects and coming out second fastest to Big Ian, but he didn't seem too worried :-)

See you all again soon. Tris

Well done guys! glad the forecast held up and you all had a great session!  Hopefully a warm up to a windy autumn.

Yeah more to come from Andy H....looking fast ;)