Thursday 24th September - Windsurf **** - The Manor at Felixstowe – sunny.

Fin – 24.76 knot max, 23.41 knot ave ., 11.01 knot hour, 20.62 knot mile, 36.78 km ., 13.30 knot alpha.

F2 277 Ride with Tushingham Vulcan 6m and 38 fin.

Foil – 15.39 knot max, 13.48 knot ave ., 0.00 knot hour, 10.99 knot mile, 7.07 km ., 9.08 knot alpha.

Exocet RF 91 AST with Slingshot Hover Glide 76 with Tushingham Vulcan 6m.

Funny old day really forecast similar to yesterday but a fraction windier but with sun which is always much better:) After dropping Mag off at the end of the prom for her daily exercise I continued again to The Manor, the go to venue with the wind SW but as we drove along the seafront the flags were showing the wind to be well off! It was fairly quiet today with only me, Ian, Robert with newcomer Buster on the fin with Michael on the foil. The sailors are all lightweights so were rigging sails from 5 to 5.3 with Michael going for 4.2 on the foil but with the wind cross off it was difficult to be sure what sail was required, we needed a Guinee pig, so I set up my F2 Ride 277 at 100lt. a board I rarely use but did have a great session on it at Point Clear earlier in the year. By then Ian was out and going OK so decided to rig my old Tushingham Vulcan 6m which in the end proved OK. The best conditions were when the tide was low, I set off and found the strongest wind was just off the beach but things calmed down as you went further out. I found that if I sailed slowly into the steep chop just short of the shipping channel to the right of Wadgate you could have fun in the sun playing with the waves on the way in and I was really enjoying the 277, in fact I was getting a better gybing average than on a bigger board! The wind was up and down all day with the direction not constant either, one minute you were struggling to waterstart, the next you were having the rig ripped out of your hands! With the wind going particularly light and gusty the fin sailors came ashore and were tempted to set up their foils as Michael was going so well! That turned out to be a big mistake as soon as I left the beach, I know I had too big a sail to foil in the big sea, particularly bad over Landguard way! So, didn’t last long on the foil and in the end was pleased to get back to the lauching beach, I couldn’t be bother to rig a smaller sail for the foil although I am now keen to try small sail foiling when the sea is big and lumpy which it is at Felixstowe a lot as it looks great fun! So, I went back out on the fin again and went in search of the flatter water out by Wadgate but with the tide now well in, I had missed it. I tried a broad run back and ended up by the Coastwatch Martello but soon made upwind again. Then I had trouble waterstarting as the wind dropped so decided to call it a day with it going further off! So not a bad session and enjoyed the smaller board, we now have three days of strong NW but the tides are poor so we have no local venues so might have to give it a miss, still I have got to 15 sessions for the month so can’t complain!

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