It's been a while since I was last on the water and I have since grown my own weight vest. Great to be back, but a bit busy at times. Tried my Thommen T1 with Caspar 21 fin. Maybe it was a bit small as I was spinning out as soon as I tried to get in the back strap which was a real pain, may be my technique or set up though. Don't think I couldn't have gone much faster with the set up. 40kts is still a mile off!!

Wahey the big 40 !     I was thinking about investing in a weight jacket coz I'm 12 stone wet through then Howie said he's got a spare if I wanted it. So I'm looking forward to trying it tomorrow...

Super day at the Kirb, great to be on speed kit again, tried lots of kit out today but ended up on falcon speed and RS6 again, used weight jacket today and it definitely gave me more speed, had about 5KG of lead and I could sail with that all day. Staying for more wind tomorrow but SSW?

Although I got 2 new PB's, 250m and 500m and this was my fastest session on a tight course, I feel very unhappy with the results as I think I should have been going much faster. I set the sail wrong for the first hour or so, and only set it properly when the wind dropped down, so missed out. Also, the course was very square and I never once boar of into the lake for better peak speeds, big mistake. And, I have a big problem in my head when there are dozens of out of control freeriders right in front of me, I keep thinking I might kill one of them by accident. All in all, I sailed very defensively today and just could not settle down. I think if I could have sorted my head out, 40k averages would have been possible for me. Rant over, but it was still was fun:)  

Good day's Sailing, Great to see every one out on the water, especially Howie. Big Thanks to Ian and the team at Boardwise for get my board and sail to me for today session. Course was square in the morning but start to go more west in the afternoon making it boarder on starboard tack

Started on the Falcon 80 & X-15 6.4 with Tectonics 24  had some good runs. then switched the Falcon Speed & X-15 5.8, initially with a Tectonic 22 SS and later with the Moo Custom. (must get a new screwdriver to change fins, thanks Simon).  First time on the Moo Custom, Gybe lovely, coming back up wind there's a little vibration, but going down wind it felt it had more grip than the tectronic. I was getting lifted at time, need to get a weight jacket

 I must work on my return line of my alphas as only 3 gybes counted as alphas all day

Lots of people taking photo's could do with see some of them to see how well the sail was working or not as the case maybe.

went well on my trusted old slalom board to start with and then got progresively slower on my speed board as the day went on. Couldnt seem to work it out it felt good but the gps didnt agree. great day all the same and nice to get a speed fix at last, and well done Ian top dawg

comments later

It appears that once you have added a session, that session cannot be edited thereafter for adding comments or the like,  hence the post here.

First off thanks to Daz for the USM heads up, taking the stormtracking reins off me, a job well done mate, and long my your new found skills continue  :)

The day dawned windy and pretty square, with the best of the tight  flow from 10am thru to 1:30 pm _25kts with gusts to 35  New Kirb weather station data). A slight bias to starboard after lunch on a wsw flow.

With sailing time null since October 2009, may main concern was just to get back out there and not worry too much about the speeds.

The 6m Stealth was rigged and set up based on my settings sheet .. lol  something to help rig up based on a poor memory and infrequent sessions. Basically setup for a stock w-wnw flow 30kts. 

Spent the first few runs scratching my head only seeing 35s/36s on the dial ... initial thoughts were "bugger I ve forgotton how to sail""

The lake and speedcourse was peppered with challanging obstacles (freeriders) spoiling several 10s runs with "oh sh*t evasive action required!"

On one such avoidance measures, resulted in me bearing off in to the chop ... woo hoo the 40kts was back on the dial. "ahhh" thought me, time to make some changes to the rig for a tight course, so I did the opposite of what i ought to have done and put a couple of cms of -ve on the outhaul, and dropped the mastfoot back a couple too. speeds actually went up slightly contrary to the changes I made.  I guess I should have downhauled 2-3cms more, adding a little more   twist off and flatten the foil a notch, and run with neutral outhaul?  ... not sure though.

Still... as most speedies found, speeds were well down on what ought to have been acheived.

The run of the day.

About 3 pm El squally hit, been watching its progression towards WK for 20mins or so, so was ready to grab a ride when it hit.

Neil and Chris were on it first, probably a little too quick out of the starting blocks for the best of it, I waited another min or two and grabbed nice ride down on the westerly gust of 30kts or thereabouts, 41+ peak with a 40+ 10 avg ....and the setup and stance felt good again. A few more speedies tracked down in the squall grabbing a decent ride... and that was it save a ittle more squalliness later in the day that Mark grabbed hold of :)

Great to be back at WK and sailing again  with a great bunch of fellow speedies!