Thanks for the support Dave! I've never seen you out of control in all the races I've seen you sail in since the late eighties. I guess that says enough. I hope you will have the smaller size ready next time so we will have a fair race.
It's already a memorable trip, also because of the hospitality of the English crew present at the BIG day. It seems we will get more and I hope this time the wind will stay longer so we can get used to the big winds and get more runs in before the wind dies. Hans is predicting 38 gusting 55 knots for tomorrow and windspeeds are already rising.
The runs Dave, Dirk and I did when the big winds were still there were simply awesome. The accelleration was insane. The speed of the chop building nearly matched the speeds we were going, resulting in severe crashes for all of us. The pics don't do justice to the conditions we faced halfway on the run the first half hour. It was impossible to break and the only option was to bear away from the shore with windgusts up till 60 knots from he back and willingly sail into the chop. The sails themselves worked like big kites and pushed us forward. You could forget about giving backfootpressure to get rid of some boardspeed. We litterally needed to sit it out and finally crash hoping not to break the gear.
My first run was a practice run ending in a topspeed of 46 knots, but with a bad average because I sailed with the handbreak on to feel how the course was like. The second run was the fastest with a gust hitting me full in the back just before the waterstate got unsailable. The third was equally windy and ended in the third crash. My weight jacket was torn apart and partially being pulled over my head and wrapped around my neck. The lead was covering my face and I could hardly breathe not knowing wich side was up or down while staying under the sail. After I put the lead into a new weightjacket I went out again but then the wind dropped. I decided to stick to the 4,2 eventhough the wind was way to little for the sailsize by that time. The magic number seemed more important to me than a possible high average speed
I am really proud about Dirk. It's funny to go on a speedtrip with a guy whom I have been following since he was a little kid. He was sailing at strand Horst at the age of four and I was just starting to compete in speedraces. Now I have to think of tricks to keep in front of him. It won't be long before some Dutch speedies will enter the top ten. Lots of the guys have been showing great potential and Dirk is most certainly one of them.
As I write this the wind starts howling around the hotel and I am starting to get the shivers around my back. Time to quit and be ready for hopefully another BIG day in West Kirby.