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A fun couple of hours at the Ray with Simon Harris, Matthew York and Phil Lewin.

I started the day by forgetting to put my harness on and did a 2km round trip back to the van in order to fetch it! What a place to do something so damned stupid. Oh how I laughed (not) when I couldn't hook in and realised I wasn't wearing a harness!

Fortunately I didn't miss much because the wind was quite light at the time - around 15 to 20 knots. The first hour (with harness) was pretty light but by 10am the wind was increasing so I headed upwind for a nautical mile attempt. My previous PB was 32 knots and I thought there was enough wind for around 35 knots. My run turned out to be 36.38 knots so I am happy with my new PB... I wasn't close to being fully powered either!

After my mile attempt the wind was building quickly and was touching 25 to 30 knots. With a strong current fighting against the wind it started to get very choppy in the western course and 3 foot waves were a pita whilst sailing back upwind on speed kit! It was during this time that I decided to forget further mile attempts and focus on 10s runs. I didn't manage to get a 10s run over 40 knots but I did manage a couple of peaks over 40 knots and a few more over 39 knots. I had to work pretty hard for those speeds!

All in all a fun day and I felt like I was sailing pretty well. The conditions were no epic but  it was one of the best days that I've had at the Ray and I made small improvements to a few of my Southend PBs.

JP Speed 45, Neil Pryde RS:Racing 5.5m, Choco Mach-1 24

The Ray, Southend-on-Sea (UK). 20 to 30 knots SSW.

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With a early morning start required for Southend :( the British Saga Speed Team ( me van Peter Cutts :) ) we decided to give Point Clear a try even though the ssw was not ideal :( We arrived at ten with the tide still really low and the wind didn't seem as strong as the forecast so we rigged 6.4 and 6.3 and took our falcon 80's out. Getting to the top of the lagoon wasn't easy as the wind was a bit up and down and there was not much water but plenty of mud !!! The best runs were starting by the river mouth at the far end and heading back toward the shingle bar over the chop and you found a short length of flatish water !!! I thought I had made a 30 kt. ave but as the tide came in the chop increased and we slowed down :( I then returned to the van and rigged 7.5 and took the zantos out, it was a nightmare getting back to the lagoon because of the strong wind, swell and weed !!! but once in had fun getting some much needed gybing practice !!! The last run back was good sailing over to Mersea Island - as a speed venue it's not ideal but great for freeride blasting in the open sea :)

So 2012 comes to an end and despite of all my grumpy old moaning it's been a good year with 64 sessions :) improving all my PB's except the mile !!! The highlight of the year was sailing my Fanatic Cat Raceboard at La Franqui with Jacques van der Hout and recording 32.73 kt max with a 31 ave :) the other highlight was getting 37.08 on my 133lt 1997 Zantos 133 at La Franqui - I know should have been on my speedboard - thats another gust I missed !!! :) and to finish things off got 40.48 on my Falcon 80 and 38.97 on the speedboard - am living in hope of getting a 40 kt ave before my 60th birthday !!!!

Happy New Year with many PB's to everybody :)

Forgot my boots so turned back; really need them now. Strawberry rigging 5m and going just OK so rigged 5.2m/85l baggy. Just about planing so came in as did Strawb. Stood around for quite a while then wind came back and nicely powered. Sea lumpy, but some nice faces in shore and a few out to turn on. Strawb disappeared so I came ashore to use binoculars, then saw him carrying gear down beach; his board had been crunched on a groyne, and only 20 years old.
6m would have worked but weather not inviting. Glad to enjoy New Year Eve sail, could have done witha bit longer. Hands cold.

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Not the best direction for top speeds at Point Clear but good fun trying -- Nice an easy an safe place to sail in the wintertime -- good to sail with Steve Squirrell - pity I had to go home early to work - need more wind an more west -- one day  we will get perfect conditions ????????? maybe !

Not my best year of speedsailing - never in the right place at the right time - too much bloody work !

used Falcon 80 an simmer 6.3

Great mile Mike !!! I should have come to the Ray but had to work an could'nt face the early start an still Knackerd from big sail saterday