GUERNSEY BIG DAY

They keep coming. Unbelievable end to 2013 and it hasn't stopped in 2014 yet.



Two of the bigger sets that rolled in on Saturday 8th February.

This is the biggest I have seen Vazon Bay, Guernsey.

Vazon is a horse shoe shaped bay with a few reefs running out to sea from the middle southwards, (centres & suckies are sailable) sand from centres north and rocks lining the Northern edge.

When we get a really big swell the amount of water coming into the bay at high tide is huge and it has to go some where, centres blocks the water from going South so all the water hitting North of centres rips along the beach and out over the rocky northern edge of the bay. The rip passing over the rocks gets confused and is swept back into the bay causing huge chop.

On Saturday the swell was mast high at least but with 4 foot chop bouncing around on it until it got close enough to the beach to break. I sailed with the rip out at the Northern end then beat up wind till I could tack and ride a big un in down wind as much as possible so that I wouldn't get battered on the beach.

A tough days sailing, 5.5m Neil Pryde Fusion HD (seriously over powered on the waves) and PATRIK Freestyle Wave 112 (I needed the volume to get out over the waves and not stall)

On the way out I was perfectly powered but as soon as I started dropping in on the waves the apparent wind was huge. Thats the most testing conditions I have ever sailed. If something had failed out in the middle of the bay it could have been curtains. 8 degrees air temp and 9 degrees water temp didn't help.

Although I had people on the shore watching and recording it, on the water I was alone. When your in there you get on with it but afterwards when looking at the footage and back out to sea you get a strange feeling, a rush yes but hard to say if it was enjoyable.

Guernsey Wave Sailing

What an incredible month for wave sailing in Guernsey. 4 or five days a week of down the line sailing in winds from 20 to 60 knots.

Here come the waves

Unreal forecast for the next week. Big Big swell hitting Guernsey today, tomorrow could be alltime!

Black Project Fins Luderitz film

A new edit from Black Project fins on our Luderitz Video

http://vimeo.com/82157448

Luderitz Video

Our Luderitz Video is completed.

I hope you like it, we have tried to make it a bit different from other films posted.

https://vimeo.com/81156005

Channel tv clip from Namibia

http://www.channelonline.tv/channelonline_guernseynews/displayarticle.asp?id=508341

This is the link to Channel TV were they posted a clip from Namibia.

BBC still to come

Post Luderitz

It's only 1 week since I have been back from Luderitz, feels like a month, but there is no rest for the wicked.

I have always trained myself when I can't get on the water. Either running, biking or swimming but I have decided to change this year. I have joined the gym and we will see how that unfolds over the next few months.

I am 3/4 of a stone, almost 5kg, lighter than last year. It made a big difference in getting going in the canal BUT there is still more to loose. It is very noticeable that the days of the big super heavy speed sailor has gone. By super heavy I'm talking about over 110kg.

When in the past we competed the courses were never as broad as Luderitz. It's easier to get going on a tight reach then a broad reach, the sail does more of the work on a broad reach then on a tight reach exhausting the wind so the less need for a big lump holding down the sail.

We didn't get strong winds this year so couldn't compare what difference a sailor at 110kg would have over one at 95kg. There were three outstanding sailors there this year that always were at the top and one that had one good day. When I was there apart from the top 3 the next 5 were all tightly bunched within 0.5 knots of each other. I won't mention any names because more than likely I'll upset someone so I'll keep quite.

I am 112kg, 2.02cm tall and on my best day with 25 to 30 knots of wind I used a Patrik Diethelm speed 43 with 61 litres of volume, Neil Pryde Evo5 6.4m sail and Black Project Fins X50 which is 20.4cm long. I had the X55 ready in my PD custom speed 41 which is 19.3cm long. I also had a 3.5kg weight jacket on and reached a speed of 45.52 knots. With a sail that big you are starting to have a lot of drag, it's 10% bigger than my next size down. Unfortunately being that heavy meant I needed that size to get going on such a small board.

The weight jacket makes a huge difference in keeping you locked into position. I only used it one day as the other days had less wind.

It's all about your overall balance concerning weight, board size, fins & sail size (I hope this is coming across the way my brain is thinking it). I went to Luderitz to break records and travelled with a 41 and 43 cm board 5.4, 5.8 and 6.4m sails. The 6.4 was taken just to get on the water if the wind was light, the 43 board to get a couple of warm up runs then swap onto the 41 with the 5.8 but hopefully the 5.4 to get some big speeds. As it turned out I only sailed the 6.4 and 43.

If I had been lighter I may have been able to swap to the 5.8 sail and been a bit faster but on the other hand we weren't expecting only 25 to 30 knots of wind and no records could of been broken in that wind strength.

So the decision has been made to shed the pounds and see the difference. My thinking is that there won't be a down side to being lighter as I can put more lead in the weight jacket.

My goal now is 105kg with the advantage of putting on a 7kg weight jacket. Lean and mean seems to be the way forward.

BUT NO ONE SAID IT WOULD BE EASY, WISH ME LUCK

Gym session 1