Hayling's Friday slalom

James Dinsmore reports

We had pretty wild conditions during our Friday session. Sailing maxed out on a 6.3 and 87L board with a tricky water state reminded me of racing in Fuerteventura (good practice as I'm going there in a couple of weeks!). Simon Langley was one of the first on the water but his 7.0m was too much of a handful and unfortunately he couldn't race as he didn't have a smaller sail. Before the shorebreak built up we completed 3 challenging figure-of-eight races. It was good to see Dave Strudwick back on the water after an ankle injury and he fought it out with Gerry Northwood and Allan Cross to be the top military dog (ex & serving).

These sessions are all about having the chance to learn things from each other. Anthony Todd was finding his set-up a bit flighty but after a bit of beach chat he put his mast foot forward and found his control improved. Paul and Sam arrived too late to join in the racing but looked to be scaring themselves silly on relatively big sails as I left.

Hopefully this Wednesday evening might deliver the goods for us. With low tide in the evening the conditions could be excellent. Next weekend there is a BSA event at Brighton which will offer the opportunity for all levels of racing from off-the-beach masterblasters to downwind slalom racing with the best in the country. 

Thank you to Simon Langley for the photo from Friday evening (it was gnarlier than it looks!).

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