Windsurfing General Pre 2013

Irish Windsurfing Hospitality

 

 

  • Irish Windsurfing Hospitality

  • Van for Sail

  • Donegal Beckons

 

Irish Windsurfing Hospitality

Isn't it nice when we have visitors to our lovely country. And we in Ireland have a great tradition of treating them well. So I'm pleased to report on the hospitality we extended to some Scottish windsurfing visitors we had during the massive tides, floods and winds just after Christmas.

You will have heard stories of mad people like Raptor going out at Kearney in huge conditions. Actually sailing was only difficult - launching and coming in was the really difficult bit. Water up to the walls and roads, huge breakers and basically only 1 chance or you were mincemeat.

On one of those days a number of us assembled at the club thinking it must be a great sail. But it was huge - not so much on the water although the wave height chop would have been interesting ie very close together. But launching was near on impossible. The wind was 4m style or more, but full on shore. The water level was already over the front rocks to the slip way which now formed a steep walled cutting. So no room to launch at any angle and full on into the wind was never going to work. Wookie considered jumping in with his kit over the side of the rigging area - the water was up to the top of the rocks. We even drove down the car park (before the police closed it for safety) but it was over the break water rocks which now formed a massive set of teeth to eat you and your board.

We couldn't see any place to launch and in fact parking was a problem as water was well past the rigging area and pushing us to the gate. The jetty was fully under water and being battered by huge waves - although sadly it survived.

By now we'd gathered a lot of Friday afternoon people including Ed, newly graduated from Edinburgh with two of his Scottish mates. They were over for a few days with a zillion boards on top of their small student cars.

Even when we decided to try Whiterocks just getting there was a trek as the police had now been forced to close the entire Portaferry Road as it was submerged with big waves breaking over it.

By the time we got round the lough, the road at Wookie's house was under water and with a big pile of locals parked up and wondering how they could get to their houses. They were a bit perplexed with 4 windsurfers pushed their way through the throng and launched.

Now of course we were on the other side of the lough so it was full off shore. This made the launch tricky for a whole other set of reasons. It was lull and whirl city for the first 100 yards and then full on as soon as you got out past the lea of the shore. The wind had dropped a bit so I took out 6.3m but on a large board (FV1) in order to get out and also for safely in dropping offshore winds. For once I got it spot on and had a great sail.


Ed, Andy (not our Andy of course) and their other mate took out around 5m but on much smaller boards. And so it was that as darkness loomed Andy was in trouble. The wind had dropped further and he spent about 45 minutes trying to water start and make his way back in. But he wasn't winning and was drifting further out - although in fairness that was towards an island so he wasn't likely to drown.

Wookie took charge and dispatched me out again with a rope stuffed down by wetsuit. I got to Andy and we tied his board behind mine and I towed him back in. It was nearly dark and the onshore brigade were watching carefully to make sure we made it back because the alternative was to call the RNLI. It was a slog but we made it.

However I thought it would be useful just to provide a few more details of the towing process as many of you won't have had to do this.

First off we tied the rope from my back straps to his back straps ie his board was towed backwards. There's really no other way to do this if you think about it. Then he draped his sail over the back of his board and did his best to lie on it and as much of his board as he could. It was still a huge drag of course.

You might think then the towing windsurfer just gets into his harness and that's it, but it's much harder to do this than you think. With the big drag (I once towed in our Andy like this...) you can't step back and lock in - the angles and forces are just distributed all wrong. So you end up with your feet near and at times one in front of the mast and you lean out much more. I felt like I was one of those serious yacht racers who hang out horizontally. I'm sure it wasn't that dramatic, but it felt like it.

I hope this help you if you ever need to do the same. I could say you might want to practice this in benign conditions, but I know we won't....

Anyway Andy was well looked after when he visited our country and hopefully he and indeed all of them will be back for more - at the Donegal courses of course.

In rounding up the flood sailing, I should mention that Wookie and I went out again on the Sunday at Whiterocks when massive winds were forecast but only for a few hours. Amazingly the forecasters were right! Wookie had a  good sail on 4.5m and I have to say I struggled a bit on 5m at the peak of the winds which came up to well over 40 mph for a bit. The locals, who had once again lined up like tourists to view the high tide blocking their road were however suitably impressed.

Word reaches us that Ming was the only sailor out at the club that day but that he had a frenzy of rigging and rerigging to keep up with the changing conditions. As Davy posted - 'he's a nutter'...

Van for Sail

What is it about windsurfers and their love affair with vans? Well if you fancy your bit on the side - here's her details - from Peter Campbell.

Details of the van are

 

1st registration was the 18th of June 2002.

Engine 2500 cc TD4

4 Seats (I had the one put in the back by Action Van)

MOT’d until the 29th of June 2002.

Mileage is just under 80,000 (I need to check the exact figure)

The TD4 needs a big timing belt change at 80,000 miles but that has been done already.

Two years ago I had two new shock absorbers put into it and a big service last year.

 

If the guy you know is interested let me know

 

Many thanks

 

Peter

So if this appeals, just drop me a reply and I'll put you in touch with Peter.

 

Donegal Beckons

 

I want to repeat the details of the two 2014 Donegal windsurfing courses. You know you want to - so get booking!

Once again two courses – flat water for improvers and intermediates and waves for the rest

  • Flat/intermediates course Fri 19th – Mon 22nd September, based at Downings
  • Wave course Tue 23 – Sun 28th September around the Loch Altan
  • Cost approximately £165 for flat/intermediate and £200 for waves
  • Grommet weekend rate £75
  • Special weekend rate for fathers etc
  • Phil and Danielle again – with full video feedback
  • Professional quality photographs available from Danielle
  • Open to all windsurfers and not just club members


You’ll notice that we’re running the intermediate course first and this is to allow some people to stay on and try their hand at waves. If enough people do this, we will also lay on some extra coaching specifically to help them – over and above the excellent stuff already being done by Phil and Danielle.

And once again we are operating a price cap. This means that once you’ve paid £200, you can do as much as you want to. So for people hopping up from the flat to the waves, the extra cost is a pittance.

This year we require a £100 deposit. This will be returnable until we have sufficient numbers to declare GO on the courses at which point it becomes non-returnable.



And once again we are running Easyjet pricing. So prices will rise once numbers do – so book early to lock in these prices.

So let me know as soon as you can and get those deposits in. The sooner we get the numbers, the sooner it’s all set in concrete and we can notify A+E that we’re coming.