The Oceansource.net HISC Windsurfing Series

Hayling Island Sailing Club is so very proud to introduce our Gold Sponsor for our Windsurfing series. Welcome Oceansource.net the Ultimate in Windsurfing Adventure Experiences.

Is that really snow?

As we turned through the gates of the Club on a very windy and cold Sunday, we came across the first of the hardy entrants happily rigging on the Causeway, brave lad. The wind was whistling through the masts of our winter layup boats and the first cold blast of the day hit you smack bang in the face as you eventually managed to close the door of the van.

This is going to be interesting.

Clawing our way into the Club, we set out all our singing on sheets, tallies, got ready our flags and safety boats the tannoy pinging into action with our first welcome call of the day all with eager anticipation of our first windsurfing event at the Club in over Ten years.

Eager Anticipation

Breakfast came with welcome release from the organising and setting up. A few windsurfing members sitting huddled in the corner of the restaurant eagerly eying the wind and it’s direction, mobile phones clicking and checking on both Chimet and Camberment, spotters popping an eye over the anemometer. Each eager and not so eager face asking the same question, what’s the wind doing ?

Ping Bong

Our second call of the day. Eagerly welcoming all competitors to our First series, not quite sure of the turn out knowing the forecast will not be too kind to us. It read 25knts, NNE, Tide flooding al day. Apart from the cold and the wind chill, this is a perfect angle and conditions to do any windsurfing at the Secret Spot.

Having scuttled off back to our reception to take a peek on the signing on sheets to find the number of entries, it was a very welcome relief to find 13 signatures, and a good number of those being visitors too. Now that’s not bad a turnout considering the weather and the predicted snow later. We then duly cancelled the Oppie Training due to it being too windy and cold. Perfect, this’ll sort the character of windsurfers out I’m thinking.

Briefing for the racing took place after a “Welcome to the Club” and a brief explanation for our safety procedures and racing area. “Oh, they’re still keen then” went through my head as one of the hardy travellers commented, “it’s not that cold, and the winds up” A couple of guys went out to assess the angles etc. and a few blast and gybes later, they returned to the beach. All hooded up, with one hardy bloke with no boots.. You’ll find him later in the report, with ever increasing glowing red feet..

Ho ho it’s off to race we go

Race 1. Wind rattling your fillings and stuck between 22 and 30 knts ENE. It was an icy blast coming all the way from the Itchenor Channel. We set the course right off the beach front outside the Club. Flag hoisted, a packed Club house of spectators, and hooooooot, 13 eager racers fire off the beach up the Emsworth Channel, a cracking 1 mile reach there, 1 mile back.1 gybe and home.  It’s really surprising to see so many guys vying for position in such close racing.. Round the yellow inflatable and back to the beach.  Race winner “Vinnie” Stapleton commenting, “bit tight upwind” so we duly lowered the mark a few meters to ease up the reach.. and bang, bang, bang… all competitors coming back in quick succession.. top three results were 1^st Vinnie Stapleton, 2^nd Dan Simpson and 3rd Sam Latham.

Race 2. A tiny bit longer with two gybes this time. Gybing off the Club house meant that we had a packed spectator fleet all on their toes watching the steaming action on the water.. Another tight race brought with it seasoned competitors “Vinnie”, Dan and Sam close together vying for 1^st, 2^nd and 3rd place respectively.  We had very good results for our own fleet, with Ivan and George really pulling out all the stops to close the gap on the first three.

Time Out

After a quick warm up and coffee in our wetbar, and a chat to see if everyone’s warm enough before we commenced with the racing. And we’re off again. A change of gear for some, smaller fins, smaller boards, different sails.. dry gloves and back to the beach.

3 races back to back

Race 3 taking in just 1 gybe, then back to the beach.  A change of gear for some paying off, for those that stuck the first two races on the same gear still keeping up. There was tight racing at the front again, with Dave Dabrjevic (1^st) and Dan Simpson (2^nd) each pinching up each other vying for position, and a cracking 3^rd place for Michael Winter even tighter racing in the mid fleet with each looking for clear air. Race 4 included 2 gybes and back to the beach. This Masterblaster racing brings out the competitor in some, and some that are happy to be racing with others, it’s a great format for anyone wanting to introduce racing and great for close tight races keeping fleets together. This extended Race 4 really put the hammer down, a small tussle at the front , tight gybes, a few crashes at the gybe mark, some hasty waterstarts for others.. Race 5 just one gybe again then back to the beach.. These back to back races produced some of the tightest racing out there, close mark roundings with cutbacks just in time to claim water at the gybe mark, fleet spread out by no more than half a leg as those who struggled in the first two races copying those at the front of the fleet and squeezing every inch of speed out of their boards and sails.. It was fantastic racing, with some intermediates trying their hardest and showing that if you’ve got a good fleet around you, it’s amazing how quickly you progress.. Fantastic, this is exactly what we wanted to see. Results for Race 3 were 1^st Dave Daborjevc, 2^nd Dan Simpson and 3^rd Michael Winter. Race 4 results were 1^st Dan Simpson, 2^nd Dave Daborjevc and 3^rd “Vinnie”  The last race of the day results came in with 1^st Dan Simpson, 2nd Dave Daborjevc and 3^rd Sam Latham.

So overall the First of the series results were 1^st Dan Simpson, 2^nd “Vinnie” and 3^rd Sam Latham. Congratulations go to Dan Simpson for taking 1st place, and to all that took part. Full results can be found at HISC.co.uk/windsurfing

The conditions stayed pretty similar throughout the racing, we had fairly solid wind, some sunshine, flat water and smiling faces to boot… talking of boots, those bare feet were now glowing…

Finis

Once the racing finished it was off to the steaming hot showers and super toasty under floor heating in the changing rooms, then off to the bar and restaurant to stock up on depleted stocks of carbohydrates and general banter about the days racing. We had our prize giving, Glasses, Run and Wine for the top three and spot prizes for the hardy. All in all we achieved our aims. To get people back Windsurfing at HISC.

We hope that you all enjoyed yourselves, and look forward to seeing you next weekend for the second of the five series racing at HISC where we have more spot prizes to give away. Come along and join in, enjoy our Club and most of all, meet some great people doing the same thing that you love doing, WINDSURFING.