Summer time racing in Hayling Island has another successful weekend! James Dinsmore reports from the evening’s racing, where the starts are staggered with the fastest at the back, giving everyone the opportunity to take a win!
Our Hayling Slalom session on Friday evening turned out to be one of our best ever. I was a bit worried as at our planned start time of 5.30pm the wind dropped for about 20 minutes and there was barely enough wind to plane. Luckily it then gradually kicked back in and we had some great 3 buoy downwind slalom on 8.5 – 9.2m sails for an hour and a half.
Attendance was in double figures and as can be seen from the photos the racing was genuinely close. We did 8 races in all. The first three were all won by light-wind maestro Simon Langley who benefited from having fitted a lifty 52cm fin in his board.
After that it became less one-sided and Charlie-Stobart Hook and I took the rest of the wins. For his consistently good sailing Simon deserved the sailor-of-the-day award.
What was great to see was the progress people have made with their racing now that we have had the opportunity to get some sessions under our belt this season. Now that everyone is taking tighter lines round the gybe marks it is certainly getting tougher to come from the back of the fleet! Racing will continue on a weekly basis during British Summer Time.
Photos courtesy of getwindsurfing.com Check out a further gallery here!
