Portland circa 1987
|
In the summer of 1985, whilst staying with friends near Bodmin, I
was introduced to the noble art of windsurfing - they were doing
it regularly (windsurfing...) on a reservoir near Bodmin as well
as places like Rock. Having done a huge amount of dinghy sailing
in the past I managed to pick it up reasonably quickly, almost
immediately buying a matching pair of Fanatic 370s - one with a
5.5m sail and one with a 6.1m sail. The latter rig can be seen in
this photo.
In those days Fanatic 370s were comparatively state of the art; in other
words they were heavy, slow, cumbersome and the sails were apologies. Not
to mention the boom fixings which were almost guaranteed to fail at any
given moment critique. However I DID have a lot of fun with them, almost
exclusively at Portland Harbour, near Weymouth, from March through October
until about 1989. I never progressed to water-starting or using a harness
but I could do standing starts from the beach.
|
Me on the Bee
|
About 3 weeks after my early retirement from the University a friend and
his wife (Charlie and Suzie) came over to Pennard to buy a wedding present.
Sue asked me what the pattern of my life was now likely to be and I explained
I would probably have two weekdays as my weekend, to which Charlie
replied "that's lucky - weekdays are windsurfing days!!" Thus it was I found
myself back in the water at Portland after a lay-off of some 14 years. Needless
say my old Fanatic looked hideously dated alongside the sleek, light rigs
the "lads" were using. So they took pity on me and temporarily
loaned me a Mistral Escape and a 5.1m Tushingham sail which, of course was
far more appropriate.
With a winter wet(dry)suit and thermal kit it's possible to windsurf all
year round. I water start, wear a harness and have two boards - a Fanatic
Viper 299 and a Fanatic Bee 289. The Viper is a wide board with a lot of
bouyancy and is a good all rounder for most conditions and, like many modern
wide boards is an early planer. Sails of 5m, 5.7m, 6.2m, 6.9m and 8m give me
a broad enough range for most conditions.
|
Mike's outrageous gibe
|
A word about the "lads" - Chris and Charlie are both 65 this year which proves
you can still do fairly extreme sports beyond teenage. Charlie is a farmer and
Chris is a hairdresser, well known in Weston Super Mare. Mike is a logistics manager,
Tony is a plumber and me being a potter completes this odd lineup, with an aggregate
age of over 300!
|
Links & Info
I have bought a lot of my kit from
Windtek in Weymouth and have
found them to be very helpful.
109 Portland Road
Weymouth
DT4 9BG
01305 788046
A useful site for checking the weather and tides at Portland is
Metcheck
|