Malahide, County Dublin, Ireland Saturday 28th August 2010

On Saturday i headed up to Malahide just outside Dublin as my sponsor Wind & Wave was holding a fun day. I left Kerry early and got up to dublin around mid day and saw as i arrived that it was windy but first i had to have a chat with some of the speed sailors to sort out a few issues that have arisen with the Irish Speedsailing Series.

After that was all sorted out i checked out the conditions again and as it was around 12-14 knots gusting up to 18 knots i decided to use my Starboard I Sonic with 42cm Vector Maui Fins Canefire fin with my 7.3m KA Koncept and got changed and hit the water. As soon as i got out i realised the wind was very up and down and with the usual confused chop that Malahide gets it was hard to get any decent speed. It was also very hard to get going and i spent alot of time slogging around. It was my first time on the 7.3m and it feels alot lighter in the hands that the 08 Koncept's but doesn't feel as powerful which is due to the shorter boom i think. They also easier to lock in, in the gusts and when a gust hits you can feel the acceleration you gain from the gust.

I stayed out for a while until i started to get cramp in one of my calf's as i went to put my foot in the rear footstrap as i got pulled out of shape in a gust so headed in. When i got into the shore one of the lads noticed i had water in my aqua pack holding my GPS's and when i got them out of the pack i noticed one of them had water inside around the screen. I quickly put it over the heater to dry it out but it is still not switching on a few days later so it looks like it's fucked and i'll have to get a new one.

After this happened i have been given some advice from one of the guys on the seabreeze forums in Australia that they put the GPS's in zip lock bags and then put the bag inside a aqua pack and this saves the GPS's getting wet if the aqua pack fails. Wish i'd known that before but i'll definitely do that from now on. The thing that annoys me the most is that the instructions that come with the GT-31 state that the units are waterproof/water resistant to 1m if immersed in water when obviously they are not. If anyone uses the GT-31 with a aqua pack then use a zip lock bag as well to save the same thing from happening to you as for me that's £114 down the drain and i now have to buy a new GPS