West Kirby, Merseyside, UK 19th July 2011

Sorry for the delay in getting this post up but i only just got back to Ireland on Tuesday after spending a week in the Uk with no internet access and had loads of things that needed doing once i got back so have been busy all week.

On Tuesday 19th July i travelled across to the UK early as i was competing at Rutland water the following weekend (23rd & 24th) hoping to catch the back end of the storm that hit West Kirby over the weekend. I was gutted i couldn't make it across sooner and missed the best of the wind but couldn't justify the extra cost i was quoted on Saturday with Stena Line, 460 euros compared to 296 euros i paid with Nutt Travel on Monday and also the extra cost of a couple of extra nights accommodation which i couldn't really afford to pay.

I arrived at West Kirby around mid day to find the wind 14 knots gusting 24 knots from the North West so i decided to use my Starboard iSonic W53 Speed Special with 25cm Vector Maui Fins Delta Speed Fin and 6.4m KA Koncept, got into my wetsuit and hit the water. It was also the first opportunity to try out the 6.4m on my new 460 KA 100% Carbon RDM Mast since i got the mast earlier this year. Because of the wind direction it made the sailing down the wall very hard due to it being very broad, around 130 - 140 degrees and on my first couple of runs i was running out of power on my speedboard after about 50-100 meters so went back in and got my Starboard iSonic 86 with 29cm Vector Maui Fins Delta Speed Fin and went back out and with the extra volume and tail width in the 86 it made getting down the wall easier. Unfortunately now the wind was getting very gusty with big holes in the wind so there was alot of waiting for the gusts to get down the wall and then once sailing down the wall you had a big rolling chop near the end so it made sailing really tricky and hard to get any decent speeds but i still managed a couple runs with a max speed of close to 32 knots. Around 4-5pm the wind started to back of and i was spending alot of time up to my waist in water so i decided to call it a day and get a welcome warm shower.

The 460 RDM mast worked very well in the sail compared to my 460 KA 100% Carbon SDM mast with the sail reacting well in the gusts and the sail felt lighter with less of a swing weight so for me the new mast worked very well and i can highly recommend trying the RDM mast in your own Koncept. Hopefully i will get another chance to sail West Kirby soon and get on my smaller speed boards and have a decent crack at 40 knots