Sunday, 18 September 2011

Speedsailing Location - Marazion, by Adam Gustafsson

Well as the UK sailors may know, this is one of Britain’s premier sailing spots, situated in the very South West of Cornwall with the spectacular St Michaels mount as a backdrop. Without doubt a great wavesailing spot, giving great onshore riding in wind directions from the south and occasionally good cross off conditions. Access is excellent, especially in winter with free parking right next to the beach and good facilities including a great little café.

St Michaels Mount, possibly the best place in the world to live?

Speedsailing here is actually pretty good in offshore conditions with slalom gear once the wind moves round to the north. Best wind direction is NW or NNW, but you can sail on relatively flat water from WNW all the way around to NE. The tide does have to be low and any Atlantic swells need to be small or from the NW to keep the water flat. Generally better once the tide is below 2.5m. There is a rocky outcrop at the Longrock end of the beach which flattens the water off if the wind has more west in it. Again generally if the wind is blowing from the north quadrant you are likely to have the spot completely uncrowded since the vast majority of sailors down here will be chasing the waves on the North coast.




Click for Google Maps
I’m yet to really sail here on an epic day but I think on a Galeforce NW with a spring low and no SW in the swell conditions could actually be very good and peaks over 40 would be possible.
My best session at this spot was a few years ago, but I have included it here. This was a gusty NW day with a small swell. It’s generally only ever going to be slalom board weather here, but always well worth a visit!




A typical British summer, you can see the swell from several days of SW wind.

'By Adam Gustafsson'


Thank you again Adam, I have camped on the sea front there and took the photo above. There were a couple of outstanding sailors out and the jumps they were doing were made the Mount look quite small. It really is a fantastic place and I never thought about it being suitable for speedsurfing. Hope to sail with you there one day. 'The Bus'

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