Another flat calm day, the wind for a brief period this morning rose to around 10knots on the shore, if that. The wall gave a reading of 12knots but this is always considerably higher due to both the height and the more open location. Quite a few people got some runs in, but nothing spectacular, most were around the 15knot mark and done with 9-10m sails on big slalom or formula kit. David Williams scored 19.299knots and was the fastest of the day.
It gave me a chance to talk to a few competitors and organisers. I spent a while in the race office / boardroom which was busy constantly even though there was no real wind. The software designed by Nick Povey, et al, was fantastic to see in action and is worthy of an article on its own in the near future. They use GPS results designed by Manfred Fuchs to collate the data into a CSV file, then several macros in a spreadsheet which churns out not only the results but a webpage ready to be posted online. I certainly wish I had something like that to write these things up after a long day. As you can see from the picture it can be quite complex with all the different units, Sserpent (Speed Sailing Event Results Processing and Analysis in Near-Time)
was developed to help with all of the data from the GPS units.
I had the opportunity to chat to one of the most interesting characters in the event and I am looking forward to having more time to talk to him over the week. His design may be laughed at by a few, as will his approach to life and his looks. But if you dig under the surface he is a highly intelligent person with a lot of great ideas. I think if he could get a little investment in his ideas he may potentially come up with something great that could take the speed title back from the kitesurfers. Possibly even a totally new type of water craft.
The youth prizes we given out at the end of the day (I will update here once I know the names). At which point Dave White's camera broke down and he had to use mine, here is the better of the two pictures which may appear in Boards mag. Just please credit the website Dave, thank you.
Finally the draw happened for the British GPS Speed Championships sponsored by Boards magazine. Some great news for myself here, I was the person with the most posts on the site. I must add that I never posted anything under 25knots and made a total of 59posts within the year. This includes a 6week layoff period from illness and only a few posts since the 1st of August when I had the blood clots in my lungs.
This gave me a great chance in the draw. I won a Simmer harness which I will now email Farrel O'Shea for, such a shame though he went home about half an hour before the draw.
Great end to the day and tomorrow should be windy, with wind from the right direction as well. I hope it comes through a couple of hours earlier than forecast allowing for flatter water at high tide.
If I have missed anything out I will add it as I remember.
Good speeds and winds; 'The Bus'
No comments:
Post a Comment