Herkingen, Wednessday 1 october 2008
For the first time in 3 weeks there was a decent wind prediction. There was also a call for an USM (Ultimate Speed meeting) at Strand Horst in the Netherlands. I decided not to go there because of the terrible traffic jam on weekdays in the Netherlands. Last time I went to Horst on a weekday it took me 3,5 hours to get there. I went to Herkingen and so did a bunch of other Belgian speedsurfers.
When I arrived at the spot the wind was blowing 30 to 35 knots. Some of the stronger, taller guys were rigging 6.2. Since I just recovered from a back injury I rigged my smallest sail, a RS6 5.4. I took the Warp SL 56 and put a Select SL7 27 under it.
At Herkingen there is a small dam which holds the waves. With NW to SW winds you can sail behind this dam. Although this dam is the entrance to a harbor we are allowed to sail there. So please fellow windsurfers, have respect for the place so that we can continue to surf there.
This fall the water level seemed to be higher than normal. This resulted in some waves flooding over the dam in the middle of the run. This made the runs very spectacular. At full speed you had to cross some waves.
My first run showed a 63.1 kmh on the GPS display. After some runs I moved the mast foot forward to 135 cm to give me some more control and I gave less outhaul for my sail. The speeds went up. Fastest run on the GPS display 68.3 kmh. Most of the other guys were using real speed boards but the control on the Warp SL was very good. I also managed to gibe at the end off the run in the chop.
Then I went back to eat something and warm up. When I went out again I put a Select Viper Speed 28 under the board. This fin was not as stable as the SL7 27 and I couldn’t reach the same top speed anymore.
When I downloaded the data from the GPS at home it became a fact that the WARP SL boards are very good. Hard to believe, it just seemed so easy.
New top speed record : 69,5 kmh
New 10s AVG record : 64,54 kmh
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