Ingrid but no bergs, Akbar's retired, Goya Carbon Sail on Sale, Outrigger ahoy and Where we are now!
Ingrid, just another Storm, heading into the UK today, bringing more wet (not wanted) and windy (up to 38kt is good, otherwise a waste) weather but where did the ‘We’re all going to die’ Beast from the East go?
I bet the forecasters who called that one are very glad it’s the weekend!
Rain, is becoming a feature of our weather patterns once again and personally, it’s beginning to be a right pain in the ar.. butt. Flooding inland is becoming a Big Issue, with more water coming out of the drains than going in. Some areas close to where I live are now under a couple of feet of water. Twice I had to turn back on a run yesterday morning, swapping a soggy but fun six miler into a ten-mile mud-athlon. Fingers crossed that we do get a drier spell soon, otherwise the water table will be above ground level.
Glad to hear that a lot of you have banked your first sail of 2026 this week, as the air temps have been close to the 10°C comfort zone, which is the bench mark for many ‘seasoned sailors’. The Sou’ East direction is not the best for most South Coast sailors but Port Tack is still favoured by some.. who will be happy for the next 5 days. Good to hear that an ‘old’ Shoreham local, namely Akbar, has now retired from working life and has been sailing with one of the local WhatsApp groups, who met up at Worthing this morning for a quick session. I understand he is still wearing a Spartan Dry-zip suit (come in and see us Akbar.. there are more modern suits available!) so while I was Googling to find the year that Spartan ceased trading , I came across this 2012 Boards article. Scroll down until you come to ‘Phil Dobners’ review.. nice one Phil! I think it was 2014, which must make Akbar's suit almost ‘vintage’. https://boards.co.uk/features/behind-the-scenes-with-spartan.html
Shoreham Outrigger Club got into the limelight last weekend, when an experienced four-man crew, including Jon Ellman-Brown who co-founded the club, got into a spot of bother whilst paddling back to the harbour arm from a training session. The sea state caused the canoe to take on more water than was wanted and although it came close to being submerged, It continued to float but paddling it was becoming a right pain in the… butt, as Jon explained when he was in the shop earlier this week. The inshore boat towed them to Southwick New Beach (the current had taken them past the harbour mouth by this time) where they could beach the canoe and drain it. Once clear and all had regained their composure, they re-launched, paddled back to the harbour mouth and up the Adur, to the Sussex Yacht Club. It all ended well and thanks to everyone one involved with retrieving them.
Anyone looking for a 5.7m sail? We have an ex-demo Banzai Max Pro Carbon of Goya UK’s and it’s now available for sale, as a new version will be arriving later this year. What makes these sails different from the norm is the use of Carbon fibre laminate yarns, arrayed to control load lines in the sail.. which in plain English means something like the carbon weave in the sail is there to stop the frame from distorting when the gusts hit, so this extends the upper wind range. The sail is in the blue colourway, has not been used a great deal but does have the typical ‘used’ marks on the window panel. I would post pics but as the wind and rain has been pretty ‘constant’, I’ve not been able to take any, as ‘yet’. The RRP for these is currently £1039.00, so quite an exotic piece of kit but this one is more affordable, at £690.00. If you can’t come along to see it, message us and we will try and take pics inside the shop. Goya info can be found here.. https://goyawindsurfing.com/sails/banzai-max-1-pro-carbon/
It has been nearly five months since we announced that the shop was on the market. Unfortunately, we find ourselves unable to finalize a sale, as the landscape for buying businesses has changed significantly, since we grabbed the reins and ran with it, a mere 32 years ago. Consequently, we are now preparing to take the next steps in our retirement journey. Once the new plan is in place, we will begin reducing our inventory, which I guess will involve putting the 'Closing Down' signs in the window and further lowering prices. Ultimately, we will reach a point where we can close the doors for good and turn off the lights. I will keep you all updated, as we move forward.
Think that this must be a good time to move onto what the weather has in store for us this weekend!
Saturday, could be a sunny day! Guru and the Met suggest sunshine until late afternoon when showers arrive for the evening. Wind will be Sou’East 20kt gusting 28kt with a top temp of 9°C (what a shame it’s not an 18°C day!). Tide is High at 14.35hrs on a 5.9m, which is a great tide height for the river but the wind direction, is not great.
Sunday, is not at all a sun-day, as rain is likely to be in the air until mid afternoon if you believe Guru, or all day if you go with the Met. Wind forecast is Sou’Sou’East 14 – 18kt during the morning and then backing East’Nor’East during the afternoon, ‘drooping’ back to 9kt by dusk.
Could be worse, I guess.
And that’s a wrap for this week. Greenland is still ‘theirs’ and the World is an even crazier place than it was seven days ago… do you think they’ve all gone raving mad?
Have a great weekend everyone.