Friday evening has arrived and what a week.. the weathers up and then it’s down, in the Americas Cup we were down, then maybe coming back up but now looking very down and the Weymouth Speeders needed more wind in the South but then up North, well North in Tiree, dropping in on waves is a hot subject. Whatever will happen next?  Thankfully we have a weekend to get through it or get over it!  

Weather, why do we harp on about it! One day hot and the next it’s cold, one day wet and the next .. it’s wet again J . I cannot remember ‘weather’ quite like 2024’s and it’s certainly screwed up bringing in new people to Beach Life. Why has it changed things? Well,  I’ve been pondering over this subject and I think our current problem is that we do not get a period of weather long enough to sustain people’s interest in wind or non-wind water sports. It’s become ‘one day they are there, the next day they are gone’, by which I mean ‘seeing people’ out on the water, having fun on a SUP or a Kite or a Sail. Maybe with the exception of foiling, which has had a pretty good run weather wise, this lack of visual advertising might be the reason why we are no longer encountering anything like the numbers of people that wanted to learn to Kite (even up to Covid, the phone rang steadily with ‘where can I learn’ calls) or the great SUP rush that occurred from around 2010 and then collapsed after 2021. Without a reasonable consistency in the weather, which brings people to the coast in the first place and then leads them on to the ‘ I want to do that’ , why would you bother? Add to that the fear of water contamination and.. ‘Houston, we have a problem’.  There is a way forward but I am guessing that no one is currently keen on building an indoor weather dome, where the winds can be controlled and the water is always warm and ‘clean’ (no peeing in the pool please!). I guess it’s back to keeping the fingers crossed for better weather in 2025.. now where’s my piece of seaweed?

This week has had so much going on in sporty water world! Weymouth Speed Week, a wonderful British wind powered event,  has had sporadic winds, which is of course is better than no wind and at close of play today, we have a Lady Kitesurfer, Lily Young, as the overall winner with a run of 34.4kt. Lily is from Weymouth and we believe she was on a kite foil. Congratulations are in order, as we believe that she is the first lady to win the event! https://results.weymouthspeedweek.com/events/

Typically the current forecast shows that stronger winds will arrive this evening. It’s just typical that the coming weekend will be producing the wind speeds the event would have liked and may have raised the record . Ah well, there’s always next year.

The America’s Cup is seemingly a Kiwi walkover, with today’s racing being painful to watch, as the NZ Emirates crew increased their lead to six races to the UK’s two, with only seven race wins needed to take the Cup. I’m not sure I dare look and see what words Ben Ainslee used after today’s second race!

The Tiree Windsurfing Wave event has been on all week and at around £1.5k to take part (not including beer money) it’s becoming an expensive venture. Nothing to do with the entry fees, just getting there is a trek from the South Coast. Some people though closer to £3k if you booked into a room! I can’t say too much about it, as I know some of you will want to catch up with it this evening, but there has been ‘ a move’ during a round that has sparked a little controversy, all be it politely of course. I think if you went back 30 years, that would have been sorted out very quickly ‘in the water’ or in the bar…anybody ever argued with Duncan Coombes? Today was the final day of competition and the event Prize giving and the Winner of the BWA 2024, normally takes place this evening.  

And it’s a well done to…

I think you have probably glazed over by now.. time for this weekend’s wind and rain?

Saturday, starts off with good intent, 17-23kts of onshore wind, which by 11am will start to swing Sou’West but then drop back to 16-18kt off and by early afternoon we have Nor’West 8 -13kt. It should swing back to Sou’West by late afternoon but what’s the point. Did I mention that It will rain until around 1pm? Windguru say Yes it will , Met say rain until 9am. Tide is High at 13.08hrs on a 6.8m, so with the rainfall and an onshore wind, localised flooding is possible. Not a great start to the weekend..

Sunday, well, hold on to your wheel bins as it’s another belter, with Onshore winds coming in at 27-40kt pretty much all day , according to WindGuru. The Met say pretty much the same and they both agree that it will swing Sou’West late afternoon and the drop back to 23 -30kt. Both agree on the rainfall, which will be heavy at times and last pretty much all day. Oh Joy! High Tide is 13.49hrs on a 6.6m, so be at the beach around 9am to get a reasonable time out on the water, as it will become ‘difficult to launch’ by around midday. Flooding again is a possibility.

And that’s it, until a week next Friday, as I’m off for a few days next week and doubt if James will have time to tap away at the keyboard.  Maybe not a great outlook for the weekend,  if you don’t like onshore winds and wet weather, but if you do, it was made for you!

Have a good weekend everyone and good luck with winning 5 races on the trot Ben!

PS. please forgive any typos..