We had a lot of fun with gps’s and the speed gun, and by the end of the week every one was sailing faster, but somehow I wish it wasn’t called Speed Week. It sounds like a week driven by testosterone, something that couldn’t be further from the truth. It doesn’t matter if you’re big, small, male or female, confidence, or the lack of it defines our ability.

I’m not an instructor, I leave that to those who have that special talent. Colin and Jo have it in abundance, the ability to break windsurfing down into simple steps. We all needed them to get going but with time and experience we soon forgot those individual steps as our windsurfing comes together.

I don’t really remember those early steps, but what I do know that the lack of confidence held me back for years, how much easier it could have been if someone had just said “you can”, really you have no idea how long it took before I could come out of a gybe on the plane.

The wind over the week was good to us, if anything a little on the strong side on occasions, its  been a long while since I planned on a 3.7. The first day last year all the guys took the biggest sails they could hold down. Those few words “fat is fast” have given so many the wrong impression of speed, efficient sailing will always triumph over brute force, though a combination of the two breaks records.

This year I decided to take the smallest I could get away with, 6.9 Remedy and a Rocket 115 just to show you don’t have to be balls against the wall. I ended up drifting around most of the time, but with a few pumps on to plane it was easier to prove a point.

It was great to see we had a good bunch of girls this week, even better with Amie and Annette setting the fastest speeds on the first day. Over the week the guys got their revenge, but if further proof were needed that confidence can change everything, Rosie is a perfect example.

Not the strongest on the water, apart from her slight frame, suffering with m.e. doesn’t help. Bill, her farther had brought to our group, and even though she couldn’t quite get in the foot straps on day one, she was more than willing to give it a go. She improved so much over the week and ended up fully blasting in the foot straps on our last day. Poor girl even had to be my tandem partner for the master blaster on race day.

I’ll cut it short as Phil took a bunch of pix and will write the story from the other side, just hope he’s no too honest J. I just like to say thanks to Mike and Sean for the extra pix and thanks to everyone for a great week and I’ll put the rest of the pix up next week when I get home for more than a few hours.