Outing 7 – first time at Newport, Pembs

First foilboard outing at our holiday home at Morfan.co.uk in Newport on the north coast of Pembrokeshire. After dinghy sailing in the PM, there was a light WSW about 10 -15 knots in a beautiful sunny evening. On the grass outside Newport Boat Club, my friend Neil inflated my Slingshot Rally 12m for use with his Slingshot Dialler, and I blew up my Slingshot Rally 10m for use with the Alien Air. We waded across the Nevern river and walked across Newport Sands and ran out our lines near the water. Neil launched first before my wade out to get 5′ depth. After a few small corrections, I was soon flying across Newport Bay – glorious.

Seemed to be able to control the interplay between speed and lift better, but still starboard tack was easier with long distances maintained with a good cant to windward.

Neil waded out and had a go – and made a good start getting used to the weird feeling of a foilboard, trying to find the Centre of Resistance.

I took over to get the board back up wind and found the wind had developed a few holes. Also, my legs were burning after cranking out over the gunwhale of a sailing dinghy in races in the PM. After a few more runs we came in and up rigged on the grass by Newport Boat Club before a hot shower and a pint. Wonderful evening’s sailing!