The spirit of Weymouth was the real winner this week. Over a hundred sailors entered the week and despite a light easterly wind nothing could dampen the spirits. Big sails and slalom boards ensured the timers had plenty to do. With 7.6 as my biggest speed sail I turned to the mountain bike for exercise off the water, but took a bit of stick for hanging with friends on the water.

Monday always offered the best chance of wind, but as luck would have it a computer crash brought the timing system to its knees, buy the time the backup system was in place the wind had already started to ease. With what seemed like a lost week ahead I took the challenge of getting down the course on a kite.

With a few words from Stacy Vass it turned out to be less of a challenge than expected, thankfully though my runs weren’t timed which saved some embarrassment. The funny side for me was the amount of camera’s and video pointing my way. Getting it wrong is part of the learning experience, some like to slope off to perfect it in private, being happy to take the piss out of others, its only fair I put myself in the firing line… and yes I took my fare share.

I came in for a bit more when I returned from biking covered in blood. Once you get over the heart-pounding climb to the top of Portland, the ride around the islands cliffs makes for a good ride. There’s enough to make a two-hour ride out of it, but a couple of times it took a bit longer.

Riding passed the lighthouse a bunch of twichers crossed my path, unfortunately for Dorian Mason he happened to be one of them. Bird watching is one of those hobbies that are more of a secret society, we know they’re out there, but no one admits to being one. Too make it worse Dorian competed when Weymouth was the best speed spot in the world, but guess we can let him off for not entering this year, a double knee replacement makes walking hard enough, let alone windsurfing – maybe next year.

My longest trip was extended by pride more than distance. Having rode clockwise most of the week I figured it was time to unwind a few laps, unforchanetly I missed a turn and ended-up at sea level on the wrong side of Portland. I hate turning back so I looked for an alternative route, eventually that also lead to a dead end, well almost.

There was a small track through the bush, figured if someone walked it; there must be a way out somewhere, that train of thought kept coming back with each obstacle. I should have got the message when walk turned to climb and the bike was slung over my shoulder, but each time I thought enough was enough I thought I’d found the way.

The last 100m were the worst, as I had to drag the bike over, through and under bramble bushes. If anyone wanted to see me looking embarrassed, forget the kiting, seeing me sitting on top of the wall with blood covered arms and legs with one more lot of brambles to pass would have done it.

The next time I went over to Portland it was a lot more comfortable. After a short spell away Spartan wetsuits are coming back with a new range and needed a few pix, I guessed the lighthouse with a setting sun seemed a good place to start.

Talking of new products, last year I met John Porter and Wayne Jennings from Predator. They were developing a new wearable and waterproof video camera and asked for some input. The three main things I wanted were quality, quality, and quality, there’s a lot of helmet cam stuff out there but nothing that gets close to anything you’d be happy to put on your tv, especially when you want it to be waterproof.

The one here is pre-production and is heading back to the factory, I should be getting my hands on one sometime in December so we can catch some up-close action from the Southend record attempt.

Everything’s moving along quickly for Southend, looks like we’ll be over subscribed, emails have been coming in quickly off the website. The final price hasn’t been set, but with a little help we’re hoping to keep the entry down to a thousand pounds for the three months.

But this week its about Weymouth, so lets finished how it started, with James Grogono. With out him there would have been no Weymouth speed week, or speed at all. It was James’s eureka moment that started it all off. His boat Icurus is based around the Tornado that my father designed and was also the reason for my first visit to Weymouth speed week back in the day.

I may have only been delivering new centreboards, but its where it all started.