Weymouth Speed Week is all about the individual enthusiasts that take part from the watersports community from all around the UK and abroad, in this weeks blog I speak to Peter Crosby who has been coming to speed week for the past ten years. Peter is incredibly passionate about the competition and especially the team behind the event and in particular the technology. Speed Week is all about that opportunity to chat to fellow enthusiasts, manufactures, professionals and challenge yourself to be on the water at the right moment at the right time and break your own speed record in a very quintessentially British way. Here at The Official Test Centre we are proud to sponsor this event which has become a treasure in the watersports calendar. Find out all about twiglets, timings and the candy shop! Hurtling towards togetherness; Weymouth Speed Week!
By Emma Nicholson.
Peter said: "I was introduced to speed week by a friend of ours at our sailing club and now there is about six or seven of us now that come from Bognor Regis Sailing Club, because we have been harping on to the others and it is great to see other members coming here. It is a fantastic place the whole set up here. The flat water because we are used to shore dumps and weed and waves and that sort of thing. There is so much to learn from Speed Week, there is always professionals giving tips, my friend Matt had a free coaching session on how to rig his technical sails. There are people here that we have seen for years and everyone is passing on tips. There are lots of sales going on, people trading stuff, everyone helps each other out. We just had a friend his mast snapped, so everyone rallied round as they cost several hundreds pounds and we all helped out to find a replacement for him.
Peter said: "Speed Week has become like a holiday to us, we look forward to seeing all our old friends, what is so unique is we get away from our families and our friends and we come here and all the talk is about windsurfing. Day and night. It is because our families get fed up of it. They don't want to know and the fact it is so well organised. I have been to quite a few competitions internationally like Le Defi in the South of France, that is very good that is really well organised, we have been on the British Slalom for a few years. But this one they are so much better at getting things organised, the organisers care by making sure that people get as much time on the water and if the wind is only going to be early in the morning they will get up early they will get out and if we have had no wind for a day or two and the wind is coming late in the day they will stay out till 6pm and we are all bombing up and down, we have been to competitions where it comes to 3pm and the organisers are like that is it, we have to pack up and put our boats away and we haven't raced yet today and it has cost a lot of money. We get value for momey here.
Peter said: "One of the biggest things is they have improved their technology, the data they are collecting, the technical thing from Mike George, the new technology we are wearing with these GPS, we don't have to worry, we just switch it on. They do all the work. They provide it all, we don't have to buy, before half the fleet had to buy their own because they didn't have enough, but now they have invested in these, we are quite happy to pay the entry fee as there is a nice t shirt, we get a meal for the money as well, the cost also includes the harbour fees as well, and we get £20 back when we hand the vest back, it is well worth it.
"What is unique about Speed Week is we help each other to get there because once you have won you want to do it again and if the competion is good with you that will encourage you to do well. When you are abroad it is a different feeling and we have the British humour as well. What is so good about here, we have people from Belgium and Holland coming over, they keep coming back year after year and they keep giving us tips and we have introduced them to twiglets, what is that Marmite! we made the guy from France at the skittles night eat the twiglet, they said you english are mad! we have had some great times.
"There will always be a key core of windsurfers, because windsurfing was so big in the 1980s and 90s it captured so many people, kiting has been very big worldwide too. Winging is slowly getting to the same as well. Yes kids are different these days and like to stay in more and play with technology instead, but maybe winging won't be as big, but we welcome all sailing craft here, the wingers will help us develop, I have a windsurf foil and their technology is helping my technology develop, manufacturers are swapping ideas and it is cheaper for families to buy one foil that will do most things and pack it in the car it makes it more accesible.
"James will hold the record, very much so, where they excel is the shallow water and light winds, and here at Weymouth because of the Chesil Beach they do have a slight advatage having a kite higher up, every 10 metres you go up the Beaufort Scale is stronger with the wind, there is always a few more knots higher up that is the way the wind works so they will always have thatr advantage, but when it gets very very strong 30 knots plus or 40 knots plus that is when the windsurfers start to close that gap and Scotty will come along and so forth and certainly with the harbour course we have today we haven't got any interuptions with the wind it is a huge harbour, so we have a fair old chance.
"For may many years windsurfers relished the fact that we were the fastest sailors, and eventually the kites and the sail rocket came here a few years ago, they have overtaken us, and foiling is a big part of all the sports.
"We do use our kit very hard and they do wear out, some sails will last 10 years some last only 5 years, a lot of us aren't struggling with high mortgages the kids have grown up we will spend a bot more money on ourselves.
"The social side of Speed Week is the best, Norman does such a great job pre-organising with the local restaurants, everybody goes together and that way having a social in the evening and getting thar regular eye contact with people, it is more approachable to come up and chat to people, there is no cold feeling here. You can walk up to any van and say I am new here this year, we have a girl that has joined this year, we have finally got her down here and she has finally been released by her family she has come with her father who is a long time windsurfer from the 80s everyone has come up to her and chatted.
"John is a winger and he has never been before, he isn't competiting he has just come to watch and he is loving the vibe and it is convienant because Portland has got little hotels and accomdation, it is out of season and it is cheap and October is the best month for wind.
"You can come to speed week and you will be educated in all the little things thast you don't ever get at your home spot, because there are professionals here that will pass on those tips even the people that aren't professionals will pass on tips and hints. I would say even when there is no wind the organisers will say to Scotty Stallman go and give a rigging talk, which is great he could easily say no, when we had the 50th anniversary in 2022 all the maufacturers cam as well and some of them have kept coming back since. It is like being in a candy shop here, looking at all the kit. and the technology timings it is superb, we have never come across anything so accurate and it won't record anything but your 500 metres."
Click on the link to have a look at the Weymouth Speed Week Event Guide...
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