The Race Course
Brancaster Bay
Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey and Multi Media Mapping. |
We are extremely lucky in that one of the finest open sea speed sailing courses in the world is right on our doorstep, barely a mile from the barn where the boat was constructed.
Brancaster bay is a long, gently curving bay off Norfolk's north coast, roughly between the villages of Thornham to the west and Brancaster Staithe to the east. The bottom shelves quite steeply and uniformly over the high water zone, making it ideal for speedsailing by allowing you to sail very close to the shore at least an hour either side of high water. When an offshore wind is blowing the flattest water is usually closest to the shore.
Our course across Brancaster bay lines up at about 120o to the prevailing south-westerly wind that is very common in North Norfolk during the autumn. This wind angle ties in almost exactly with the optimum true wind angles we need for record breaking speed, which are from 115o to 125o.
The land inshore of Brancaster Bay is predominantly low saltmarsh with only vestigial sand dunes at the top of the beach. The advantage in this is that the offshore breeze will be very smooth right down to the water's surface.
So in Brancaster bay during the Autumn we can expect many days of strong, clean south-westerly wind, and flat water on the racecourse
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