The Drivenbywind event at Southend, from Bart’s Blade perspective…..

Dave White gave me the opportunity to compete in the drivenbywind.com speedevent at Southend, near London on the inlet of the Thames, at a spot called “The Ray”. What a super place! At low tide two long and quite tall banks (up to two meters high?) emerge from the water leaving a strip of flat and undisturbed water that is just great! The seafront of Southend is parallel to the course and there are houseboats and buoys all over the place and factories on the horizon.  It’s a true urban speedstrip! 

Infected by the speedbug in the fall of 2007 by Martin van Meurs (thanx!) and getting some proper speeds in here on my home island of Texel, I decided to just do it, not caring about the “what’s that guy doing there?” stuff. 

January 15th was shakedown day. Was most impressed by Finian Maynard and Dave White. Finian did a run just in front of my nose when I was resting on the Raybank. What power! Dave White just kept sailing for some four hours on end and getting a lot of runs in. Martin was smooth as always making it all look so simple. My first ever outing on a 500 meter speedstrip ended with a 40.13 knots run (ratified WSSRC) and 9th in the day result. Even landed 4th in the Dutch all time 500 meter ranking. Stoked! Actually had to lend a Blade 5.1 from Anton of WXT (my quiver holds 5.6, 6.2 and 6.8 Blades) and so I was out there competing sailing the Blade 5.1 2007 for the very first time. It shows just how easy the Blade is to tap into. It’s just there and delivers the goods you need with no hassle.

Drivenbywind is on standby for another three months, so stay tuned…..,

Bart Goemans, Texel, Holland