Windsurfing round Britain

'without a water based support'
Other than the RNLI that is. Why should what, on the face of it, looks like foolhardiness be considered admirable or worthy of support?

Without any assistance from water based support would be reasonable, same principle cross channel swimmers use. To be without it completely is another matter entirely, especially if things go wrong and other parties have to go and pick up his corpse.

Originally posted by JimC 'without a water based support' Other than the RNLI that is. Why should what, on the face of it, looks like foolhardiness be considered admirable or worthy of support? Without any assistance from water based support would be reasonable, same principle cross channel swimmers use. To be without it completely is another matter entirely, especially if things go wrong and other parties have to go and pick up his corpse.

Edited by turnturtle - 19 Mar 15 at 9:32am

Well he can kip over at our club (H&SSC) and there is board storage, not sure how the news is going to be taken of 'some bloke windsurfing round Great Britain in a barrel' but the offers there and no I'm not going to fill in another lame website. Without support seriously I can't see him/you making it, without sail change down, spare masts, booms which likely will break at some point during a journey like that and of course at that point when you least require it, off some cliff bound no access shoreline in a tidal rip cross chop, he'd be better coming down to our place and trying a channel crossing there and back see if he/you could do that first, just my three happorth for what its worth.

I'm rather with Jim I'm afraid. Good luck to him- I hope he doesn't need to count on the ever-present support crew. Doing it without his own support puts not just himself but volunteer rescue crews at risk.

Not wishing to condone an unsupported attempt but a couple of friends did windsurf from Hayling to Africa, the only support [apart from each other-a big factor] was a camper van... and me texting weather forecasts each morning. I had to teach them how to use a Macmillans Almanac and a few navigational tips.
http://www.windsurftheworld.org/
The only major incidents were of an international political nature!
They took a few weeks off each summer and put an X on the rocks at the end to return to next year [99-06].
I joined them on the water on the Iberian Biscay leg. It was the hardest sailing I have ever done. Mostly light winds and BIG swell. We used IMCO raceboards -user friendly and rig depowered easily.
For a taste of what might be-
http://www.windsurftheworld.org/page0035v01.htm