Brogborough Busy on the Lake – Minimal Wind

The weather was warm and sunny, and with a lack of a brisk wind, I knew that the activity would likely mainly be Paddleboarding, but due to my arriving well into the afternoon, that was drawing to a close and a few windsurfers were taking to the water, amongst them André who was out on the latest upgrade to his own creation of hydrofoil, and I learned he was getting aloft more frequently, as he both gained experience of both the hydrofoil design and the handling of his craft.

For that reason, I have created a general gallery as well as two smaller single pages devoted entirely to his activity in order to help him assess his performance:

Click here for one, and here for the second.

As always, clicking the text headline takes you to the main gallery of thumbnails

I hope that the three give an account of the afternoon’s activity. I also managed some shots of some of the wildlife, swans, a cormorant and Canada Geese. In order to maintain as low a viewpoint I was once again using the Benbo tripod, which affords a really stable platform from which to shoot using the 7D MkII on a gimbal head, absolutely necessary since André was only able to find sufficient wind well away from the shore, so I was using the lens almost entirely at the full 600mm.

André and Home Brew Hydrofoil Board, Brogborough

I heard that André was back out on the lake at Brogborough with his latest update to his own design of hydrofoil, and despite it being both dull and cold, I got a message to him that I would dash round to get some some shots of the board in flight. 

The wind was fitful, and apparently had been stronger before my arrival, but since he was prepared to go out once more, I hastily set myself up using the Benbo tripod with the legs in the water, and when I was happy with its stability, I attached the camera to the gimbal head, which was the EOS 7D MkII and the 150-600mm Sigma Sports lens, and was ready by the time he had launched.

I took some incidental shots of one other windsurfer to set myself up, then kept André in sight following him out to the distance and then back in again, capturing a few occasions when he was airborne; each occasion was short lived, but what I noticed was he was successfully level once up.

The session did not last long, and once he had brought himself ashore, he Sam and I chatted about what appeared to be the limiting factors, André was very honest in his assessment of his level of hydrofoil experience and confidence being a factor, but we all agreed we were impressed by his board and his control, and seemed to conclude that it was the shape of the tail wing that might well be the weak point in the design, so he will be making this flatter in the next iteration, rather than being entirely curved throughout. This would seem borne out by the study of a commercial design.

I look forward to the next version, and we all hope that occasion will be blessed a more constant wind, and sunshine!

Brogborough Lake Sees Some Sun and Wind

Over the last few weeks a new feature has been seen within the Brogborough Windsurfing community — the introduction of a new feature — the Hydrofoil. Sam Barnes, who with his wife runs the Windsurfing Club on the Lake, took his delivery of one after a long, much delayed wait.

He has been gaining experience and understanding of the handling and is impressed with how it performs, especially in the mildest of winds; once up, he can stay aloft for the length of the lake, even if the wind drops, meaning less effort and thus more enjoyment. He sees this as a boost for the numbers attending over the year, since the time that can be spent on the lake sailing rather than waiting for stronger windy weather, essential with conventional windsurfing boards.

Not content with the delays involved in waiting for commercial hydrofoils to appear in the UK, one experienced windsurfer and confident engineer, trawled the Internet for ideas on the specifications necessary to build his own, and took the initiative to build his own, and on this last weekend brought his creation along, and despite much negativity from his peers actually lifted off from the surface. Yes, he found out that reading reports and experiences of others, does not negate the research experience of others’ long hours of trial and error, but though he has a long way to go before his device competes equally with the more established players in the field, André has produced a working model! I have photographs that prove this!

Sam feels that André will ultimately consider the purchase of a commercial product, I am less certain, I believe André’s passion and determination to succeed may well win through, and I really wish him success. Perhaps André may see something from my images that combined with what he feels when on the board allows him to understand just how his Hydrofoil is performing, or underperforming, I certainly hope so.  The gallery of images from the day also has some shots of other sailors’ sequences, and a glimpse of a buzzard that for a brief moment took an interest in those below, I wished s/he had come closer, so that I might have got some better shots, but was not too disappointed with those I managed at that distance.

I am sorry it has taken so long for this gallery to reach the blog, but it is down to my over-enthusiastic shutter-finger. I hope somebody finds it worth the wait.

Brogborough – André's Own Design Takes Off!

Now I do have some short sequences of André’s HomeBrew Hydrofoil and whilst I put together other shots taken on Sunday, here is just one occasion, in the hope that André or others might see what needs to happen next. I only spotted a few times when the board was level, which would seem to be the first issue to be tackled, and also in comparison to Sam Barnes on the commercial foil, the wake seemed to be more like the result of vortices where from Sam’s, it seemed more like simple frothing, but I am only making an observation, certainly not a comment based on any expertise at all in the matter!

I offer this single group to those who can glean something meaningful from the shots, whilst I gather a gallery together from the numerous other images I took from the day (and that could well be a while yet!)
Warning! They are not an exciting group of images, but they may offer clues as to what is happening at this stage and may point towards ways to improve how the hydrofoil performs. This group of shots just happened to be the longest sequence I captured; the truly level board shots were of very short duration.

Late Lake Arrival – Yet See Homemade Hydrofoil

By the time I reached Brogborough, the wind was dropping and most of the sailors had already left the water, but I first spotted Richard McKeating going out and recorded him practising various manouevres, but before I put any shots I took of these up I need to learn from Richard what is actually happening. In the meantime I learned of some interesting news about another windsurfer, André who has built his own hydrofoil, and he was also out on the lake, trying to understand its behaviour as it is very much still in the development stage, but despite some naysayers it does work, though needs further refinement.

I have no images of it in action, but during André’s chats with Richard and Sam afterwards I captured some shots of the device, and was most impressed with how much thought and effort has gone into its development and construction, and I listened intently to the discussions taking place around it. Hence this small gallery. I shall be watching this with interest in the coming months, and wish André every success in his endeavours.

Brogborough Sunny Break – Mild Wind

I decided I needed a break from assembling bookcases to house my large paperback collection, so after tidying up having reached the early ‘M’s of authors, I gathered my camera and bicycle and headed off down Woburn Road away from Marston Moretaine, but just before the exit onto the old A421, my chain came off the sprockets and jammed itself between the pedal and a bolt head. As laid the bike down the basket on the front containing all my camera gear, fortunately strapped carefully within also detached itself and lay in the grass. It took more than five minutes to free the chain and then get it all back, but what little grease remained on the chain now covered both hands!

I remounted for the short journey to Brogborough Lake and the hope that I might find a way to clean up satisfactorily upon my arrival at the windsurfing area. I was in luck as the charming lady who supplied me a welcome cup of tea had some wipes that worked wonders in removing the grease such that I could delve into my pockets to find the money to pay her.

No one had yet ventured out as there was next to no wind, so I lingered with my tea before setting up my tripod and camera, hoping that as I had left Marston Moretaine in a fair breeze, that the wind speed would rise sufficiently to tempt people onto the water. In this lull, I did spot a lone dragonfly, and I hoped I might catch sight of more, which I did briefly, a while later, but again only a singleton (possibly the same one!)

At first I captured local family activities and training exercises and then I spotted André whom I had met before and a little more action seemed promised; I suspect that August holidays and the lack of a stiff breeze played their parts in keeping the numbers of experienced thrill-seekers from the lake. Every so often the wind would rise and André and others would take advantage and provide me with images that were a little more exciting.

In the end I captured some interesting shots and definitely enjoyed my afternoon – the journey back with a following wind passed without incident and brought my mind back to how I might make space for yet more bookcases to hold the latter half of the Author’s alphabet from ‘McC’ onwards; Billy from IKEA will be paying me further visits!