Last weekend I had the privileged to attend the 2nd edition of the Kashy Fins Formula Windsurfing Festival near Yorktown, Virginia. I had just moved to Washington DC from Belgium two weeks earlier, and this was my first opportunity to get out on the water after weeks without windsurfing, and the first time to finally try out my new sails!

Also, it had been more than three years since I had last seen Dave and his family so I was really excited to attend.

The Kashy FW Festival is by far the most fun windsurfing regatta. Dave & Melissa were hosting the event from their own home, the rigging area is their backyard and the racing area is just in front of their house. How good can it get? Well, what about snacks, lunches and dinner provided, and to top it off a massage between the races? Yes that’s right!

The conditions for racing were perfect too with a steady 15 to 20 knots on Saturday and a lighter 10 to 15 knots on Sunday allowing for seven races in total, five on Saturday and two more on Sunday. The FW fleet saw racers from all over the East Coast, from New York State all the way down to Florida, and included pro racer Jesper Vesterstrom DEN-111 from Denmark shaping up for the upcoming FW Worlds in Puerto Rico. Jesper showed some superior speed on the course easily taking all bullets, except for the first race (where Ludovico from Florida outsmarted us by sailing the right course!). I came close to a bullet too in the last race on Sunday but in the end Jesper put the hammer down on the last downwind tack to the bottom mark taking his sixth straight bullet of the regatta. Second place overall was still up for grabs until that last race, but Dave made the right call by going to the right side of the course in the second lap, got lifted to the weather mark and held on to second in that race and in the overall ranking. Some close and exciting racing!

I used my TR7xt 11.0 for all races, from over 20 knots on Saturday (during training on Friday afternoon the wind was gusting up to 26 knots at one point) down to less than 10 knots in the last race. The sail performed really well in that whole range of conditions, feeling very light and soft, responsive, and with great speed and acceleration. Looking forward to the next race!

Chris BEL-29

Full results and pictures on kashyfins.com