Everyone was greeted by a bitterly cold wind on Sunday morning of 18-23 mph. Once registered people made there way out onto the vast expanse of sand that is the Hoylake sand bank. The course started with a short upwind leg to the 1 st mark then it was a broad reach with people regularly hitting mid 40mph. Then it was onto the tough upwind leg, which lasted 2 miles, once past the upwind mark it a tight reach to the furthest mark. Once round the mark it was a short downwind run to the next mark, it was then onto a fast reach then it was onto the starting upwind leg and through the start/finish gate.

The beach was pretty flat, the weather was ok, a few clouds about but nothing majory. The sand was reasonably firm, however there were quite a few soft patches which had to be avoided on anything other than bigfoots.

Most went out on 4.5m kites but just before the start the wind picked up so most people chaned down to 3m kites. This wind held out for about ¾ of the race then it later dropped off with many people changing to 4.5m kites. The race was won by Graham Steel the current national champion with Pete Swann in second. A thanks has to go out to Johnny and all the people who helped score the races on Saturday and Sunday, and thanks to Andy Smith who designed the courses.

Report by Paul aka King Of The Sky

More photos availible Here