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Simon Cofield
31 yrs
Kitchen fitter
6ft 2
92kg
Previous racing experience: Gave up UK racing in 2002 after 9 yrs on the circuit.
Current level of sailing: No more than a dozen times in last two years due to new house/kids. You get the picture, windsurfing not a priority…until NOW! |
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| But what about lining up with Antoine, Bjorn & Finian at a full blown World Cup event - fancy your chances? Well we wanted to determine the odds so we sent local Weymouth sailor, Simon Cofield to the Fuerteventura World Cup event. We got him an entry into the speed & slalom, we provided him with the latest kit, and we also had him mentored by the top Pros throughout the week. And you know what? He did surprisingly well… |
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Slalom: PWA Slalom 42 means 4 sails and 2 boards per event. Sounds simple but choosing them isn’t, particularly in a place like Sotavento which should be windy in the summer time but does suffer from gusty conditions. So we asked top PWA racer Arnon Dagan for some advice.
After taking Arnon’s advice, this is what Simon opted for:
- F2 SX Small (230cm/58cm/89 litres)
- F2 SX Medium Slalom (235cm/69cm/103 litres)
- North Warp 9.0m/7.3m/6.3m/5.8m
Speed: Anything goes! The only choice is production or custom. Simon added an F2 Missile (225cm/48cm/63 litres) and a 5.2 North Warp to his quiver.
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Now he had the kit, it was time for Simon to seek out some professional advice on how to tune it up.
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Patrik Diethelm is the F2 board designer and a top speed & slalom competitor. Watch the video to see Patrik’s advice on how to get the very best out of your board. |
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Jimmy Diaz is the Chief Tester for North Sails and one of the world’s top slalom & formula racers. Jimmy explains in the video how to set your sails for maximum speed on a race & speed course. |
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The only way to really fine tune your kit is to get on the water with your partner. In this video, Gonzalo Costa Hoevel goes onto the water with Simon & reveals the secrets of how the Pros tune up. |
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30.5 & 38.5
15-25 knots, very gusty, very choppy.
5.8m/6.3m/7.3m & both slalom boards
Not a lot!
Starts & kit choice.
Be more organised with kit. |
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After struggling with starts in Day 1, Micah Buzainis was on hand to give Simon some advice.
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24.0 & 26.5
15-25 knots, gusty but less choppy
6.3m/7.3m & both slalom boards
Reached semi-final and beat Dunkerbeck in a race.
Thrown out of a race for dangerous sailing.
Fitness is a problem – getting an early night! |
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After a day of gybe mark disasters, Simon got hold of Steve Allen who talked him through proper gybing technique.
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Simon is in the middle! (Photo: Christian Tillmanns)
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22.0 & 26.5 & 17.0
15-20 knots, small chop
5.8m/7.3m & medium slalom board.
Rounded third to Micah & Antoine in first race, finished fifth. Qualified for the final in last race.
Gybes still letting me down + catapulted in one race!
Be more organised with kit. |
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After an inspiring first race Pieter Bijl was on hand to give Simon some tips on maintaining the lead
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26.5
13-18 knots, small chop
7.3m & Medium slalom board.
No disasters but nothing to write home about.
Gybing not up to scratch.
100% effort for last day. |
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Arnon Dagan gives Simon a few mark rounding tips after he was narrowly out-gybed by Taty Frans today.
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34.5
20-25 knots, choppy
6.3m & Medium Slalom board
Messed up the last 2 heats spectacularly!!
Really bad first start getting stuck in a lull and careless catapult in final!
Recover from a hangover! |
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Kevin Pritchard was also there to give Simon some advice on dealing with the Sotavento chop and improving his gybing.
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Simon is at the back, Antoine is at the front! PHOTO: Christian Tillmanns
This was the first speed event that Simon had ever done! But the first problem for him was that the PWA & the ISA didn’t check their schedules and ran slalom heats at the same time as the Silver speed fleet. Simon is a talented bloke, but even he couldn’t be in two places at the same time this meant he missed out on some of his runs – not a good start.
On the days that Simon competed, the speed course was very broad and covered in breaking waves. Any hope of getting a decent average time over the 500 metres relied on you keeping your speed through the huge lulls and avoiding the surf. Although Simon had a lot of fun, he felt he could have done an awful lot better as he never had a run fully powered all the way down the course. Of course getting a one off speed on your GPS is one thing, maintaining that speed over a 500m course is another, so 31.8 knots is not bad at all considering Finian Maynard won the event with a best average speed of 39.96 knots.
Ever wanted to know what it feels like to go down Sotavento speed course? Well hop on board and click play!
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Simon finished 27th out of a fleet of 42 slalom sailors. Two things let him down: his sailing fitness which led to stupid mistakes like falling in at gybes because he was so tired. Kit choice: He found himself underpowered on a 6.3 or overpowered on a 7.3. That meter difference was just too much and most of the top guys were using sails around 6.8 for a lot of the races.
So what does this experiment show? Simon did as good as any amateur sailor could hope to do at a World Cup event and for a guy who had barely sailed for two years, he showed moments of real potential. However what he lacked was sailing fitness, equipment choice & fine tuning. Something an amateur or real world sailor will never be able to compete against the ‘Pro’ sailing 24/7. |
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