Thanks for the quick responses! I'm still a young guy at 32, but once you've been windsurfing for a long time, winds below 14knts aren't much fun. I generally go kitesurfing when it's light or windsurfing in waves, especially in the winter or nearby hurricanes.

I've got a Garmin GPS and found in 11 - 14knts I'm getting 22-23mph on a broad reach using a 7.5m sail, I'm 155lbs. When the Tornado worlds were here maybe 10 years ago it was blowing up to 25knts and well off the wind the boards are faster by a fair bit, but watching them accelerate in the gusts was impressive, just so much raw power.

But I'm sure it's a case of the challenge of different sports as watching the guys maneuver 20' cats barely staying in control was impressive, plus scarey when they would bear down on you in the gusts!

I'm thinking of maybe trying to get over to watch an event on the East coast some time to see the A class boats in action. I know the local tornado sailor said they had thought of perhaps bringing in second hand A class cats to start with. I'm not sure letting a total novice onto a A2 or XJ is wise! Suppose sailing lasers and laser 2's back when I was 16 don't count for much!?

Thanks for the responses, I'll search through the archives to see older posts.

regards

Scott