Who is Simon Hinkley.

Born in 1966.

Married to an ever suffering speed sailing widow Ali.

I have two beautiful daughters Gemma and Daisy.

I work for the Furniture Factory making samples. The money isnt bad for Cornwall and the hours are flexible for sailing.

My first board was a Jeneau wind. Which kept me going for 2 years. I had to race in the Div 2 fleet with this as the measurements of the board wouldn't allow me to sail in the Div 1 fleet. This didn't stop me handing out a beating to other Div 2s when the wind was strong. My second long board was a home made Div 2 board called the Pink Pussy. I sailed with this at the youth nationals hit a floating log and partially sank as the daggerboard wasn't retractable. doh! I sailed at longboard events whenever I could get a lift, but my real love was speed.

My first short board was a 320 vmax which got me into short boards. I then progressed onto a Limited Edition Mike Todd 265. During the next 10 years I was sponsored by Limited edition, Tiga sailboards, Glassworks custom sailboards and Ken Black sails.

After discovering beer. I stopped sailing in the early 90s but decided to enter Weymouth speed week in 1995. I placed second fastest with a £50 slalom board and some sails Sean Cox found in his garage.. This gave me the fire to train hard and get back into speed sailing. Being the only speed sailor in wave sailing Mecca the fire was lost and I took up surfing for 4 years.
With the availability of affordable gps units and the creation of gps-speedsurfing. Speed sailing world wide has changed for all who want to compare themselves to other speed sailors. With help from Matthew Burridge at Demon Design sails. I have tried to go as fast as i can in all wind conditions and to beat the fastest windsurfers in the world. With the aid of the GPS units and GPS software. Tuning kit has become a lot easier, but still involves a lot of hard work. Training has mainly been in the 20 to 25 knot wind zone and I’m confident that my speeds are comparable to any windsurfer in the world. Now i have to get used to sailing in shit loads of wind now! :)

Bits and pieces

This link to a post on the late and greeat Starboard free forum. This fired Sean and Matthew up to put it lighly. This was to my advantage as the new C4 speed sails were then conceived and I'm still enjoying them in 2008. The new Starboard forum was never the same as the old one which is a shame. All the guy asked was about monofilm. :) Whos was yanks redneck? Even Finian posted!

News links

Weymouth 2004 Results

Weymouth 2005 Results

Weymouth 2006 Results

Weymouth 2007 Results

West Briton News article on Driven by wind

UKWA report on Weymouth 07

Report from the Camborne Packet

Report on Portland Harbour record