FELIXSTOWE NORTH - Suffolk

Flat Water: YES
Wind Chop: Some
Waves: YES
Beach: Shingle / Sand
Wind Direction : N-SW W

Car parking : YES (Free/20p)
Toilets : NO
Café : NO

Nearest Windsurf Shop : unknown

Wind information from Felixstowe Ferry Sailing Club
Tide information can be found here.

Felixstowe is located on the East Coast of Suffolk, approximately 9 miles SE of Ipswich. Approach on the A14, and at the SECOND roundabout go right, then left at the lights. Keep going until you find the Cliffland Car Park, just before the golf course. There is plenty of grass for rigging, although this means carrying your rig down some steep-ish steps. If you're not yet confident enough for this, there is some grass at the bottom of the steps that you can use instead.

There are three main sailing areas, but whether they are all useable depends on the tide:

(1) Firstly there is the small lagoon formed between the spit and the seafront. This is useable from mid to high tide, and is perfect for beginner/intermediate practise and excellent for forcing gybe practise as it's not very wide! The lagoon is shallow at the beach side, but deep next to the spit (you can sail right up to it until the nose hits it without catching your fin!).
(2) Secondly - but only at mid-tide - there is a large "ring" of shallow enclosed water on the seaward side of the spit. Again this is very safe for the intermediate, great for flat-water gybe practise, and also popular with the kiters.
(3) Thirdly there are nearly always breaking waves and nice ramps on the point of the spit, even if the surrounding water is pretty flat. Great for jumps and you can still gybe on the flat water on the inside, and blast out to sea afterwards.

For more aerial photos of the bar, see the gallery at www.debenentrance.com. (2006 pics are up there now).

Despite the safety of most of this location, there can be some pretty nasty currents caused by the nearby river mouth, so ask the locals for advice if in doubt. High-tide can get a bit tricky for launching and landing, as the water comes right up to the concrete steps, but if in doubt (or in trouble!) you can lauch or land from the safety of the lagoon, it just means a short walk back to the car-park.