Name - Norman W Moore
Sail No - GBR 165
Age - 62
Started Windsurfing - 1977
Written By - Sandra Moore (Wife)

Norman's love of all things water-bound dates from day trips on the river Trent in Nottinghamshire aboard the family 12 ft dingy powered by a 5 hp Seagull outboard. In 1956 when he was 10 the family moved to Portreath in Cornwall and from there followed all manner of family craft that Norman had to have a go at. 'Miranda', the little dingy, a 20 ft jet boat and a 25 ft cruiser were all used to amuse him around the Cornish coast.

In the 60s and 70s snorkelling, water skiing then scuba diving followed and were his passions with assorted support boats being towed around the county. That was until he surfaced from a very cold dive one Sunday morning in February to see two Dart catamarans flying a hull and screaming across Carrick Roads off Falmouth. A few weeks later his dive buddy had a bad bend so diving was ditched and sailing was the next thing. A relief to me as at least I could see what he was up to!

A Topper, a Laser and then a Wayfarer (for the family?) were all used at Stithians Reservoir until he discovered Windsurfing!

Off we go again. A book and a single one hour lesson and Norman was a Windsurfer. Early boards included a Windglider, a Sailboard Vario and an Icarus II (the board that held the record at Weymouth Speed Week for a while). This was fine until he discovered racing and Demon Sails.

A large white thing called a Waveblade Sabre was purchased along with a 6.0 M (the largest you could have at the time) Demon Design race sail and Norman went Div 1 racing. The best I can recall at national level at that time was 8th place out of a fleet of 80 plus one notable result at the National Championships. He came back to the caravan crowing that he had posted a 3rd place and waited at the finish to watch the likes of Sean Cox and Julian Anderson come over the line. The bad news was he was called to the race office and found to be underweight for the Heavyweight Class and asked to retire.

Norman has used, and swears by Demon Design sails for over 20 years and will bore you for hours about how light and fast they are and how they are designed and made. His collection now stands at 9 Demon sails from a 10.5 monster to a 3.9 wave sail last used 10 years ago.

Many Raceboards and Formula boards have been purchased over the years including a carbon fibre Tiga Racing 370, a Mistral Equipe II, an F2 380 and now an AHD 380 (cost £40). Even an old Div II Davidson was used for a season. I have noticed from the state of our garage that Norman is very good at buying boards but not very good at selling them although we are currently down to 6.

Fortunately Norman realised quite early on, after racing against some really good sailors, that he was not going to be the next Robby Naish, but his lack of natural talent and advancing years have not stopped him trying! The oldest trophy I can find in his office is 1985. Things went quiet during the period when we moved to Bath until Geoff very foolishly gave him a trophy in 2000.

1st Senior 1985 Haven Holidays Cup
1st Guest & 2nd Overall 1990 Navy Championships
55th Overall 1990 Hayling Island Marathon
(went up the wrong creek!)
1st Open Fleet 2000 South West Region
1st Open Fleet 2001 South West Region
1st Open Fleet 2002 South West Region
1st Open Fleet 2003 South West Region
1st Open Fleet 2004 South West Region
1st Open Fleet 2005 South West Region
1st Veteran 2006 South West Region
1st Open Fleet 2007 South West Region

In addition to sailing Norman is bit of an amateur inventor and has created various mad windsurfing creations including a catamaran, a hydrofoil and a hydroplane. None of which worked but that does not appear to put him off. Still it keeps him quiet in the garage in the winter until the next season starts.

We asked about his ambitions he tells me. "To keep having fun, to do my best and to learn new skills faster than forgetting the old ones"