Birkenhead Radio Sailing & Power Club
I have now put up the Calendar for the Winter and added events through until the end of March. Only 12 events will show in the “Upcoming Events” list at any one time.
The events include the upcoming DF65 TT on the weekend of 21st & 22nd October and the Strebor IOM Open to be held on Saturday 16th December. This will be Round 2 of the Northern District IOM Winter Series, following on from Round 1 at Askern on the 4th November .
Peter Baldwin
Sailing Sec
Incessant rain, with very light winds greeted the 11 keen sailors.
Sally decided to take her turn at RO for which all were grateful. A+ was the only choice of rig, the course the same as the previous week so racing started with eagle eyed Sally calling a general recall on the first race, with a reminder that the start is on the bell not ‘one’. Several individual recalls occurred during the morning. The conditions suited John C. who took five wins but he did not have it his own way with Andrew and Alan on his stern.
Our new ex dinghy sailing members, Jon and Tony, were having their own battle with Tony finishing on top due to more 2nd places. After 10 races and the wind easing it was decided to call it a day. Many thanks to Sally for her RO duties.
An un-seasonally warm and bright day greeted the 10 skippers who attended for the fourth round of the DF-95 Summer Series at Gautby Road. The wind(?) was very light and coming from the west over the houses giving conditions that were more suited to “a glass of Pimms on the terrace” than sailing, but our skippers decided to go for it with “A” rigs.
From the onset the conditions were very challenging with the almost none existent wind swirling, gusting(?) then dropping and full of holes but all the boats made the best of them that they could.
Given that the wind could gust and be gone faster than you could say the words there were few recalls at the starts which was at the Clubhouse end of the lake with the course going up to the top end of the lake and back over two laps with a finish half way up the lake.
John Brierley made the most of the conditions seeming to catch a wind that was not available to the boats alongside and often being half a lap ahead of the trailing fleet which gave him 5 wins and 2 seconds. Although John was a convincing winner on the day he did not have it all his own way with Alan Watkinson (1), Clive Warren (2) and John Carlin (1) winning races.
A break was welcomed by all the skippers after 5 races after which racing continued for a further 4 races before everyone agreed that conditions were just too flat to continue.
Paul Little came along to watch the racing and offered to be RO for the day which was greatly appreciated by all the skippers.
A large turnout of 17 (technically 18 – see later) sailors today, who were greeted by the merest ripple on a glassy lake, even though the forecast suggested there could be as much as 15mph. Reports from West Kirby were of 10-15mph, so there was hope. Unfortunately, our biggest problem that the wind was SW again and so would come from anywhere in the range W to SE and so it proved. Peter donned the waders and set out a proposed course using the South Bank and suggested a Starboard rounding so that we didn’t end up tacking to the spreader. Sailor No 18 was Dave Williams who very kindly offered to be RO with the large turnout.
The first race was a long one with very light and shifty winds, with Mike De St Paer coming out on top. At least the long race gave Peter time to sort Dave H’s A+ rig out and compete from Race 2 onwards. Race 2 went to James Douglas, with Peter putting his boat on the water with 10 seconds to go, but unfortunately little wind to get to the start line. Peter then managed 5 wins in the remaining races, although it wasn’t all plain sailing with John Carlin putting together a consistent set of results with one win and Richard Walker taking the remaining win, whilst worrying that his batteries were going to run out before the finish, but fortunately they held up. James Douglas, Tony Sedgewick, Andrew Potter Clive Warren and Jon Whitehead all had a number of good results in the 9 races completed.
Peter took the morning helped by the 5 wins with consistent John Carlin second, only a couple of points behind, then James Douglas rounding out the podium. Very many thanks go to Dave for both running the morning and scoring the results, ably assisted by Neil later on who helped with calling the finish, which was very close at times.
A great response to Peters email’s and phone calls in the week meant that we had 10 skippers sailing today.
After Peter had tweaked the course we started racing, a few general and individual recalls were called by our starter, Dave Williams, who also finished us. 5 races before a tea break with Graham sailing his BritPOP! winning races 3, 4 and 5, Martin sailing his Chimera took race 1 and Alan sailing his BritPOP! took race 2. A short break saw the heavens open and 10 unwilling skippers not wanting to venture out but there was still racing to be finished so off we trudged. The next 5 races saw wins for Martin in races 6 and 10, Graham taking race 9, Alan taking race 7 and Peter taking race 8. John Carlin also joined us after having radio problems for the first 5 races of the day and managed a very creditable 3rd in the final race of the day.
Many thanks to Dave Williams for today, standing out in the pouring rain. Sailing wasn’t much fun, so to stand outside and not sail is something else.We all wish Martin the best of luck at the upcoming European Championships in Torrevieja, Spain. If you wish to follow his progress along with the other GBR skippers, the official website is;
https://2023iomeuropeans.rcnt.com/en/default/races/race
A report for the event has been published here and has also been published on Yachts and Yachting.
