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Author: Peter Baldwin

DF65 Social racing 2023 – 13/9/23

With a nice warm day but very little wind from the Clubhouse end, eight sailors arrived ready to compete. Whilst Clive and Paul did a litter pick Dave returned the pristine clean finish mark to its normal position.(thanks Andrew).

Sailing got under way on the usual course with Clive showing his intent for the day. With low numbers the first over the finish line scored. Start line discipline was very good resulting in only one general recall. Clive had writers cramp with his five wins, Alan two and Dave W the other one.

Paul finally sorted his tuning and had close battles with Clive and Alan. The highlight of the morning was new sailor Dave H taking a fourth place on the final race.

  1. Clive Warren            7pts 5 wins
  2. Alan Watkinson    17pts 2 wins
  3. Paul Little                17pts
  4. Richard Walker     19pts
  5. Dave Williams       21pts 1 win
  6. John Beech              32pts 1 x 3rd
  7. Malcolm Harvey  32pts
  8. Dave Howard         42pts

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 6/9/23

A light breeze generally from the club house end of the lake greeted the 6 sailors, down on our normal numbers, 2 working clubhouse restoration, holidays and DF95 nationals accounting for others but this still a competitive fleet.

A lake inspection and algae free trial sail meant racing got underway about 15 mins late. A full size course was set with the start line at the far end of the lake, to a windward and spreader mark before a run down to a gate at the far end. The wind had freshened slightly but there were shifts and holes to test all competitors. With only 6 in the fleet it was agreed that first across the line would record the results.

In the first race, the fleet split very quickly into 2 groups with Clive and Mike leading the way with the remainder battling it out for the minor placings. Mike taking the win, and Richard piping Dave for 3rd.

The second race followed a similar pattern with Mike and Clive doing battle at the front, and Dave and Richard having a tight dual for 3rd, Dave taking the honours this time.

The 3rd race saw Mike over the line a he took Clive out whilst returning, the 2 remained entangled for a while. Meanwhile Martin took full advantage and lead Dave for most of the race until Clive passed both on the final beat as the wind began to die. Martin holding on to 2nd place.

The 4th race was a test of patience for sailors as the wind continued to drop, meaning the holes got larger and the wind shifts even harder to pick. Once again Martin sailed a great race to lead virtually from start to finish with Clive 2nd and Mike 3rd.  At this stage it was agreed to call it as the wind dropped further and the lake was like a mill pond.

Final results after 4 races (one discard)

  1.    53        Clive Warren                                      4pts
  2.    35        Mike de St Paer                                 6pts
  3.    54        Martin Wittingham-Jones          8pts
  4.    33        Dave Williams                                  10pts
  5.    39        Richard Walker                               12pts
  6.    45        Paul Little                                          15pts

Vintage/Open Sailing Day – 26/8/23

A very enjoyable and successful Open Day, with an amazing variety of boats, many of which we managed to sail, some with radio control and others free sailing.

Apart from a single shower, the weather and wind was very fair, a westerly force 2 increasing to a steady 3-4 by late afternoon, giving great conditions for the free sailing boats.  Peter Schofield’s beautiful ‘twin’ 10 tonner Cutters looking and sailing magnificently.  Bill and David’s veteran R10 Raters and Andrew’s RA also made for an impressive sight on the water, and Peter’s A Class had more than one outing on the lake, and then a session in the measuring tank.

With such a variety of boats to view, rig, sail, discuss and measure, it made for a very hectic and extremely enjoyable days sailing.

A big thank you to Peter Schofield from the VMYG Vintage Group who travelled in convoy from Sawley with his extended family of 7, all of whom were required on duty to attend to his free sailing yachts. Graham Reeves grandchildren also added to the fun with two DF65’s on the water.

It was wonderful to see our lake being used for such a wide variety of sailing craft, especially the Free Sailing yachts, for which the lake was originally built.  Everyone who attended expressed their delight in such an enjoyable day, and some wanted to see more Open Days for ‘mixed fleet’ and maybe even ‘ handicap’ racing events. Let us not forget that BRSC lake and clubhouse do offer a great venue for freshwater Model Yacht Sailing
which few other venues can better.

The following boats were sailed during the day:

A Class – Peter Schofield – Free / Radio
A Class – Andrew Peter – Radio

10 Rater – Peter Schofield – Free sailing
10 Rater – Bill Culshaw – RC
10 Rater – Dave Williams – RC
10 Rater – Andrew Peter – display, for restoration

10 T Cutter – Peter Schofield – Free Sailing
10 T Cutter – Peter Schofield – Free Sailing

42” Sloop – One design – RC – Dave Williams
IOM Triple Crown – RC – Andrew Peter

24” Triang Tinplate Cutter – Free sailing – Peter Schofield & family
24” Keil Craft Clockwork Vintage Speedboat – Peter Schofield & fa mily – display only.

2x DF65 – RC – sailed by Graham Reeves & family

Peter Schofield took a number of photos during the day (some of them used above) and the full set are available on this following Flikr Album

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 30/8/23

This week there was a good A suit breeze down the lake for the 10 sailors that started the first race.  Unfortunately Andrew Potter had to drop out of the first race with winch failure and with other problems abandoned his sailing for the morning.  The remaining 9 sailed 9 races in a breeze that went from hardly moving the boats through to full bow down nose dives on the run with some big shifts that could catch the unwary out.  Peter moved the marks around to give a good windward leeward course whilst Dave found him a spare rig – thanks Dave!.  In his rush to leave home he only had the A+ rig attached to his boat.  Racing got underway soon after 11:00.  Peter and Mike slugged it out for the top spot with 3 firsts each and good performances from Sally, Richard and Alan all taking a first place.  Mike took first place partly due to Peter’s rudder servo going at the end of race 8 and then missing race 9.  Peter held onto second with Sally a creditable third only a few weeks into sailing again after a long lay-off.

  1. Mike de St  Paer                            9pts 3 firsts
  2. Peter Baldwin                               10pts 3 firsts
  3. Sally Collings                                16pts 1 first
  4. Richard Walker                            19pts 1 first
  5. Dave Williams                              22pts
  6. Alan Watkinson                           23pts 1 first
  7. John Beech                                     27pts
  8. Martin Whittington Jones      39pts
  9. Dave Howard                                48pts

9 races held, Andrew Potter dropped out of first race due to winch failure.

RG65 Summer 2023 #7 – 19/8/23

Unfortunately it was more of the same as the last RG65 Saturday racing with the wind predominantly from the SW,  so over the houses, round the houses etc etc.  A strong gusty 2 to 15 knots tested the sailors in choosing the right rig and most opted for a low aspect A conventional, unless you only had swing rigs that is.

Peter setup a course starting from the far side in more breeze and with an easier sighting of the start line to a mark and spreader just past halfway across and back to a gate.  It was mostly a beat or fetch to the first mark, although may start as a broad reach and end up as a beat with no real indication on which tack you would finally take into the mark.

Martin and John shared the wins in the first session of 6 races, until Johns’ winch broke loose from its mount and he had to retire for the day.  This left Martin to take the remaining wins, with Alan, Bill and Peter chasing hard and occasionally in front, but never quite keeping the win from Martin.

So Martin won the day comfortably on only 7 points from the 10 races, with Bill second on countback from Peter in third.  The countback went all the way to their result in the last race, so a very close day for this pair, with Alan almost causing a 3 way tie just one point behind them.

  1. Martin Roberts            133  Pocket Rocket   7pts
  2. Bill Culshaw                    21  Ivy                         25pts
  3. Peter Baldwin                63  Uno                       25pts
  4. Alan Watkinson            23  Uno                        26pts
  5. John Brierley                 84  Uno                        32pts
  6. Dave Williams               33  Uno                        47pts
  7. Charles Legg                 26  Uno                         61pts

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 16/8/23

A light wind from the top end of the lake greeted seven sailors when they arrived on Wednesday for the DF-65 Racing and it was agreed that an A+ sail was the choice for the morning.

However once racing began it became apparent that the breeze was alternating from light to nothing on a fairly frequent schedule and after 3 difficult races the skippers decided to abandon racing for the day.  Some however did remain to assist Andrew with lake clearing work.