- Martin Roberts 11pts Chimera
- Andrea Roberts 24pts Britpop
- Alan Bennett 25pts Britpop
- John Berry 35pts Lintel
- Neil Westbrook 46pts Widget
Author: Peter Baldwin
DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 31/5/23
Another good turnout for DF racing. The wind was N.Easterly ish, with the usual holes, lifts, and gusts and a coolish air temperature.
John Carlin won the first race and went on to dominate the day’s racing with a total of 6 wins and an excellent 11 point score after discards.
There was much close racing throughout the day, with a very port end biased line making for some interesting starts. These included starboard tack boats being tagged by those attempting port end flyers, and quite a bit of boat to boat contact with a couple of starts looking like a real melee.
John was followed by Clive, who had two wins and then Mike with one win and a certain amount of radio trouble, along with Neil, Alan and Charles who all suffered with some boat issues during the day.
Overall excellent racing with the overall fleet standard still improving.
Final Positions were:
- John Carlin 11 pts 6 wins
- Clive Warren 27 pts 2 wins
- Mike de St Paer 29 pts 1 win
- Neil Westbrook 31 pts 1 win
- Dave Williams 31 pts
- Richard Walker 43 pts
- Frans King 45 pts
- John Beech 48 pts
- Alan Watkinson 57 pts
- Charles Legg 63 pts
- Don Mackinnon 69 pts
- Martin Whittingham-Jones 79 pts
DF/RG65 Summers Series 2023 #3 – 27/5/23
A depleted turnout of only 6 sailors due to illness, Graham competing in France, Martin competing in Lincoln and some off on holidays. A really good sunny afternoon with a decent wind from the top end of the lake with quite a few shifts to gamble on.
A bad first race for Bill with his battery failing straight after the start enabled John to take his first win closely followed by Alan in second. The next three races were Bills’ with John and Dave fighting over second place. John managed another two wins but the rest of the day went Bills way with another six wins from a closely followed John.
Further down the fleet, Neil and Clive were having their own private battle with Neil eventually coming out on top.
- Bill Culshaw Ivy 11 pts 9wins
- John Brierley Uno 17 pts 3 wins
- Alan Watkinson Uno 29 pts
- Dave Williams Uno 41 pts
- Neil Westbrook Uno 45 pts
- Clive Warren Scuttle 48 pts
DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 24/5/23
An almost perfect sailing day, with a fresh NW breeze, with some substantial gusts to keep you ‘on your toes’, and make life on the water more interesting. The results show just how incredibly close the racing was, with wins shared by seven sailors across the fleet.The sun shone all morning, and we chased a brood of 8 baby ducklings with their mother up and down the lake. They quickly learned how to keep out of the way, after some very near misses on the first race.
John Carlin 11 35 Pts
Alan Watkinson 373 36 Pts
Clive Warren 53 51 Pts
James Douglas 73 52 Pts
Andrew Peter 919 53 Pts
Neil Westbrook 03 54 Pts
Mike De St Paer 35 65 Pts
Don Mckinnon 933 71 Pts
Richard Walker 39 76 Pts
Dave Williams 33 81 Pts
Charles Legg 21 91 Pts [ 1 X 4th ]
John Beech 80 91 Pts [ 1 X 5th ]
Frans King 95 113 Pts
Martin Wittingham-Jones 54 166 Pts [ Rtd ]
IOM Summer 2023 #1 (20/5/23)
A sunny start to the day with a very light breeze from the Clubhouse end. Racing commenced soon after 1.00pm with a guest from Kendal joining in with a boat he had just collected from Martin.
Another welcome club member Andrea joined us with her main objective to beat Martin. After two leisurely races the wind increased and swung 180 degrees, the new course seemed to suit everyone with very close racing and four different race winners. The only downside of the day was with the amount of debris floating down the lake with the wind change with some boats being affected more than others.
Thanks to Dave for running the racing and to Bernie manning the canteen providing welcome drinks. After 12 races the results were:
- Martin Roberts 17pts 6 wins
- Andrea Roberts 19pts 3 wins
- Alan Bennett 23pts 2 wins
- John Berry 34pts 1 win
- Alan Watkinson 42pts
DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 10/5/23
While heavy rain showers battered most of the Wirral, Bidston remained as dry as the proverbial bone which provided very pleasant sailing conditions in a 10-15kt SE breeze blowing for the most part straight down the lake towards the clubhouse. A rigs were nominated, which proved the correct choice for 95% of the time, with the other 5% being spent knocked over downwind in the gusts, with the usual potential deleterious effect on results. The standard course was used with a windward and spreader mark followed by a downwind gate (which provided overtaking or undertaking options) and then to the finish. Despite what seemed a relatively stable wind direction on the shore, big gains or losses could be made on the upwind legs just by being in the right part of lake for the puffs or on the right or wrong side of what was clearly a shiftier wind pattern on the water.
Alan’s boat didn’t fancy the conditions and pulled the old ‘poor connection’ trick which allowed him to kindly volunteer to RO for the whole session.
John won fairly convincingly, due to good upwind speed, several race wins and consistent results when not winning. Mike forgot to bring half his boat but was able to borrow a fancy yellow keel which allowed him to just sneak 2nd in front of James while Neil’s total lack of consistency relegated him to 4th
- John Carlin 14pts (4 wins)
- Mike St Paer 22pts (1 win)
- James Douglas 23pts (2 wins)
- Neil Westbrook 28pts (2 wins)
- Andrew Potter 32pts
- Clive Warren 39pts
- Dave Williams 42pts (1 win)
- John Beech 54pts
- Frans King 63pts
- Malcolm Harvey 73pts