With a steady North Westerly breeze, ‘A’ rigs were chosen, to give the maximum number of 18 sailors quite a challenging day’s sailing. The finishing positions varied significantly across the fleet (with wins liberally sprinkled around the top places). The 18 starters produced a busy starting line – position, timing and a clear start were critical in doing well. As ever, the wind shifts across almost the entire lake proved hard to read, even for experienced sailors, and also gave some difficulty on the top windward spreader marks.
Richard Walker did a great job as RO today, setting a full lake course (using mark positions from last Saturday) and reminding several sailors of their misdemeanours throughout the day . Ten races were completed by 1pm, but it actually felt like more, because of the fleet size. The DF65 racing fleet has grown, and the enthusiasm of new members is very encouraging for the future.
Results
- Mike De St Paer 35 22 Pts
- Peter Baldwin 63 23 Pts
- John Carlin 11 31 Pts
- Richard Robinson 01 32 Pts [ 1x 1st, 2 X 2nd ]
- Neil Westbrook 03 32 Pts [ 1 X 1st, 1 X 2nd ]
- Alan Watkinson 373 36 Pts
- Andrew Potter 194 46 Pts
- Andrew Peter 919 57 Pts
- Tre Joinville 19 58 Pts
- Charles Legg 21 78 Pts
- James Douglas 73 81 Pts
- Don Mackinnon 933 84 Pts
- Paul Little 45 91 Pts
- Malcolm Harvey 1019 95 Pts
- Stan Metcalf 46 96 Pts
- Dave Williams 233 100 Pts
- George Smith 18 133 Pts
- Paul Hounslow 82 137 Pts
After 10 races
After the heavy and persistent rain in the morning, it was easing up by the time rigging commenced for most sailors and then dry by the time racing started. Peter made some minor changes to the positions of buoys ready for the first race to start in a decent Top Suit breeze from the ESE, with significant shifts from E to SE accompanied by some decent gusts.
Bill Culshaw started the day with a good solid win in Race 1, before Martin Roberts took Race 2 and then Peter Baldwin Race 3. Martin won again in Race 4, Peter took Race 5 and Bill Race 6, giving an even split on wins going into an early break so that Martin could repair a broken shroud without delaying proceedings or anyone missing a race.
After the break, with shroud repaired and boat setup again, Martin took Races 7 and 8 before Peter gained wins in races 9 to 11. Bill unfortunately had transmitter problems for two races and so his challenge for the day ended by picking up two DNF’s. It was all to play for in the last race, which Martin won with a clear and unassailable lead. Peter got caught up with John Brierley on the final beat to the finish after John temporarily lost control whilst on port, leaving Bill to take second spot. This left Martin with the overall win and Peter in second one point behind, ruing the loss of second place. Bill still ended up third, able to discard his two DNF’s ahead of John who had a consistent afternoon, but with a win eluding him and just making the difference. A great afternoon sail with thanks to Bernie and Jack as usual with the sun putting in an appearance by 2pm just to top it all off.
Scoring footnote – it turns out that if the points had been tied, Peter and Martin could not have been separated on their counting races, so Martin would still have won overall by beating Peter in the last race.
