Birkenhead RS&PC

Well that was a different day, there was a whole 40 mph less breeze today which made the racing almost like…well…racing! A big fleet of thirty boats gathered on the start and raced as a well behaved single fleet which made your start absolutely crucial and made or messed your race before you got up the first beat.

Things started as they finished yesterday with Tushy taking the first two races before getting  mauled up the first beat in the third race which gave him his worst result of the day with an 18th. Race three also saw Yukio take his maiden win with the DF95, a stylish win for sure.

Tushy took race 4, 6 and 8, Pete Baldwin race 5, 7 and 10 . Mike Weston, sailing for a change took race 9 to his great delight! Tushy took 11 with Derek winning his only race with race 12, after that it was Tush all the way apart from 15 where he had issues!

As you’d imagine there were a good number of incidents throughout the day and turns were duly completed by the offenders which made the sailing good spirited throughout the fleet. As the day went on the weather got better and better with most people peeling off layers of clothing throughout the day.

Tushy of course won the day, 20 points ahead of a consistent Peter Baldwin with Derek in third spot three points back on 49. Buzz finished fourth with Tim Long in fifth spot after a testing mid morning session. Commodore John Brierley rounded out the top six.

Report courtesy Tim Long from the DFRacing website Results page

Full Results below, click on the image to expand.

Overnight saw N. Wales battered by 80 mph gusts which made the drive up to the Wirral pretty interesting to saw the least and on arrival at the club there was certainly some breeze with waves breaking over the clubhouse end of the pond.

So, C rig equipped we took to the water after a quick briefing from Mr Martin Roberts, our PRO for the day. Seeding races were held with club commodore John Brierley and Wayne Stobbs taking the wins. It was soon decided that we could probably rattle some races off better if we sailed as a single fleet which was how the day went from race two onwards. Liz Tushingham beat Wayne to the win in that race with John Tush in third.

John took the next two with John B taking the second spots and Buzz and Yukio taking the third spots. Race 5 saw local skipper Andrew Peter take the win from Liz and Jim La Roche.

It seemed that the trick was to get a good first beat, get round the top mark in good order and then try as hard as you could not to fall over down the run….this sounds super easy but trust me it wasn’t, even the pointy end skippers were having to concentrate a little bit today!

Race 6 was John T, John B and Buzzzzz, with John T taking 7 and 8 as well. 9 was John B with Tim Long second and Mick C third. ten to 16 were pretty much a clean sweep fro John T with Derek and Liz stealing a win apiece from him.

At the final reckoning it was John T taking a convincing win from John B by 21 points with Buzz a further 25 adrift of JB.  A mere 4 points separated third to sixth, with Liz in fourth, Wayne in fifth and Derek in sixth spot.

Report courtesy of Tim Long.  Click on the results image to enlarge

There was a select band of only 5 sailors today.  Dave Williams had electrical problems and after some time spent with others helping to try and solve the problem, he opted to run racing for the morning.  This offer was gratefully received by the assembled few.  A+ rigs were used by all and with some rare exceptions in the stronger gusts, everyone coped well.  The breeze was generally straight down from the clubhouse, but as usual had some large shifts and holes that could easily catch you out.  Andrew Peter won having managed the conditions well and took 6 wins from the 10 races ending the day 10 points clear of second place.

1. 1.    Andrew Peter                      10 pts
   2.    Peter Baldwin                     20 pts
   3.    Neil Westbrook                   22 pts
   4.    Alan Watkinson                  23 pts
   5.    Richard Walker                   27 pts

10 races sailed

A total of seven helms turned out for this weeks DF65 racing on Wednesday morning.  A light breeze straight down the lake from the clubhouse allowed RO Dave Williams to set a good length course using nearly the whole length of the lake, giving overtaking opportunities for those that spotted the shifts.  A mix of both one and two lap races were sailed with a few course changes just to mix things up.  Winning the start line was, as usual, the recipe for success as whoever arrived first at the windward mark normally went on to win the race, even with two laps.  After nine races and two discards the final results were:

1. Peter Baldwin                11 pts
2. Neil Westbrook             18 pts
3. Andrew Peter                20 pts
4. Alan Watkinson            24 pts
5. Colin Deakin                  42 pts     1x3rd
6. Derek Matthews           42 pts     0x3rd
7. Bob Davies                      45 pts

Many thanks to Dave Williams for giving up his racing and running an excellent mornings racing.