Last weekend Birkenhead club members were competing at opposite ends of the country with the Marblehead ranking race in Poole and the DF TT series in Southport. The Poole event was the start of the qualifying for the World Championship in 2020 at West Kirby, and two members Bill Culshaw and Dave Potter made the long journey south. Bill had an excellent day finishing 6th including a race win and a 2nd and Dave’s new Starkers showed potential with a 2nd in one of the races. At Southport the DF club members of Alan Watkinson, Andrew Peters, Peter Baldwin and John Brierley arrived to find the lake frozen but after a delay of one hour the 35 competitors managed a good days sailing in A+ rig conditions. At the end of day one, John benefited from winning the last race to finish 3rd, with Peter in 7th and Alan and Andrew getting to grips with the A+ rigs as the day progressed.
IOM Winter Series Saturday 2nd February Postponed
The lake is frozen. Week 5 will now take place on Saturday 9th February. 1pm start.
IOM Winter Series 4
A welcome fleet of 15 boats for round 4 Of this years Birkenhead IOM winter series greeted our PRO Bernie McNulty under cold grey skies. A rigs were unanimously chosen with a light 3-8 knot SE wind blowing mostly straight down the course from the clubhouse end.
1st Brad Gibson 9pts
2nd Bill Culshaw 23pts
3rd John Brierley 30pts
4th Martin Roberts 31pts
5th Dave Potter 41ots
6th Lawrence Drennan 52pts
7th Neil Westbrook 59pts
8th Alan Watkinson 66pts
9th Andrew Peter 75pts
10th Gary Benson 84pts
11th Howard Garner 86pts
12th John Berry 94pts
13th Michael Benson 103pts
14th Phillip Davies 119pts
15th Millie Elliot 120pts
DragonForce Winter Series#3 16/1/19
On arrival in heavy rain, there appeared to be a good 8-10 knots with strong gusts coming generally down the lake and so everyone decided to opt for A Rig. By the time that the course was being set, the rain had stopped and taken a lot of the wind with it. All 8 sailors decided to stay with A Rig as the wind was likely to pick up again before racing finished. After a few heavy showers, the rain stopped and the wind increased a little, but came from numerous directions but mostly from a WSW direction. In the end 9 races were completed before everyone decided that a warm drink was required.
Some social racing was undertaken after lunch in a good 10 knots straight down the lake in nearly full sun with 5 boats taking part.
1st. Peter Baldwin 9pts
2nd. Neil Westbrook 12pts
3rd. John Brierley 15pts (gear failure for last two races)
4th Andrew Peter 20pts
5th Sally Collings 24pts (1x1st)
6th. Alan Watkinson 24pts (2x2nd)
5th. Dave Williams 24pts (1x2nd)
6th. Richard Walker 33pts
9 races sailed, 2 discards
Dragonforce Winter Series #2 09/01/19
After last weeks race (#1 of the Winter 2019 Series) was abandoned due to lack of wind, this weeks DF 65 race today was held in an extremely gentle wind which struggled to make its way down the top half of the lake. The sun made an appearance so a pleasant morning with 6 boats and 10 races completed.
1st. John Brierley. 8pts
2nd. Alan Watkinson. 20 pts
3rd. Andrew Peter. 21 pts
4th. Richard Walker. 30 pts
5th. Ernie Rice. 32 pts
6th. Dave Williams. 39 pts
IOM Winter Series 3
1st Graham Elliot 10pts
2nd Bill Culshaw 18pts
3rd Martin Roberts 19pts
4th John Brierley 31pts
5th Dave Potter 32pts
6th Lawrence Brennon 33pts (2nd place)
7th Peter Baldwin 33pts
8th Alan Watkinson 47pts
9th Neil Westbrook 51pts
After 9 races