It was a glorious sunny morning and the conditions made for some good sailing. The wind was blowing down the lake towards the club house in an West/NorthWast direction. The wind strength was estimated to be 6 – 8 knots. It did go light at times coupled with occasional strong puffs. There were plenty of shifts and headers to be had with all sailors benefiting and losing.
We had a good turn out of 8 skippers. A standard course was set utilising the full length of the lake with two laps being used in keeping with Saturday racing.
The first race commenced promptly at 10:15am under the stewardship of Dave Williams and Neil Westbrook (thank you very much Dave and Neil). Skippers all had the “A” rig on which was perfect for the conditions.
The first race proved to be very competitive with a number of skippers getting into the groove with boat setup. Peter and Clive led the way whilst other skippers trading places playing the headers and lifts.
The racing continued in the same vein, Peter, Clive, John and Stuart maintaining their good start to the morning’s racing, other skippers still searching for the right race setup.
Andrew Mearns sailing 04 received some helpful tips from Peter and immediately saw an improvement in the boat’s performance. Other skippers were hit by the snowball knot – namely Stuart who had to retire to the club house to make repairs, meanwhile the racing on the water carried on with several skippers exchanging places. Martin in 77 was also suffering from what appeared to be a non-centred rudder which did not help on the long beats from one end of the course to the other.
Some boats seemed very attracted to the buoys with some skippers even hitting them twice just for good measure. Overall the racing did remain quite competitive as helms picked the shifts heading up to the top mark, sometimes inshore paid and other times offshore paid. You paid your money and took your chance.
In the main it turned out to be a very enjoyable morning’s sailing with Peter taking overall 1st, Clive 2nd and John 3rd – well done, some very consistent sailing from all three helms. Andy Mearns picked up a good 4th overall after a slow start.
Once again a big thanks to Dave and Neil for being the RO’s for the day and Dave for the usual photos.
Following on from the DF95’s in the morning, the IOM’s in the afternoon had very similar conditions, although the breeze was a little more right at times and the sun wasn’t as strong, making it feel cooler.
The four stalwarts started on the same course as the morning under the ever watchful eyes of Dave Williams and Neil Westbrook.
We then took an early break for Clive to repair his boat and restarted on Race 6, in which Peter once again took the win, but Alan picked up the second having done a few rigging tweaks during the break. After also winning Race 7. Peter decided to handicap himself by starting at the gate 10m back from the start line. Combined with a number of tactical errors around the course, it proved to be a major handicap and by the finish he was still 20-30m back. However, it did allow Guy to get his first win and after discussion we reverted to starting together and we became setup for an excellent second half, with great close racing and after Alan took a well deserved win in Race 9, Guy had two further wins before Peter took the last race.
Although the wind had been a relatively steady 5 to 8 knots for most of the afternoon, for the last few races we started to see much bigger shifts and holes and it was difficult to judge where the wind might come from next. We certainly had some beats where we might track down the lake on port and next time we would be going in the same direction on Starboard.
As can be seen from the results below, Peter easily took the afternoon, with Guy sailing well and fast for second and Clive third. Thanks to Dave and Neil for acting as RO and Dave for the photos.
A small group of 6 sailors had a surprisingly good morning of sailing while those carrying out domestic chores, on holiday, still in bed etc etc missed out on some un-forecasted great conditions. I say un-forecasted because the forecast suggested a south westerly breeze which should be straight across the lake ….. and therefore pretty horrible. In reality it was more north westerly and straight down the lake towards the clubhouse, albeit with the usual Gautby Rd shifts, puffs and lulls which ensured that nobody could ever relax when at the front.
A+ rigs were selected which initially seemed a bit optimistic but proved to be correct with only a couple of puffs overpowering the unlucky ones downwind, who happened to be in the way.
The usual course was sailed, with no preferred way up the first beat apart from working the shifts and avoiding the lulls which became more prevalent towards the windward mark. Downwind was pretty straightforward while the leeward gate choice favoured the port rounding to the finish.
Alan came out top with 3 wins closely followed by Clive who also had 3 wins and was never out of the top 3, but obviously bettered by Alan who had more seconds. Dave beat Stuart for 3rd, on countback with 2 wins. Andrew was garbage suffering from some home boat tuning during the week that clearly didn’t work, getting caught in irons in the puffs too many times and a couple of unlucky races with a bag in the water and a wipeout downwind into the leeward mark while leading. Thanks to Dave for managing to take a few photos whilst trying to keep a straight course and also for putting the results together.
Six skippers got rigged for an afternoon of sun and sailing. Unfortunately the wind had eased from the morning DF65 session but the direction was similar with the wind swinging between North and West. A rig was the only choice. The same standard course was set as used in the morning. We were fortunate that Neil Westbrook popped down and volunteered to be our RO for the afternoon, and flexed his muscles on a couple of occasions to keep us in check.
It was great to see John Carlin on the water for the first time in quite a while and he didn’t hang around in race 1, showing that he hadn’t lost any of his touch by taking the win. Competition throughout the fleet was strong and 5 of the 6 helms had at least 1 race win, and this was demonstrated in the first 4 races with 4 different winners, John, Alan, Clive and Stuart. Only Steve missed out but did manage a third in race 3 before having to retire with rigging failure in race 4.
Clive then got into race mode and posted 2 firsts in races 5 and 6, before Andy found good boat speed to win race 7, meanwhile John continued his consistency posting 3 seconds whilst Alan picked up 2 thirds.
Sunny, T-shirt weather provided a good but tricky afternoon sailing. With the skill / luck, depending on your view, in picking the correct wind shift to tack on and which to leave could cost you dearly.
A decent entry of 11 boats for today, but in the end only nine competed. Neil couldn’t solve his electrical problems and both Martin W-J and Steve M opted not to sail on what was a very marginal B rig and mostly C rig day and they were lacking the right rig’s. At least we had Bill C to swell the numbers by an extra one. Dave W decided not to sail and run the racing instead, now with help from Neil and Steve M. This allowed Andy Mearns to sail by borrowing Dave’s C rig.
We do not get many days like this at Birkenhead with the wind nearly straight down the lake although as normal a few shifts (including false one’s) to test the sailors and allow for gains and losses around the course. The gusts were short lived and hardly ever over powered the C rig, but the B rig’s did suffer especially early on in the session. At least the sun was out for the first half which helped keep the sailors warm enough without jackets.
Peter set out his stall for the afternoon by winning races 1 and 2, although was a close run thing with Clive, Bill and Duncan hard on his heels. Bill then took Race 3 from John P who gamely raced with his B rig and after a few tweaks by Peter was going a lot better to lead round the first mark and pick up second. Peter then took races 4 and 5 with Clive close behind in both with a third each for John P and Bill. In the final race before the break, Clive got well away after a cracking start and neither Peter nor Bill could catch him for a deserved win.
For the second half, the wind had eased very slightly, but not enough to allow the B rigs to dominate, although those in C rigs were frustrated when the wind died away on the run and the B rigs powered through. Fortunately (for those in C rig), the gusts came back and the B rigs suffered upwind with John Pritchard picking up some decent results, but not enough to catch Bill overall. Peter continued on winning form with four of the six races in the afternoon, although Clive did take two wins and a couple of seconds.
As for the rest of the fleet, Duncan was having a problem with consistency and then had to pull out two races from the end with a broken mainsheet having picked up a number of third places. Andy and Stuart M continued with the sibling rivalry, with Andy (and his borrowed rig) edging out brother Stuart to beat him on countback. Dave Worron managed a second in Race 8, but struggled to get the best out of his B rig even after a few adjustments by Peter to help him on his way. Bill seemed to be a target for hook-ups, with a long hug of the windward mark and two incidents in the pre-start with boats trying to inadvertently take him out. Dave W fortunately stopped the clock both time and once untangled, racing continued with no damage caused.
A great afternoon’s racing in C rig which we only use occasionally at Birkenhead. Good practice for those windier days at more open waters. Peter took the day, with Clive in second and Bill in third. John Pritchard in a B rig ended up a creditable fourth, hopefully picking up a few setup tips along the way. Dave Worron captured this Race 2 start giving an idea of conditions.
A disappointing 3 skippers showed up for the start of the 65 racing, probably put off by a couple of clumps of weed last week spoiling the racing, however the away day skippers missed a treat of a day. With a top end A+ wind blowing more or less straight down the lake from the far end (non clubhouse end) and NO sign of floating weed. The standard course was set utilising the full length of the lake and self monitoring starts were used.
To add a bit of a difference to the day we decided that the first and third place at the finish of each race would swap boats. So, how much is down to boat set up and how much down to the skipper?
To save getting a soaking in 2 heavy showers and as we were under no pressure to get races in 2 rain breaks were taken of approx 5 minutes each. In the end only 7 races were sailed but it was fun as well as interesting with the swapping of boats and surprisingly close.
The racing today was completed with just 4 boats taking part. The wind was blowing straight down the lake towards the clubhouse and top end of A rig which helped to provide some close racing throughout the 13 races completed.
All the boats gained podium finishes, Clive sailing 93 won 6 races, Steve (637) won 3 races with Stuart (805) and Andy (04) having 2 wins each. With the sun shining it was a very enjoyable afternoon.
Special mention goes to Clive who tweaked Steve’s boat so well that for a few races no one could get near him! Clive, also in very generous fashion handicapped himself in a number of races so that we could all enjoy some close racing. By the time we had completed 13 races, adding up the scores makes for some interesting reading.
