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.
Thanks to Dave W, Neil and Steve for running the racing and Dave for taking a few photos and working out the results.
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.
11 skippers showed up for what looked to be a lively morning of racing under blue skies in a blustery E/ESE breeze. After a bit of a lakeside tidy up and mark repositioning, the fleet got away broadly on time, all sporting A+ rigs after a trial sail which suggested A rig would be under powered…how wrong that proved to be!
In the first two races on our typical windward/leeward course Peter Baldwin demonstrated his skill and experience leading from start to finish in the challenging conditions. Those behind struggled a little more with the gusty breeze. Paul Plested bagged a 2nd as did Charles Legg who kept his calm in race two, crossing the line ahead of Mike De St Paer in third, who also scored 3rd in race one. David White picked up a very creditable 5th in race one, and Richard Walker bagged a 4th.
By race three it was clear that the wind was too much for the A+ rig with plenty of nosediving and broaching downwind with places quickly changing. Paul Plested managed to get to the leeward gate first, which he held on to the finish. Mike was 2nd followed by Peter. Richard picked up another 4th and Dave Williams grabbed a 5th spot.
Guy Cowper had an excellent sail with his A rig scoring a pair of 2nds and 3rds, which gave him 3rd overall on the day. Mike struggled to get his A boat tuned correctly for two races, otherwise he would have been pushing for 3rd if not 2nd on the day. Conversely Andrew Potter, who had struggled with his A+ rig due to technical issues with his boat, did have some better racing with the A.
Overall an enjoyable if somewhat challenging morning of racing, watched over by Neil Westbrook and Malcolm Harvey who kindly acted as PRO and photographer this week.
It was a glorious sunny afternoon and the conditions made for some good sailing. The breeze was light at times but in the main steady, with occasional strong puffs blowing down the lake from the club house end in an east south easterly to easterly direction. There were plenty of shifts and headers to be had with all sailors benefiting and losing.
Overall, an enjoyable afternoons racing, the 95’s seem to handle the shifty/gusty conditions much better than the 65’s, or were we just getting more used to it? A few stock photos this week I’m afraid as we were all too busy keeping in control to take photos.
A SW breeze today pointed to a tricky day at Gautby Rd, and so it proved. Despite a forecast for quite some wind there wasn’t much to show initially, however the pressure slowly built during the morning until some of the gusts were right at the top of A+. Mixed in with this were 180deg shifts, flat patches and holes and a very erratic breeze.
Another good turnout of 10 skippers, although John Brierly had to get away to work after only one race – which he won! – leaving the rest to fight it out on the usual course format starting at the clubhouse end.
The line looked heavily port end biased with the port end just on the edge of the windward bank wind shadow and it seemed to be best to start somewhere in the middle third of the line. There were exceptions to this of course, and good starts were made from all points on the line but conditions were so shifty that this varied from race to race.
The beat was very nearly a port tack fetch, with big left lifts in the gusts and also some completely flat patches and then a very tricky area at the top mark and the spreader where it proved necessary to put in a tack to make the spreader in some races.
After all this the racing was extremely close so even when the leader, or a leading group, was able to make a break this was likely to be neutralised on the run or the beat back to the line.
Afer John B had to leave the wins were shared between Mike, James and Clive, with Mike just emerging the winner from James and Clive with these first three covered by three points as shown below. Racing remained very keen throughout the fleet with almost everyone counting both some good scores and having to count some poor ones as shown below in detail.
7 skippers took to the water, which considering 4 regulars were missing for one reason or another was a good turnout. As is almost the norm for the social racing, the starts were self monitored and the first to finish recorded the results. A standard course was set utilising the full length of the lake with single laps to keep the races flowing.
The racing was generally quite close, with 6 of the 7 skippers taking a podium positions and 4 posting bullets. Clive was the pick of the bunch posting 6 wins, and it was great to see the return of Neil after a few weeks posting a couple of wins and sailed as consistently as anyone notching up a good set of results. Consistency was the key to the day and taking the opportunities when you had the chance and Richard Walker was doing just this with all his results in the top 3, before he had to leave early after 5 races. Stuart took the overall win in the Mearns family although Andy had his fair share of wins over his brother, but the consistency let him down. Further down the fleet Malcolm and Steve were having there own private battle with Malcolm also posting a very impressive2nd in race 8. After 11 races with a softening wind we decided to call it a day.
Overall, an enjoyable afternoons racing, the 95s seem to handle the shifty conditions much better than the 65s, or were we just getting more used to it.
