Birkenhead Radio Sailing & Power Club
Just a reminder that this Saturday (24th October) sees the last of the Summer IOM Series take place at Gautby Road. Five skippers have already entered, but it would be good to see ten boats or more out once again, now that the water level is up and the quality has improved compared with even last week.
If you intend to come, please book your place via the event page here
An elite group of 5 sailors turned up at Gautby Rd today to be greeted by a full lake, no weed, no algae (the bottom of the lake was actually visible), no rain and no wind. Maybe it was the forecast of heavy showers and gale force winds arriving mid-morning that put most people off, but as it turned out we had a good sailing session which stayed dry until we finished and with a breeze that filled in as we launched. A+ rigs were obviously selected with the anticipation that we might need to change down if the predicted wind did arrive, but this didn’t happen and apart from the odd gust that flattened us, it was the right rig choice all morning
The usual course was sailed but with no windward spreader mark. The beat was certainly shifty and gusty and the run was full of holes … but that is pretty normal for Gautby Rd.
The racing was notable for 3 particular reasons:
I can confirm that the lake is now fully sailable so hopefully this encourages everybody back onto the water in the coming weeks. Thanks as usual to Dave Williams for taking the photos and creating the score sheet.
Our Sailing Secretary Paul Plested is currently competing in the DF95 Global Championships 2026 being held at Theeswater Reservoir in South Africa. Although currently Springtime, the weather is not very spring like other than early morning, where, for the last couple of days it has been sunny and bright to start with but without the essential wind. Today (Tuesday, Day 3), there was a long 60 minute delay to racing whilst the breeze settled and built. From only 3 knots at 10:20 it built to 18knots by the start of the first race at 11:20. Rig selection and setup has become critical as the average breeze goes up and down by 5+ knots and so changing by a whole rig or more in the gusts.
Paul is currently in Silver with a plan for the event to complete Races 11 and 12 today in the SHRS racing system with 4 heats. A lay Day is still planned for tomorrow, when there are forecasts of even stronger winds.
For the Heat Board and Results (click on the button above the Heat Board) go to:
DF95 Globals Heat Board and Results
The is live streaming on Youtube and you can subscribe with your Youtube login to get and email when the next days racing goes live:
Day 1 is here: Day 1 Review
Day 2 is here: Day 2 Stream
Day 3 is here: Live Stream Day 3
Craig Richards tops the leader board with John Tushingham second, then two further GBR boats in Paul Robson and Dave Adams currently in Gold.
After a good number of weeks (the last Saturday racing was for IOM’s on 11/7/26) due to low water levels followed by water quality issues, ten DF95 helms assembled to race again on a Saturday afternoon (there should have been 11 but someone got his timing wrong and arrived an hour early so went home again and didn’t return).
Unfortunately, the wind was having other ideas about providing any decent racing. A forecast of 6mph NNE was not in evidence as we arrived with a glassy lake covered in a green/brown “scum” which had not been present on Wednesday. Dave opted out of racing to act as RO, assisted by Neil who arrived during Race 1.
There was a light breeze at times, but insufficient to ever provide any ripples on the water. It also couldn’t really decide whether to blow from the clubhouse or the far end (and plenty of directions between them). Dave opted for a start at the far end for Race 1 with a single windward/leeward (sort of) and a finishing leg. Peter picked up a light breeze off the start and slowly pulled out a decent lead at the windward mark, keeping some breeze down the “run” and through to the finish. Clive ended up with his first of 5 second places to make him “Mr Consistency” for the day, with John Brierley rounding out the podium.
Race 2 resulted in the same podium places, before John had a run of three firsts. Dave did look at moving the start to the clubhouse end, but once there the breeze flicked back and so we returned to the original course and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. Race 3 was won by John with Peter second and John Carlin third. An early break for a drink then followed as the wind was taxing everyone by this stage and having had a slightly faster second race, the third taking longer than the first!
We restarted with conditions much the same, although perhaps there was more breeze from the West. However, it was never consistent and your boat could easily tack itself with no input from the helm, before promptly tacking back again. Fortunately we were not moving fast enough for any incidents to occur when this happened. Race 4 and another win for John, with Clive next followed by Peter. At this point, John Carlin and Andy joined Martin W-J in the clubhouse and retired for the day, leaving six boats to “battle it out” for the points. John took race 5 and the podium as per Race 4. The final race became very much a mentally taxing drifter and our longest race of the day. Peter narrowly won this one, although it could have been anybody’s race up until the last mark. Clive had another 2nd and John third.
Dave then asked those remaining if we wished to sail another two for the second discard, but there was little enthusiasm for two more drifters and so we called it a day. Half an hour later as we were leaving, a steady 5 or 6mph was blowing down the lake from the far end, but that’s sailing for you!
Thanks to Dave and Neil for acting as the Race Team and Dave for producing the results and taking a few photos during Race 1, so you can see what you had missed. With the lack of breeze, some bits of debris in the water and the floating scum, we felt vindicated that postponing the DF95 Open was the right thing to do. Hopefully, the weather gods will be kinder for the rescheduled event in November.
The recent problem with algae had totally gone with the bottom of the lake quite visible, however the same could unfortunately also be said for the wind. The very nice breeze from yesterday, blowing almost straight down the lake was replaced by a mainly southerly breeze blowing from the clubhouse. This led to some very tricky wind over the entire lake. Two boats, less than two meters apart, and one could have a nice breeze and the other could stay still, add to this the swirling nature of the wind, sail trim was all important to make the most of the wind with beats changing to runs and shifts of 90 degrees common place.
Eleven skippers turned up to participate but Alan Watkinson had a reaction to his Flu / Covid jabs so volunteered to do RO duties for the morning. This was very fortunate for our Commodore Dave, who having taken his sails home to help rig his new hull unfortunately them there, so he was able to borrow Alan’s A rig.
As the wind was particularly bad at the clubhouse end, Alan chose to use the ‘club end starting line’ as the windward mark and spreader, the gate was standard and the finish line in the normal position halfway up the lake. ‘A’ rigs were the order of the day.
Racing was particularly keen with 8 of the 10 skippers racing ,picking up at least a 3rd place or better. It was clear that no race was won until you had actually crossed the line with plenty of places changing hands right up to the finish line on the last beat. Alan kept us all in check and wasn’t holding back calling early starters back regularly. After 8 races, honours for the day went to John C, with 5 firsts, then Clive 2nd with 2 firsts and 3 seconds, but this could have been reversed if Clive hadn’t needed to retire in race 1 after crossing the finish line first, only to be told he missed rounding the spreader mark. Commodore Dave was 3rd with a win and 2 seconds.
In summary, It was good to get back to some half decent sailing with no algae and very little weed, shame about the wind, but at least it wasn’t raining, and the racing was competitive but friendly. Thanks to Alan for the photos this week and Dave for the results.
It has been decided that Club racing will therefore resume with DF95’s this week (17th October) followed by IOM’s next week (24th). Sign up for DF95’s using the Dragon WhatsApp group this week, then future Saturday racing via the normal Events list. Contact the Webmaster if you need to be added to the Dragon WhatsApp group.
Positives – Water level is absolutely fine with no grounding issues for DF65s and close to being full.
Weed – still bits of weed floating and sub-surface but not causing a major problem ….. you had to be unlucky to pick up any during racing. Thanks to all the personnel who have been netting and removing most of the weed. What weed is left is clearly dying off as the water temp drops and will hopefully sink to the bottom and rot away soon.
However, Although we didn’t experience our traditional summer algae bloom largely due to Clive’s efforts with the dye, but it has now returned with a vengeance. It’s certainly possible to sail in it, as everybody is pretty much affected equally, but it is still a nuisance as it collects onto the keel and rudder, slowing you down and making the boat harder to sail and manoeuvre. I think we are past peak algae and as with the weed, the colder weather should speed up its death and decline so we are hopeful that algal conditions will only improve from here on in.
Sailing conditions today: Difficult/Awful! …. possibly the worst i have experienced at Gautby Rd which is saying something when we all know what a “normal” bad can can be.
With a NW 15-22kts at Hilbre today, I was expecting a B rig day with wind straight down the lake. In reality it was A+ rigs with the wind from any direction usually all at the same time. I can’t comment too much on the actual racing as i suffered from a winch problem early on and then got frustrated with conditions and went home early. In the races I did complete, it was quite possible to go from first to last and back to first, all in the space of sailing 30m. Clive certainly seemed to ‘master’ the conditions better than most closely followed by Dave then Alan and James. For everybody else it was a total lottery unfortunately. Thanks as always to Dave for the results and photos.
To quote Tony Blair and New Labour In 1997 ‘Things can only get better” – and hopefully they will do soon.
