DF65
North East wind at Gautby road to greet the excellent turnout of 14 DF65 sailors today. Initially the wind seemed very light, and A+ rigs were an obvious choice, but a succession of small fronts coming over – happily without any rain – also bought some punchy gusts and big shifts to add to the general disturbance caused by the trees. However, the wind stayed in, with enough force to cause the occasional nosedive later, and also some flat spots which caught nearly everyone out at some stage.
The usual course was used, with the windward and spreader mark in a very shifty area right up at the top in the corner opposite the clubhouse, and in fact the spreader was in the flat area under the trees meaning that getting clear on the run needed a touch of luck.
The line was surprisingly good, and good starts were made from just about anywhere during the morning’s racing. It initially looked better to start at the outer end either on port, or getting onto port a.s.a.p. and then trying to hold the port lifts as far as possible, but later it seemed to pay to keep over to the starboard side of the course perhaps in slightly cleaner air and more pressure.
Overall the racing was very close across the fleet, with much place changing and a few turns for various things. Mike, Clive, John and Paul all finished within six points, with other fleet positions also very close.
It was also a pleasure to welcome Phil, a Half Rater sailor from Wallasea YC who had come to take a look and tried both a 65 and 95 during the day.
Overall results as shown below with thanks as always to Dave for sorting them out.
- Mike de St Paer 16pts 4wins
- Clive Warren. 18pts. 2wins
- John Carlin 21pts
- Paul Plested 22pts. 3wins
- Neil Westbrook 33pts
- Don MacKinnon 36pts. 1win
- Frans King 49pts
- Simon Bates 53pts 1x2nd
- Dave Williams 53pts
- Sally Collings 58pts
- Richard Walker 59pts
- John Beech 81pts
- John Lee 89pts
- David White 92pts
DF95
7 skippers took to the water for the start of the afternoons entertainment, which was a good turnout considering regulars Paul Little and Alan Watkinson were otherwise indisposed. It was good to see John Carlin with 95 in hand after a long absence from the afternoon sailing.
The same course as the morning 65’s was used, The wind being mainly easterly, (partially from the industrial estate) with some Northerly and Southerly thrown in for good measure depending where you were on the lake. This provided plenty of opportunity for losing places or if you were lucky, gaining a few. The breeze was reasonably steady with a few strong gusts to keep us on our toes but the 95s with A Rigs handled them with ease.
Mike very sportingly offered to share his boat with a potential new member Phil, and also had to leave before racing finished so his overall finishing result was not a true reflection. As there were only 7 boats, the normal self monitored start and first over the finishing line recording the race results. Single lap races and 7 races sailed in total after which the wind dropped off and we decided to call it a day.
Racing was very competitive with 6 of the 7 skippers finishing either first or second in at least one race, considering we only sailed 7 races, it shows how competitive the afternoon was!! In the end it was Clive who was most consistent in the tricky conditions, notching up a consistent set of results including 3 wins. He was pushed hard by Paul with 2 wins and Frans who had his best afternoon for some time finishing with 1 win and 2 seconds
In summary – A tricky afternoon with the sun shining, but very enjoyable as ever. Competitive fleet with an array of helms filling the podium places in each race.
Final Results
- Clive Warren 10pts 3 wins
- Paul Plested 14pts 2 wins
- Frans King 16pts 1 win
- John Carlin 22pts
- Richard Walker 28pts
- John Beech 31pts
- Mike DSP / Phil 34pts 1 win
Peter donned the waders to tweak the course, moving the start line and gate to the near bank and we used the outer start line mark as the windward mark and we ready to start at 11:00 in some light rain and a light breeze from a generally Northerly direction with plenty of shifts back and forth such that keeping the boat moving was the key skill today.
Peter had a good lead in race one, but had misunderstood the course as set out by Dave, missed out the spreader and thus scored an NSC instead of a win. This gifted Paul Plested the win, although for a long while it looked very much like Alan’s race. Andrew Potter then aced races two and three, before Peter won four of the next 5 races, with Andrew picking up another win whilst Peter was RO. Although not picking up wins, there were good performances across the fleet with some very close finishes, with Paul P, Alan, Paul L, John and Dave all being well placed in at least one race.
The day was characterised by some very wierd wind conditions with boats occasionally seeing the wind going around in circles, before steadying again 5 seconds later to its original direction. The wind was also cruel to some leaders as the fleet caught up or even overtook them downwind. We had more than one race with 5 or 6 boats all trying to fit through the gate at the same time; no contacts were made but it was a close run thing.
Thanks go to Dave Williams and Paul Plested for the photos.
