Birkenhead RS&PC

DF65’s

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.

Race 1   –   Clive (53), Dave (233), Stuart (805)

Race 2   –   Clive (805), Stuart (53), Dave (233)

Race 3   –   Dave (805), Clive (233), Stuart (53)

Race 4   –   Dave (53), Clive (233), Stuart (805)

Race 5   –   Dave (805), Clive (233), Stuart (53)

Race 6   –   Clive (233), Dave (53), Stuart (805)

Race 7   –   Clive (53), Stuart (805), Dave (233)

When these are analysed we get

1. Clive Warren winning with 6 pts (4 wins)
2. Dave Williams  second 7pts (3 wins)
3. Stuart Mearns third 13pts

And, best boat(s)

1. 53     7pts – 3 wins
2. 805  8pts – 3 wins
3. 233   9pts – 1 win

Summary

Cannot say what the results show, I will leave that one up to you, but am very pleased to report a fun day (with a twist) was had, and no weed encountered by anyone!!

Thanks to Dave Williams for the photos.

DF95’s

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.

1. Clive Warren     93  22pts (6 wins)
2. Stuart Mearns  805  25pts (2 wins)
3. Steve Miller      637  26pts (3 wins)
4. Andy Mearns     04  26 pts (2 wins)

DF65’s

A forecast of heavy showers clearly deterred a number of sailors today, but 10 hardy individuals still turned up to brave the elements

The normal Gautby Rd elements were all in place …. gusty and shifty from the clubhouse end, traditional course, goose poo etc …. with unfortunately a new underwater element ….. WEED!

A rigs were selected, which proved the right choice on balance …. overpowered in the gusts downwind leading to wipeouts but enough power at other times to go forward with weed attached

Paul arrived hoping to get some practice in before the Nationals, but having cleared the lake of minor strands of weed on his keel in the first 3 races, he then decided this wasn’t the sort of practice he came for and donned the waders to clear some weed properly with the rake

Alan, perhaps confused having his rig set up badly with actually sailing with weed more times than others it appeared, also gave up early. The rest of us persevered with the racing, accepting the fact that occasionally you hit a lump of weed that stopped you dead, but mostly you collected a few strands on the way round the course which gradually made you slower, but since everybody had a similar problem, didn’t impact the racing as much as it might have done. On the plus side, the forecast didn’t meet expectations and we only suffered one shower

On the water it was a close fight in every race between Clive, Andrew and Dave, who all clearly had a bit more speed (or a bit less weed) than everybody else. Clive started slowly but finished with 2 wins to take the day. Dave had a couple of poor results he was able to discard but his other results got him second. Andrew was the most consistent, but suffered a couple of critical weed pickup’s when leading races to end up third.

1. Clive Warren         10pts. 4 wins
2. Dave Williams      11pts. 3 wins
3. Andrew Potter      12pts. 1 win
4. Stuart Mearns      22pts
5. Malcolm Harvey 30pts
6. Neil Westbrook    32pts
7. Dave Worron         37pts
8. Dave White             40pts

Plus, Paul Plested & Alan Watkinson unscored after retiring early.

DF95’s

Seven boats took to the water for a challenging afternoons sailing. As the skippers emerged from the clubhouse after the lunch break the first challenge was to set a course as the wind had swung 45 degrees from Southerly to South Westerly, meaning it was blowing directly across the lake from the houses. The challenge was to try to set a course which wasn’t a reach up and down the lake. This was achieved by starting at the clubhouse end, (opposite end to the morning) using the outer start mark and inner gate mark as the starting line and using the finishing mark as the windward mark, then continuing up the lake to a top mark and spreader before the downwind leg to the gate and then to the finish. This provided 2 short beats to the first two marks.The second challenge was for the skippers to remember the course.

The breeze remained from the morning but with far more shifts and holes than the morning so it was tricky racing as the results showed with 6 of the 7 starters recording at least one first or second. In addition to the tricky wind there was also some 2 or 3 clumps of weed to snag the keel or rudder which needed luck to avoid.

There were some early casualties with Dave Worron missing the first race which was won by Clive with Charles second. Stuart M took top honours in race 2 remembering to sail the right course this time and Dave W showing his boat speed taking second.

Andy M had rigging problems before race 3 which kept him out for the rest of the afternoon, whilst Dave posted 2 bullets. Race 4 also saw Charles struggle home with a winch issue before retiring for 2 races.

The last 4 races saw four different race winners with Steve M, Stuart M, Clive and Dave all taking line honours

In summary, a very tricky afternoons sailing with multiple winners and some close racing. An element of luck needed to avoid picking weed up, but at least the rain stayed away!!

Thanks to Stuart M for the photos and Malcolm for tabulating the results

DF65’s

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 2^nd 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 3^rd in race one. David White picked up a very creditable 5^th in race one, and Richard Walker bagged a 4^th.

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 2^nd followed by Peter. Richard picked up another 4^th and Dave Williams grabbed a 5^th spot.

After a quick rig change the rest of the morning was sailed with A rig, and probably should have been down to B as the races progressed. Peter picked up two 2nds and a 1^st in this session which was enough to win on the day. Paul wasn’t too far behind also taking another 1^st and a 3^rd.

Guy Cowper had an excellent sail with his A rig scoring a pair of 2nds and 3rds, which gave him 3^rd overall on the day. Mike struggled to get his A boat tuned correctly for two races, otherwise he would have been pushing for 3^rd if not 2^nd 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.

Clive Warren, who missed the first three races, would probably have been further up the final table given that he podiumed in the last three races, including winning race seven.. Stuart Mearns also showed that he is improving with the 65, with a 4^th and a great 1^st on his scorecard during the day.

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.

DF95’s

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.

We had a good turn out of 9 helms.  A standard course was set utilising the full length of the lake with single laps to keep the races flowing. All the finishes were self-monitored.

Paul and Peter returned from the IOM Worlds and sailed as if they had not been away, sharing the spoils of first and second whilst the other skippers vied for the other places.

A number of skippers suffered from minor gear problems such as melting knot to non centred rudder, to complete rudder servo failure (unlucky Steve).

Overall the racing was close (or even very close), interesting but most importantly fun.  Once again the theme running through all races was consistency.  Don’t be over the line (805) before the start and race a clean race.

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.

DF65’s

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.

Finally, many thanks to Commodore Dave for ROing for the whole morning and for doing the scoring.

DF95’s

The conditions in the afternoon continued to be very challenging with what was probably a SSW  breeze, meaning at 90deg to the lake from the housing estate. The were plenty of holes and even more false shifts up and down the lake to catch all the skippers out at some stage.

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.

Thanks to Malcolm for tabulating the results and Clive for the photos