DF65’s
DF65 and DF95 social racing is back up and running after an extended late summer of disruption from low water, followed by water quality issues.
Today saw a fleet of 10 DF65’s on the water who were greeted with a 5-8kt breeze on arrival which was clearly A+ rig conditions. The forecast was for wind from the SW which is technically straight through the houses and across the lake …… i.e. horrible. In reality it was more westerly which was considerably better than SW and provided some good racing with plenty of the usual Gautby Rd jeopardy that could help or hinder. Dave kindly did RO duties rather than sailing and set the usual course apart from extending the beat to the far orange buoys.
Starts just about favoured a port tack start at the port end of the line …. a trick that Clive pulled off in a couple of early races before he bottled out and joined the rest of the fleet on starboard at that end of the line. The first beat was a case of not getting suckered into sailing across to the far side of the lake on port on what was clearly a permanent wind bend. It always felt good until you had to tack at which point it was a disaster. The best option was to take some starboard tack pain halfway up the beat to get on the inside of the bend and therefore sail the shortest distance to the mark. Those that got the tacking points right invariably ended up leading at the windward mark. Downwind was puffs and lulls with gains or losses to be made depending on whether you got a puff or sat in a lull. Nothing was over at the leeward gate with plenty of overtaking opportunities for those that got it right or disaster for those that got it wrong
Clive carried on his previous weeks performance in race 1 winning it in style and the omens looked bad for everybody else ….. until he confirmed that he had failed to buy a lottery ticket after last weeks efforts at which point he lost his mojo a bit and despite winning 2 further races had to count some mid table results to come third overall
Andrew was the most consistent on the day and never out of the top 5 with 2 race wins to come second overall but with 2 discards allowed John was able to nick the day with his 4 wins counteracting some other mid table results
James arrived late, missing the first 4 races and was always behind the game in learning the conditions on the day
A quick shout out to John Mackie sailing a DF65 for the first time who managed to avoid too much carnage with other boats and even got a second place in race 8. Thanks as always to Dave for acting as RO this morning , taking the photos and producing the results.
DF95’s
With the lake is now full of water and the water condition very good, for the first time in 3 months we were back to our standard racing programme with DF65s in the morning and DF95s after lunch. A good quality field of 10 skippers lined up on the start line for the first race including 2 new members John Mackie and Rod Darling.
The breeze had freshened a little from the morning and was perfect for A Rig. With the gusts well within the A Rig range. The same standard course as the morning was used utilising the full length of the lake, windward mark with spreader, leeward gate and beat the finish. We were honoured to have Trunkys’ partner Alison “volunteer” to be our RO for the afternoon, Commodore Dave reminded us to watch our Ps and Qs with Alison in charge and we were ready to start and just about on time.
The wind direction was generally westerly which could swing to northerly as you approached the windward mark, in laymans terms it was generally blowing down the lake from the far end with a slight bias from the houses but as you approached the windward mark the bias would swing to the industrial estate. This gave plenty of alternatives for the skippers to choose, although with the wind direction westerly, the start line was perfectly aligned and with 10 boats a port end flyer was never an option. Right from the get go, the racing was very competitive and it continued the same throughout the afternoon.
After 10 races sailed there were 5 different winners, and 7 skippers posting a 3rd or better. Special mentions for our 2 newbies, John Mackie, who was very quick in the first half of the session but faded in the second and Rod Darling, who sailed his 95 for the first time posted 3 fourths and 3 fifths and I’m sure he will soon be near the front of the fleet sometime soon. Congratulations to Clive for his victory and Alan for his second place.
Thanks go to Alison for keeping us in check and Dave W for the photos and tabled results
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.
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!
