Another fantastic turn out for round 4 of the Birkenhead Winter Series. A number of guests joined us today, including Mick Cooper from the Lincoln club sailing his TNT, Gary Benson from Fleetwood sailing his Arrival and Chris Chatfield sailing his flat deck Widget to a high standard, definitely one to be watched when he takes possession of his new Fraktel. Once again, Martin, Graham and Mike chose to sail their Widgets on the day.
The wind was extremely challenging for most of the day with the first 4 races resulting in big gains and even bigger loses to be had, indeed, Dave Potter, Graham Elliott and Mike Allen all fell foul of this early on but it was Martin Roberts and Paul Allen sailing the most consistently to take the lead into the break.
After tea, the wind straightened significantly and we had a first race win by returning skipper and dinghy expert Mike Allen sailing grey 9 BritPOP! There was also some consistent sailing from John Brierley and the unlucky Emilio who was quite cruelly taken out by most of the fleet whilst rounding the final mark in 2nd position in one race.
The day belonged to Paul and Martin who both sailed extremely well in tricky conditions.
Yet again, thanks to Bernie and Jack for running the race and also John for wearing the waders to set the buoys, much appreciated.
- Paul Allen 13 Pts (Countback to 4th places)
- Martin Roberts 13
- Graham Elliott 23 (One 1st)
- John Brierley 23
- Derek Priestley 24
- Dave Potter 29
- Mike Allen 35
- Mike Parkington 46
- Bill Culshaw 54
- Dave Williams 56
- Peter Baldwin 58
- Neil Westbrook 61
- Emilio Gonzalez 66
- Roger Lincoln 71
- Andrew Peter 75
- Alan Watkinson 78
- Gary Benson 89 (One 9th)
- Mick Cooper 89
- Chris Chatfield 92
- Sally Collings 94
- Colin Deakin 105
- Sue Parkington 106
No racing at Birkenhead next weekend, but IOM sailors can venture to an open meeting at Doncaster on 4th February and the Dragonflite/Dragonforce TT is at West Lancs for Saturday and Sunday.
