A chilly easterly breeze blowing down the lake from the clubhouse greeted the 13 cold blooded and intrepid DF65 sailors today. A+ rigs were ordered but a quick recce established conditions were too windy and everybody switched down to A rigs ….. apart from our new member from Southport, who had looked out his window this morning, seen no wind and had only brought his A+ rig …. a salutary lesson that conditions at the lake are never what you might expect or hope for.
Neil couldn’t resist putting on some “rubberware” (waders) and quickly jumped into the lake to move some marks while Stan suddenly found his boat battery was flat, either due to a lack of charging or using it for other tasks around the house, and therefore kindly volunteered to be RO for the day …. something he probably regretted as the morning wore on!
The best windward mark required a starboard rounding for a change, although this proved why standard Olympic courses are always set up with port rounding’s as those that chose to approach the mark on the port lay-line (which was generally favoured) had the triple problem of first seeing whether they were laying the mark, secondly avoiding boats on the starboard lay-line and then having hopefully left enough room for starboard approaching boats not being sure whether they were going to tack inside on the mark or keep going with right of way.
A spreader mark also rounded to starboard was next then downwind to a leeward gate and back up wind to the finishing line to complete the course. Most races included a downwind puff strong enough to nosedive or broach but this provided opportunities for passing if you could avoid the puff or any associated calamities
John C and John B dominated the racing winning 7 out of the 10 races between them with John C coming out on top due to one more race win and more 2nds than John B. Mike sailed consistently to come 3rd just ahead of Alan, while Andrew sailed very inconsistently to come 5th
- John Carlin 13pts (4 wins)
- John Brierley 16 pts (3 wins)
- Mike De St Paer 30pts
- Alan Watkinson 31pts (1 win)
- Andrew Potter 35pts (2 wins)
- Neil Westbrook 36 pts
- Clive Warren 47pts
- James Douglas 54pts
- Frans King 67pts
- John Beech 73pts
- Malcolm Harvey 74pts
- Paul Little 77pts
After a quick dinner 5 DF95’s braved the cold and managed 7 races under the watchful eye of race officer Neil before snow stopped play.
Alan Watkinson 7pts. 3 wins
Clive Warren 8pts. 2 wins
John Carlin 9pts. 2 wins
John Beech 17pts
Malcolm Harvey 24pts
