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DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2023 – 18/10/23

Fifteen boats turned out this week to enjoy a decent Easterly breeze with A rig being the choice of the day, after some indecision as to whether it was A+, A or B.  Peter had a go with A rig and had no issues and the wind was probably even A+ when we started, but soon picked up and was close to being B rig in the gusts by the time we finished.

Having had a trial sail to give an idea of the best rig, Peter then donned the waders and moved the all the marks around to give a decent course and start-line – one that could be either Port or Starboard biased depending on the gust coming down the course.  So plenty of decisions to be made in the pre-start period.

Mike was quick off the blocks for Race 1 whilst a few other front runners were either OCS or doing turns for Port/Starboard incidents.  Peter then took 6 of the next 7 races, with Neil taking Race 3 and John C the final two lap race as he nipped across the line in front of Alan who had led the fleet until the very end when he had a big header just prior to the finish.  Other notable efforts came from Andrew, Clive, Tony  and finally Jon, who was unfortunately taken out whilst in the lead near the finish (and on Starboard), leaving the door open for Peter to nip through for the win.  Final Results below.

A good morning with plenty of learning points, tuning assistance and good practice for those sailing in the DF65 TT coming up at the weekend.  Thanks must go to Dave Williams who opted to run the racing rather than sailing and kept everyone in line with several OCS calls and one general recall in the 9 races sailed.

  1. Peter Baldwin           63   9pts   (6 wins)
  2. Mike De St Paer        35  24pts  (1 win)
  3. John Carlin                 11   27pts  (1 win)
  4. Andrew Potter         194  31pts
  5. Tony Sedgwick        318  32pts
  6. Alan Watkinson      373  37pts
  7. Neil Westbrook         03  39pts (1 win)
  8. Jon Whitehead         770  43pts
  9. Richard Walker        39   48pts
  10. Clive Warren              53   50pts
  11. Paul Little                   45   65pts
  12. Frans King                 95   76pts
  13. Malcolm Harvey  1019   86pts
  14. Dave Howard            00  94pts
  15. Sally Collings         829  102pts (Left Early)

DF95 Social Sailing

After the morning DF65 sailing, 7 skippers stayed behind to sail their 95s, it would have been 8 but unfortunately Neil Westbrook, brought his wrong transmitter. The wind was very similar to the morning session when we started so A rigs were given the green light, The same course was also used.
Paul Little opted out of sailing and was our RO for the afternoon, many thanks Paul.
The first race was a single lap to test the rig set up, all the following races were all 2 laps. Dave Howard was a bit late missing the first 2 races as he put the finishing touches to the rigging  of his new 95 (with a little help from Peter) prior to its maiden voyage.
John Carlin was off to a flyer winning the first 2 races. The wind continued to increase during the 2nd race and the boats started to nosedive downwind so it was decided to change to B rigs, which were perfect for the new conditions. John continued his winning ways with another win in race 3, before Clive broke his run in race 4. Richard was very consistent notching up 5 third places in the 6 races sailed, Frans and Mal although not their finest hour enjoyed the sail,  finally Dave Hs maiden voyage was successful with a 4th place, but had to leave early.
Final standings after 6 races with 1 discard
1  John Carlin          –   6  (4 wins, 1 x 2)
2  Clive Warren       –   8  (2 wins, 3 x 2)
3  Richard Walker   – 15  (5 x 3)
4  Frans King            – 17  (1 x 2)
5  Malcolm Harvey – 22  (1 x 2)
6  Dave Howard      – Only one race