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DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2023 – 22/11/23

DF65’s

Today’s racing was held in an approximately North Westerly breeze, with all the usual holes and shifts with the wind coming over the houses. Turnout was again great with 15 DF65 sailors.

No one wished to go wading, and with the Port end of the line somewhat favoured the starting was all pretty close. In fact as the morning progressed it was agreed that one of the other gate marks would make a better line, although it remained so shifty this didn’t really affect the first beat much.
A rigs were chosen, and although boats were underpowered some of the time, the gusts would clearly have been difficult with A+.

Once again racing was very close, with 4 different winners, and the first two boats only one point apart after the 10 races sailed, with John Carlin the winner and results as shown below:

1. John Carlin               13.5 pts 4 wins
2. Mike de St Paer      14.6 pts 1 win
3. James Douglas       26 pts 3 wins
4. Clive Warren          29 pts 2 wins
5. Dave Williams       35.3 pts
6. Neil Westbrook     37,5 pts
7. Alan Watkinson    39.5 pts
8. Andrew Potter       42 pts
9. Malcolm Harvey  58.2 pts
10. Richard Walker  62.6 pts
11. Don Mackinnon  71pts
12. John Beech           76 pts
13. Frans King            77 pts
14. Dave Howard       80 pts
15. Paul Little             91.2 pts

DF95’s

The afternoon found 8 boats on the water for the DF95 racing, The wind remained similar to the morning racing, that being from the North West, with gusts and shifts to help or hinder depending if the helm picked the right one or not.   B rigs were chosen with the wind forecast to increase throughout the afternoon. Clive was the first casualty finding the eye on the head of the mainsail pulled out, with no spare he was left with the choice of A or C, he plumped for A and an exciting afternoon. Second to fall was Paul with his new 95 which needed the rudder reversing, the problem being nobody was used to the new FlySky transmitter and it cost Paul a start in the first race.  The same course as the morning was agreed, and the first home would record the positions of the fleet which allowed all 8 boats to compete in each race.

Alan got off to a flyer having his boat set up just right for the conditions which resulted in him winning the first 3 races, with Clive, John and Richard each sharing the second and third positions equally between them. Race 4 had Richard breaking Alans winning streak, with Alan in second. Race 5 saw Malcolm suffering forestay / jib halyard failure and was unable to finish the race, which was won saw Clive taking the honours Alan again taking the second spot. Unfortunately Alan had to leave and Malcolms breakdown left 6 boats to fight out the last 2 races, Richard won the 6th with Clive second and Dave having his best race in third. The 8th and  final race saw Clive getting his 2nd win  and John picking up his best finish of the day in second.

Once again the day was very competitive with everyone showing good boat speed at some stage.

Final Results were:

  1. Clive Warren               93       12pts   2 wins, 2 seconds
  2. Richard Walker          52       13pts    2 wins, 2 seconds
  3. Alan Watkinson         23       14pts   3 wins, 2 seconds (6 races)
  4. John Beech                288       19pts      2 seconds
  5. Dave Howard              00       26pts
  6. Frans King                   59        31pts
  7. Paul Little                     14        38pts
  8. Malcolm Harvey    2019       44pts

Although Clive won,  its fair to say that if Alan had been able to continue he would have been top of the leader board.