The forecast for today was sunny but light winds from the NNW or N. Fortunately, although we did have a light breeze with holes in, it was more generally 1 to 5 knots WNW to NW with occasional shifts to the N.
There was an excellent turnout of 13 boats for this second Winter Series for the DF95 and we had some very close races with a good spread of 5 helms taking at least one win. Occasionally one boat might get away from the fleet, but generally the finishes were closely contested through the fleet with positions and the lead often changing during the last leg from the gate through to the finish.
Peter Baldwin made the most of the conditions picking up 4 wins and overall first place, but John Brierley although having only one win was very consistent, discarding a third and fourth to take second place ahead of Martin Roberts who had two wins, but was not as consistent. Special mention must go to John Carlin (2 wins) and Clive Warren (1 win) who both managed to pull away from the fleet for their race wins and leave the rest to fight for the remaining places.
During the afternoon, there was plenty of help being given towards sailors throughout the fleet on tactics and boat setup suggestions to help the fleet improve and in the later races the fleet was definitely less spread out at the finish and windward mark roundings were very close.
Thanks must go to Neil Westbrook for acting as our RO for the afternoon, keeping us all in line with several individual recalls and a few general recalls as well. In addition, here are a full set of results thanks to Malcolm Harvey.
Don’t forget that the DF TT series Rounds 1 & 2 will take place at West Lancs YC (Sothport) on the 20th (DF65) and 21st (DF95) January. This event is one of the closest locations to Birkenhead (it can be done as a day trip) and where you can gain more experience racing in larger fleets.
Next week (13th Jan) is the IOM Winter series #3.
