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DF/RG65 Winter Series 2023 #5 – 17/2/24

It was another light SE breeze again today, but this week we ran from the South bank walkway.  Once again the marks needed some adjustment and so Peter donned the waders and shifted things around to produce a reasonable windward/leeward course and with 3 DF65’s racing this week, a separate windward mark 10m downwind of the one set for the RG65’s.

We had an excellent turnout of ten RG65’s and three DF65’s, with the RG65’s mostly sailing with a full sized swing rig.  The wind looked fine for the swing rig during pre-race practice and up the first beat and then a prolonged gust hit the fleet downwind, with plenty of nosediving and some loss of control creating some position changes.  John Brierley led the race in his newly launched Ivy, until the last beat when he was overtaken by both Bill Culshaw and Alan Bennett.  Wins were spread around the front of the fleet in this first half with Graham Elliott and Alan taking two wins each and Peter Baldwin one.

After a break for lunch, Alan had the best afternoon session with three wins, John picking up two and Graham managing a further one.  Dave Williams had a better afternoon sporting an A swing rig and this helped improve his overall position to finish ahead of Martin Roberts who had gear failure in race 9 and missed the final 4 races.  A great afternoons sailing marred only slightly by the appearance of rain for the last few races.

Many thanks to Neil Westbrook who acted as RO for the afternoon and Dave Williams for working out the scores at the end of the day.

  1. Alan Bennett            Ivy                     68  16pts
  2. Graham Elliott        Electronica     09  26pts
  3. John Brierley            Ivy                     84  27pts
  4. Peter Baldwin          Uno                   63   32pts
  5. Bill Culshaw              Ivy                     21   37pts
  6. Dave Williams          Uno                   33   72pts
  7. Martin Roberts        Pocket Rocket  133  74pts
  8. John Berry                 Uno                         71  74pts
  9. Alan Watkinson      Uno                         23  78pts
  10. Charles Legg             Uno                       26   79pts
DF65 Report
Only 3 skippers turned up for the 5th Winter Series but that didn’t spoil the enjoyment. We were greeted at the lake by a South Easterley breeze, from the clubhouse end and after Peter had shuffled the buoys around to produce a biased start line, good  beat to a windward mark (as there were only 3 of us there was no need for a spreader mark), so it was straight back diagonally down the full length of the lake to a gate, with 2 laps set, then finishing half way up the lake. We shared the start with the 10 RGs, they had a separate windward mark about 10m further on as well as a spreader which proved almost a perfect handicap and meant the fleet was close with the DFs and RGs finishing at the same time
A+ rigs were the order of the day, and with the wind direction coming through the houses there were plenty of shifts to pick, but picking the right one was important. The wind built over the first couple of races and nose diving downwind added to the tricky conditions but after a couple of more races it subsided and remained  good A+ conditions.
The racing between the DFs was very close and although Paul didn’t get the win he was craving for, he did lead around the last mark on more than 1 occasion losing it only on the final beat to the line, and considering he is new to RC sailing, once he sorts his fingers from his thumbs out, it won’t be long before he gets his first win!! The main battle for honours was between Tony and Clive and it took a win in the last race for Clive to edge the days honour. 12 Races were sailed and a big thank you to Neil Westbrook who was our RO for the day,
1    Clive Warren            14pts    6 x wins,  6 seconds
2    Tony Sedgewick     14pts    6 x wins, 4 seconds
3     Paul Plested             25pts    2 x seconds