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DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2024 – 10/4/24

DF65’s

Spring has (allegedly) sprung, but there wasn’t much evidence of it at Gautby road this morning, where arriving sailors were greeted by a rising S.Easterly breeze, persistent rain and a temperature of around 7deg C. Not a great Spring day.

On the up side there was a bit of breeze, and early launchers returned to say that A+ should actually be A, and even then there were some chunky gusts at the top end of A rig. The resident fishermen started to pack up straight away and were no problem at all.

The usual course was used, other than that one of the gate marks was missing and it was agreed simply to do a port hand leeward mark rounding. Strangely no one seemed keen to go for a paddle and replace the mark.

There were 11 skippers to start – a good turnout given the unpromising conditions – and after a small delay while everyone changed rigs Dave Williams got the racing started.

The first three races had three different winners, and the final beat up from the bottom mark proved tricky to get right. The starting line looked port end biased from the lake edge but proved to be a good compromise. Mike and John then shared the remaining 5 races between them with Mike just running out the winner.

Sally had boat trouble after only two races but very kindly stayed on to RO the rest of the morning. Thank you!

Clive managed three races, but then after sorting out what looked like a rudder servo problem returned to race; unfortunately with the hatch not completely sealed. His boat partially sank, but was fortunately close to the bank and nudged ashore safely, which ended his day. Dave Howard arrived late and only completed one race before having to fix a rigging issue. All in all an eventful mornings racing.

Racing was closer than the results might suggest, with places being swapped right up to the line. Final results as shown below with thanks to Dave and Malcolm for sorting them out, and thanks again to Sally.

  1. Mike de St Paer          7.2pts      4 wins
  2. John Carlin                 10 pts        3 wins
  3. Neil Westbrook         17 pts
  4. Paul Plested               22 pts
  5. Dave Williams          30 pts         1 win
  6. Frans King                 30 pts
  7. Richard Walker        32 pts
  8. Malcolm Harvey     46 pts
  9. Clive Warren             50 pts         3 races
  10. Sally Collings            63 pts         2 races
  11. Dave Howard            64 pts         1 race

DF95’s

Following a morning of wetness with a chilly wind only 4 brave skippers got their boats rigged for the afternoon, the weather forecast and Easter holidays putting a lot of people off. As it turned out, the afternoon weather forecast didn’t materialise and the rain stayed away. The wind eased slightly from the morning making the A rig a perfect choice, the generally South Easterly direction remained similar to the morning, with the normal shifts and holes associated with Gautby Rd to keep the helms on their toes, it was very easy to pick a bad shift and end up head to wind, loosing meters.
Paul martialled the start line and the first home recorded the scores.
8 races were sailed, a mixture of one and two lap, Paul started as he meant to go on taking the first 2 races, before Clive stepped up to take the 3rd. Meanwhile after taking a second in the first race Dave managed to tune his boat to a standstill and took time out to make some rigging adjustments in the clubhouse. Race 4 and Paul was on top again before Mike got in on the act taking race 5. Once again Paul took line honours in races 6 and seven before Mike won the final race. All races were very close between the boats with the lead changing hands regularly in most races but it was Pauls day who had his boat set up just right and mastered the conditions with 5 wins.
1,   Paul Plessed      –    5 wins
2.   Mike de St Paer  –  2 wins
3.   Clive Warren       –   1 win
4.   Dave Howard