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DF65 Social Racing 2024 – 14/8/24

Blue skies greeted the 9 sailors who turned out for what was a morning of close racing in a shifty North Westerly light breeze, which built as the day wore on. A standard windward leeward course was used and with a good start line, with a degree of post end bias, the fleet was pretty well behaved on all starts with only two boats being course side for the 9 races completed.
The early races had lots of place changing at the front with the main fleet being pretty close behind. Neil Westbrook set the early pace with 3 firsts, in the first four races, which also included a turn as RO. Alan Watkinson was also going well with a 1st and two 2nds early on. John Carlin, who was in the mix throughout the early races, then stepped up a gear and scored 3 wins on the bounce. Paul Plested finished the day with two firsts, which helped his overall score, but not enough to threaten the top spot. Frans King was showing some good boat speed on the water with a 2nd and a two 4ths and Malcolm Harvey posted a 3rd in race four. Newcomer John Lee was also in the mix off the start line, but sailing with an A rig on a day perfect for A+ rigs was always going to be a challenge.
On a day of very close racing with at least 3 photo finishes, John C came out on top, pipping Neil by 1 point, followed by Paul who just pipped Alan into 4th by a single point.
  1. John Carlin                 50 10pts 3 wins
  2. Neil Westbrook         03 11pts 3 wins
  3. Paul Plested              154 13pts 2 wins
  4. Alan Watkinson      373 14pts 1 win
  5. Franz King                   95 26pts 1 2nd
  6. Dave Williams            33 27pts
  7. John Lee                     N/A 37pts
  8. Malcolm Harvey   1019 38pts 1 3rd
  9. David White                94 39pts