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DF95 Summer Series #7 – 19/10/24

The weather gods were kind to us today, with blue sky, sunshine and a gentle westerly breeze, which in real terms means the wind was from the top end of the lake with a bit of housing estate bias to keep things  interesting, providing enough shifts for overtaking opportunities. No arguments about the choice of rigs, ‘ A rigs’ all round. The standard course of, weather mark, spreader, gate,  with the finish line halfway up the lake was set.  Single lap races were planned to maximise the number of races. 12 races were completed with Neil Westbrook acting as RO for the day keeping the schedule moving and keeping us in check on the start line.
Racing started on time with 10 skippers making it to the start line for the first race including a guest Phil Shepherd from West Kirby. Paul P. posted his intentions early taking the first race, from John Beech who had one of his best days and showed very good boat speed especially in the morning session.
Clive took the second race, with Paul P second, Paul had an extremely consistent day posting 11 top 3 finishes, the only blotch on his record being a DNS when after lunch when he forgot to switch his boat on.  John B then took a well deserved win in race 3, with Paul P second and the Alan third who was improving his position with each race, unfortunately we lost Frans after this race, when he was not feeling well enough to continue.
Race 4 and Alans improvement continued, taking line honours pushed all the way by Paul P and John B.  Race 5 and Paul P interrupted his run of second places by adding another win, Andrew Peters notching up a second and Clive third Clive ended a consistent morning session in race 6 with a second win, Paul again second and Alan third.  Lunch was then taken.
The afternoon session started with no change to the conditions.  Race 7 saw a very popular winner in Malcom, he lead early on and held off Clive and Paul L to take line honours.  The remaining races were all closely contested and followed similar results to the morning session with Paul P, Clive, Alan. and Andrew taking the lions share of the podium places.
In summary:  A really enjoyable afternoons racing, in good conditions with enough shifts to make it interesting. A very competitive fleet with 8 of the 9 skippers recording a top 3 finish and 5 different race winners (not including Frans who retired early)
  1. Paul Plested                                   16pts      5 wins
  2. Clive Warren                                 24pts     3 wins
  3. Alan Watkinson                           31pts      2 wins
  4. Andrew Peter                               36pts
  5. John Beech                                    47pts      1 win
  6. Paul Little                                      59pts
  7. Malcolm Harvey                          60pts      1 win
  8. Martin Whittingham-Jones   67pts
  9. Phil Shepherd                               75pts
  10. Frans King    (Retired)