Cold North N West wind as forecast for the DF65 crew today. It wasn’t blowing quite straight down the lake which had consequences as covered below.
Dave W set the usual course using the top set of windward marks and a nice wide line. The line looked to be starboard end biased, and was actually so, but no one fancied going paddling in the cold to adjust it.
The wind had enough north in it for the far side of the lake to have flat patches where the wind was chewed up by the trees and buildings and this meant that the breeze in the prestart park zone was variable to say the least, and caught a few people out. In one case the breeze simply disappeared for a minute or two, and in other cases there were heavy gusts in the last few seconds before the start resulting in the odd OCS.
Neil (“I like a good discard”) very kindly offered to RO and got the racing through very smartly. Most of the starts were very competitive, and the beats were challenging all day. It looked as if the starboard end would pay with then staying on starboard for a while before tacking. However, there were plenty of exceptions to this. Paul made a couple of early port tacks pay big time, but in other races this didn’t pay for those who tried it. It also seemed to pay to come across on port at the top of the beat to avoid a flat patch beyond the windward mark. This port tack approach to the top mark made for some close calls and a few port and starboard incidents during the morning.
Paul sailed very well to win four races and just win the morning overall, more so since he missed race 7 when a main batten started to detach. Mike and John were second and third, one point behind with Mike only ahead on countback. Fourth, fifth and sixth were Simon, Dave and Clive all within three points – Clive discovering afterwards that his mast gate had loosened clearly upsetting the boat trim.
Overall results as shown below, with thanks again to Neil for ROing and Malcolm for collating the results. Another very competitive day of 65 racing.
