DF65’s
A sunny day with a light breeze blowing down the lake towards the clubhouse greeted the 12 skippers who turned up for a spot of DF65 social racing. Unfortunately what also greeted the sailors was a lake full of green algae. After some debate, and as folks had made the effort to turn up, it was decided to give it a go. As is the norm the course was to be a windward mark followed by a spreader mark, and then a run down to the leeward gate with a short beat to finish. It was clear even before the starting sequence began that the algae was going to make it challenging as it quickly adhered to the leading edge of the fin, making the boats very sluggish with significant weather helm.
The tactic, in the early races at least, was to sail on starboard tack from the line and clean the algae off the fins when the boats reached the bank. Likewise on the run, sailing close to the shore to give the boats a quick clean before sending them back out. Paul Plested seemed to have this down to a fine art and was able to score three bullets on the trot, with Charles Legg also showing great boat speed, scoring two 2nds in the first three races. James Douglas and Clive Warren also made into the top three in the early races. Paul Little managed a 3rd in the first race, but decided racing in the algae wasn’t for him and he decided to call it a day. John Carlin also didn’t fancy competing with the weed rather than other skippers and also packed up before finishing the first race.
For the second half of the morning, whilst the wind continued to swing, it did increase marginally with bigger lifts on starboard. This meant that trying to remove algae of the fins was tricker as it was a bigger detour both upwind and down and, as Paul found out, not necessarily worth the detour. James, after being close to the front in the first three races, managed to score three firsts on the bounce. Dave Williams managed a second in the fourth race, with Clive also taking 2nd in the final race. Paul P, whilst always being in the top 3, couldn’t match his scores of the earlier races.
On the day, with equal points and tied on countback, the outcome was decided on the last race, which James had won. Paul was 2nd overall and a well deserved third place went to Charles.
Thanks go to Neil Westbrook who ran the racing for the morning and to Dave W for skipping a race to take piccies.Far from ideal conditions for racing 65s, but better than most of the skippers could have expected after what greeted them first thing.
DF95’s
It was good to see seven DF95s on the water for the afternoon session, particularly after the frustrations of the morning with the algae affecting the 65s. But we shouldnt have worried, the 95s handled the problem with only a slight drop in performance. The wind freshened a little from the morning but the direction remained the same, providing the typical shifts associated with Gautby Rd. It was also good to welcome Guy Cowper to the 95 fleet with his first outing in the 95 class.Paul Plested donned the waders before the afternoon session to re set the rather biased start line and to make the gate a bit narrower. A different course from the morning was set utilising the full length of the lake, with windward mark and spreader, run down to a gate and finish halfway back up the lake. Self monitored starts and first across the line to record the finishing order. Eight races were sailed providing 2 discards
Racing was super competitive from the start with 5 of the 7 skippers recording a top two finish, but it was Paul Plested who sailed consistently well and triumphed in the end with 6 wins, but behind him the real battle ensued between Alan, Clive and Neil with Guy showing good speed for a first outing but lacking a bit of consistency, which will surely come. Unfortunately Alan had to leave after race 4 otherwise the final positions would probably have been different. In the end it was Clives’ consistency that paid dividends over Neil.
It was also great to see Dave Howard at the club for the first time in months and kept his eye in by sailing a race with John Beeches boat, finishing a credible 5th and then took over RO duties for the last 3 races. Thanks Dave
SummaryAfter the frustrations of the morning with the algae playing a big part it was to everyone’s surprise that the algae had only limited detriment to the handling of the 95 which allowed for a very good afternoons sailing in lovely sunshine with a reasonable but tricky wind.
