DF65’s
Nine skippers were greeted to blue skies and a lightish, but promising, breeze blowing from the clubhouse end of the lake. Racing got underway with A+ rigs a little after 11:00 using the standard one lap windward/leeward course with a beat to finish, with skippers self policing the start line and first finisher logging the results.
The early pace setter was Paul Plested who scored a 1,2,2 in the first three races. Clive Warren and Alan Watkinson also took a top spot in each in this spell. Peter Baldwin, who was quick all day, had a relatively slow start recording his two discards in this session to go with a 2nd place. Guy Cowper, who took a bronze medal spot in race two, was competitive all morning with plenty of boat speed, especially upwind.
In the next three races the wind continued to switch back and forth and getting into the rhythm of the shifts was key. Paul and Peter had very close racing to the line in all three, with Paul just edging out Peter with two 1sts and a 2nd, with Peter notching up two 2nds and a 1st. Alan picked up another 3rd as did Guy. Clive was a little off the pace for a spell, but did pick up a third. Dave Williams also picked up a 4th, his best of the day.
In race seven Paul picked up his fourth 1st of the day followed by Peter and then Clive not far behind. The final race of the day proved to be the most tightly fought with places continually changing on the last beat. Alan took line honours very closely followed by Peter, Clive and Paul, with Guy just a few boat lengths behind them.
Paul, with four wins and discarding a 2nd was the overall winner on the day, followed by Peter. Alan finished off the podium positions, followed by Clive in 4th. Also worth noting that David White was much closer to the fleet especially as the morning progressed, he would have scored higher in at least two races if it wasn’t for misjudged tacks boat lengths from the finish line.
DF95’s
The sun was shining and a light breeze was blowing down the lake from the clubhouse end for an afternoon of social sailing with the 95. The same course as the morning was used which meant the approach to the windward mark would be very tricky being in the lee of the clubhouse. The starts were self monitored and first to finish recorded the results. Seven skippers including new member to the club and DF95 racing, Stuart Trunkfield, took to the water to contest the first 2 races and there were 2 different winners in Andy and Guy, with Alan and Stuart M sharing the other podium slots. The seven were then joined by Clive, Paul and Dave to bolster the fleet to 10, a good turnout considering a couple of regulars were unavailable.
The racing was keenly contested as ever, with the pack roughly split into 2 groups, Guy, Alan, Clive and Paul all setting the pace upfront, but there was no exclusivity and both Stuart M, Andy and New member Stuart T all posting top 3 places at some stage. Unfortunately, Commodore Dave suffered winch problems in race 5 and had to sit the rest of the afternoon out, but he kept busy looking after the starts and finishing and taking the days photos. Meanwhile further down the fleet John B and Steve M had a couple of fourth places each but were also a bit inconsistent. Stuart T started slowly but climbed steadily through the session managing to take top spot in the final race. A great achievement in his first outing.
After 10 races (2 discards) the sun was below the neighbouring houses and it started to get chilly so we called it a day.
Congrats to Guy taking the overall win by 2pts from Clive with Alan in third 8pts behind, but it could have been very different if Paul and Clive had not missed the first 2 races. Results belowcourtesy of Malcolm Harvey.
