DF65’s
A pretty accurate forecast for today which had promised a strong WNW breeze and lower temperatures than of recent days. The lake looked really chopped up, more so of course at the leeward end near the clubhouse, and the chop had also caused the outer start mark to fetch down to the lake edge. However, and very happily, it didn’t rain / hail or sleet on us.
To avoid the very choppy area at the leeward gate it was decided to start between the inner start mark and a pole on the shore, and also use this mark as a port rounding leeward mark. All the top marks were in place, and this turned out to be a good course although the resulting start line was slightly short of which more in a moment.
Given the chilly temperature, eight skippers seemed a good turnout, not forgetting a shout out for Dave White who didn’t have a C rig and very kindly volunteered to RO for the morning.
John won the first race, Peter the next two and Guy the fourth setting a pattern for the day with these three winning all of the morning’s races. Peter was really in a league of his own winning 5 races, discarding a second and finishing comfortable clear of the field. Guy sailed very consistently with one win and three seconds but couldn’t quite match Peter, while John and Clive finished close behind, equal on points, with John winning on countback from Clive who sailed very steadily all morning as well.
This was a day where boat handling was really at a premium, and those who dealt successfully with the sailing conditions right at the top end of C rig, were clearly better. Tacking was also tricky for most, and with the short line requiring a quick tack onto port in conditions where it was easy to miss a tack made for some rafting at the bank after the start, although fortunately with no apparent boat damage.
An interesting and quite challenging mornings racing for all, with thanks again to Dave White – assisted by Neil – for ROing, to Commodore Dave for keeping us all organised (and taking the photos) and to Malcolm for the results which are shown in detail below.
