Well! that was a breezy day of racing for the last of the DF95 Winter Series. Top end of C rig straight down the lake, with gusts that would have challenged the D Rig. As folks seemed focused on rigging their boats it was down to Paul Plested to climb into the waders, then lay a missing starting buoy and move the leeward gate upwind away from confused wave patterns on the leeward shore.
Thirteen skippers had turned up to race and it ended up being the John Brierley/Martin Roberts show, with these racing neck and neck all afternoon, with the rest of the fleet following on behind. Besides these two there was only one other race winner, which was Paul Plested in race 8.
In the session before lunch, John Brierley bagged two 1sts and four 2nds, with Martin fairing a little better with four 1sts and 2nd having missed the first race. Whilst most struggled early on if not all day, Bill Culshaw demonstrated his experience in the conditions posting a 2nd in race one and two 3rds in this session. Alan Watkinson also bagged two 2nds, and Duncan Neale picked up a 3rd and 4th. Paul Plested, opted to drop down to a D rig after the first race, but was too late for the start of race two and only found out in race three that it was the wrong decision, finishing 9th and last on the water. Charles Legg had a very short sailing day having to retire from race one and not making it to the start line again.
After a pit stop for lunch and the opportunity to fix damaged boats, the fleet got away again in what initially looked to be slightly less wind. However, the marginal drop in breeze was short-lived and it was top end C for all of the second session until the last race when the wind did start to ease.
As with the early session Martin and John continued to trade positions in races 7 to 12, only this time Paul Plested managed to get in the mix on several occasions, although not quite able to hold either John or Martin off until the finish. Martin took line honours in three of these six races and John picked up two, with three 2nds. Paul, after his poor sailing (and decision making) in the first session, bagged four 3rds and a 1st, which bumped him up to third overall on the day, but a long way back from the top two.
Both Duncan and Bill continued to sail well in the conditions, picking up 3rds and 4ths, with Bill edging out Duncan on the day to finish 4th overall. Clive was also consistent with a string of 4ths and 5ths throughout the day leaving him 6th overall. Guy Cowper was also quick around the course and if he’d managed to stay out of trouble he could well have been higher up the final scoreboard.
As for the two guys racing on their own for most of the day, it was Martin who took the overall win only one point over an equally quick John.A challenging, but enjoyable day for all… well at least for those who managed to get through the day with their boats intact. Great to see Stuart Trunkfield and Stuart Mearns getting to grips with the conditions and to see John Beech back at the club after a long lay off.
Thanks go to Neil Westbrook and Alison (who came down with Stuart T) for running the racing and to Dave Williams for the photos.
