DF65’s
A forecast of heavy showers clearly deterred a number of sailors today, but 10 hardy individuals still turned up to brave the elements
The normal Gautby Rd elements were all in place …. gusty and shifty from the clubhouse end, traditional course, goose poo etc …. with unfortunately a new underwater element ….. WEED!
A rigs were selected, which proved the right choice on balance …. overpowered in the gusts downwind leading to wipeouts but enough power at other times to go forward with weed attached
Paul arrived hoping to get some practice in before the Nationals, but having cleared the lake of minor strands of weed on his keel in the first 3 races, he then decided this wasn’t the sort of practice he came for and donned the waders to clear some weed properly with the rake
Alan, perhaps confused having his rig set up badly with actually sailing with weed more times than others it appeared, also gave up early. The rest of us persevered with the racing, accepting the fact that occasionally you hit a lump of weed that stopped you dead, but mostly you collected a few strands on the way round the course which gradually made you slower, but since everybody had a similar problem, didn’t impact the racing as much as it might have done. On the plus side, the forecast didn’t meet expectations and we only suffered one shower
On the water it was a close fight in every race between Clive, Andrew and Dave, who all clearly had a bit more speed (or a bit less weed) than everybody else. Clive started slowly but finished with 2 wins to take the day. Dave had a couple of poor results he was able to discard but his other results got him second. Andrew was the most consistent, but suffered a couple of critical weed pickup’s when leading races to end up third.
- Clive Warren 10pts. 4 wins
- Dave Williams 11pts. 3 wins
- Andrew Potter 12pts. 1 win
- Stuart Mearns 22pts
- Malcolm Harvey 30pts
- Neil Westbrook 32pts
- Dave Worron 37pts
- Dave White 40pts
Plus, Paul Plested & Alan Watkinson unscored after retiring early.
DF95’s
Seven boats took to the water for a challenging afternoons sailing. As the skippers emerged from the clubhouse after the lunch break the first challenge was to set a course as the wind had swung 45 degrees from Southerly to South Westerly, meaning it was blowing directly across the lake from the houses. The challenge was to try to set a course which wasn’t a reach up and down the lake. This was achieved by starting at the clubhouse end, (opposite end to the morning) using the outer start mark and inner gate mark as the starting line and using the finishing mark as the windward mark, then continuing up the lake to a top mark and spreader before the downwind leg to the gate and then to the finish. This provided 2 short beats to the first two marks.The second challenge was for the skippers to remember the course.
The breeze remained from the morning but with far more shifts and holes than the morning so it was tricky racing as the results showed with 6 of the 7 starters recording at least one first or second. In addition to the tricky wind there was also some 2 or 3 clumps of weed to snag the keel or rudder which needed luck to avoid.
There were some early casualties with Dave Worron missing the first race which was won by Clive with Charles second. Stuart M took top honours in race 2 remembering to sail the right course this time and Dave W showing his boat speed taking second.
Andy M had rigging problems before race 3 which kept him out for the rest of the afternoon, whilst Dave posted 2 bullets. Race 4 also saw Charles struggle home with a winch issue before retiring for 2 races.
The last 4 races saw four different race winners with Steve M, Stuart M, Clive and Dave all taking line honours
In summary, a very tricky afternoons sailing with multiple winners and some close racing. An element of luck needed to avoid picking weed up, but at least the rain stayed away!!
Thanks to Stuart M for the photos and Malcolm for tabulating the results
