DF65’s
A SW breeze today pointed to a tricky day at Gautby Rd, and so it proved. Despite a forecast for quite some wind there wasn’t much to show initially, however the pressure slowly built during the morning until some of the gusts were right at the top of A+. Mixed in with this were 180deg shifts, flat patches and holes and a very erratic breeze.
Another good turnout of 10 skippers, although John Brierly had to get away to work after only one race – which he won! – leaving the rest to fight it out on the usual course format starting at the clubhouse end.
The line looked heavily port end biased with the port end just on the edge of the windward bank wind shadow and it seemed to be best to start somewhere in the middle third of the line. There were exceptions to this of course, and good starts were made from all points on the line but conditions were so shifty that this varied from race to race.
The beat was very nearly a port tack fetch, with big left lifts in the gusts and also some completely flat patches and then a very tricky area at the top mark and the spreader where it proved necessary to put in a tack to make the spreader in some races.
After all this the racing was extremely close so even when the leader, or a leading group, was able to make a break this was likely to be neutralised on the run or the beat back to the line.
Afer John B had to leave the wins were shared between Mike, James and Clive, with Mike just emerging the winner from James and Clive with these first three covered by three points as shown below. Racing remained very keen throughout the fleet with almost everyone counting both some good scores and having to count some poor ones as shown below in detail.
Finally, many thanks to Commodore Dave for ROing for the whole morning and for doing the scoring.
DF95’s
The conditions in the afternoon continued to be very challenging with what was probably a SSW breeze, meaning at 90deg to the lake from the housing estate. The were plenty of holes and even more false shifts up and down the lake to catch all the skippers out at some stage.
7 skippers took to the water, which considering 4 regulars were missing for one reason or another was a good turnout. As is almost the norm for the social racing, the starts were self monitored and the first to finish recorded the results. A standard course was set utilising the full length of the lake with single laps to keep the races flowing.
The racing was generally quite close, with 6 of the 7 skippers taking a podium positions and 4 posting bullets. Clive was the pick of the bunch posting 6 wins, and it was great to see the return of Neil after a few weeks posting a couple of wins and sailed as consistently as anyone notching up a good set of results. Consistency was the key to the day and taking the opportunities when you had the chance and Richard Walker was doing just this with all his results in the top 3, before he had to leave early after 5 races. Stuart took the overall win in the Mearns family although Andy had his fair share of wins over his brother, but the consistency let him down. Further down the fleet Malcolm and Steve were having there own private battle with Malcolm also posting a very impressive2nd in race 8. After 11 races with a softening wind we decided to call it a day.
Overall, an enjoyable afternoons racing, the 95s seem to handle the shifty conditions much better than the 65s, or were we just getting more used to it.
Thanks to Malcolm for tabulating the results and Clive for the photos
