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DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2026 – 24/6/26

DF65’s

On a day when a good part of the country was sweltering in 30C+ temperatures, Gautby Road today served up a very pleasant sunny day with the temperature only reaching 24C at 14:00.  This was probably due to the great 4 to 6mph breeze coming off the sea and blowing straight down the lake for the 6 (well 7 for a while) competitors who were out racing this morning.

Peter started off well and took Race 1, with Dave Williams close behind, although they seemed to have their own wind and pulled well clear of the chasing bunch, with Stuart eventually taking 3rd.  Peter led once again in Race 2, but a wrong choice at the Leeward gate saw both Alan and Stuart nip through and give Alan the win after an uncharacteristic 6th in the first race.

Peter then polished off most of the other races until Race 8 when he picked up a sunken object on the start line.  Finally extricating himself after about three minutes, he dutifully went back to ensure that it didn’t stay in the course area and had to be rescued by Steve Miller putting the waders on!

This gave Alan another win to add to a series of mostly second places and second overall.  Having had a great start to the day, Stuart picked up 7 points from a DNC in Race 5 after a “snowball” knot required retying or perhaps even re-stringing and a 5th, allowing Commodore Dave to take 3rd overall.  Charles had a few decent results, but unfortunately lacked the consistency to figure higher in the placings overall.

We were joined temporarily by John Brierley testing out new electrics after problems at the Nationals and to be fair he did win each race that he sailed, but our scorer didn’t add him to the score sheet with 6 missing races.  Thanks to Dave for producing the final scores and taking a few photos for illustrating the report.

DF95’s

Five sailors arrived for the Df95 racing and were greeted by perfect sailing
conditions with glorious sunshine.
The wind was blowing straight down the lake from the north west it all looked so steady however it proved to be as shifty as ever with flat patches and major shifts towards the windward marks.  The usual course was set with a windward mark and spreader together with a leeward gate. As the wind was relatively light it was decided to have 1 lap races.
Racing got off promptly with places exchanged as boats were headed and lifted in the fluky conditions.  The first race was won by John closely pursued by Martin in second who was going well until his boat appeared to be sinking in the third race!!!  The racing continued at a reasonable pace in the heat with no refreshment breaks unlike the England team.
While racing was close and places exchanged throughout the fleet nothing was guaranteed until the finish line.
Finally by the end and ten races completed John won the day followed by Stuart T then Stuart M but it was all very close with Steve taking 3rd in the 4th race.
  1. John Carlin                 50  8 pts
  2. Stuart Trunkfield  300  18pts
  3. Stuart Mearns         805  22pts
  4. Steve Miller              637  31pts
  5. Martin W-Jones        77  43pts