DF95’s
Nine skippers turned out for the DF95 morning racing to be greeted by a lovely sailing day by Gautby Rd standards. A top end A rig wind and blue sky with sun, there was a chill provided by the easterly breeze, which in practical terms was straight down the lake with a touch of industrial estate thrown in to make things interesting. Neil Westbrook offered to be our RO for the morning, and our thanks go out to him. The course was set utilising the full length of the lake with a windward mark, spreader and a gate then back to the finish half way down the lake.Neil got us underway on time, and straight away was brought into action with a general recall. Lessons learnt, and for the rest of the morning the skippers behaved themselves. Racing was competitive, with plenty of private battles throughout the fleet.
The first race saw Clive lead the way from start to finish with John B chasing him in second and Alan third. Race 2 and 3 and John after tweaking his set up John B got into his stride to record 2 straight wins followed by a much improved performance by Dave W taking 2 second places, Alan and Martin filling up the top 3. Race 4 and Richard lead round the final mark with John right behind, it looked like Richard was going to take the win until 10m from the line John overtook him. But in true style Gautby Rd had its own plan, and John B then got in trouble and let John C through to take the win with Clive second and Phyl third. john B and Richard finally finishing in fourth and fifth respectively. Unfortunately Dave W lost his rudder servo during this race and had to retire from the rest of the morning.
Races 5, and 6 and Clive and John B shared the top spots with one win each and one second each, leaving John C and Phyl to share the third places. Alan decided that the wind had build sufficiently to change down to a B rig after race 5 so missed out on race 6, 7 and 8, and true to form John and Clive had one win and one second each with John C and Alan with his B rig taking the third spots
It was a great sail and enjoyed by all on the bank, thanks again to Neil for being RO allowing the sailors to make the most of the conditions and Dave Williams for yet more photos.RESULTS after 8 races and 2 discards
- John Brierley 8pts 4 wins
- Clive Warren 9pts 3 wins
- John Carlin 20pts 1 win
- Alan Watkinson 21pts
- Phyl Fanning 29pts 2 x 3rd
- Martin Wittingham Jones 29pts 1 x 3rd
- Richard Walker 34pts
- Steve Miller 47pts
- Dave Williams 53pts
DF65’s
Only 4 boats took to the water for the afternoon session of DF65 sailing, which was a shame given the glorious sailing conditions. The conditions were very similar to those in the morning but the wind had strengthened a little, meaning B rig was the choice, which proved to be the right one although there was a little nose diving in some of the gusts.
Club member Dave Howard turned up to spectate but was soon roped into being the RO. Dave was on his way back from the dentist after having an extraction so talking / understanding him was difficult.
The sailing was very enjoyable with Clive taking the 7 of wins and Sally picking up 1 win. Both Clive and Sally shared their boats with Dave as he hadn’t sailed since last summer, and he hadn’t lost his touch taking a 2 x seconds and was very unfortunate to when leading round the last mark to pick up a large bag on the keel which put him firmly last. Hopefully its wetted his appetite again and we look forward to seeing him next month. Meanwhile, Dave W and Phyl were having their own private battle with David taking 3rd place overall by a single point
Results 8 races 2 discards
- Clive Warren 6pts 6 wins
- Sally Collings 11pts 1 win
- Phyl Fanning 18pts
- David White 19pts
- Dave Howard 23pts (3 x races and 3 x dns)
