DF65’s
Paul Plested set the pace in the first race, followed over the line by Mike De St Paer, with Clive 3rd. Guy Cowper, who is only just getting to grips with his recently acquired 65, finished 4th, which proved to be his joint lowest result of the day.
As the breeze came and went there was plenty of opportunity for places to change and, whilst it could pay on occasion to hit a corner on the beat, it was safer to try and keep the boat moving up the middle. Despite doing this Paul in race two lost out to Guy, who seemed to have boat speed to spare, on the final beat. Clive posted another 3rd place, just pipping Charles Legg on the line.
By race three there was enough breeze to use the full length of the lake and the usual windward mark with a spreader was introduced. Clive got away cleanly and lead to the finish, followed by Paul and then Mike.
Races four and five had the same podium positions with Paul bagging two 1sts, Guy two 2nds and Clive two thirds. Dave Williams took one of the 4ths and Charles took the other, both sailing well on the day just behind the front runners in several races. Mike opted to call it a day at this point as he wasn’t enjoying the conditions…but then who was.
Clive took race six closely followed by Paul at the line, with Guy in third. Richard Walker, who had a better second half in the morning’s racing, after some serious boat tweaks took 4th spot. Guy, who had been consistently quick all day bagged his second win in race seven with Charles just pipping Paul on the line to take 2nd.
DF95’s
The afternoon brought a little more wind than the morning session for the 65s, still generally from the clubhouse end of the lake but there were directional swings along the length of the lake and picking these would prove critical to getting a good finishing result.
Eight skippers including a guest, Mathew Pritchard from Great Orme MYC, took to the water for a prompt start on time. The same standard course as the morning was set.
There were a number of personal battles within the fleet but you couldn’t concentrate too much on these as the racing was super tight and this was demonstrated by 6 of the 8 sailors taking a podium position in at least one race. Paul was by far the pick of the bunch posting 7 bullets and 2 second places but the truth is not reflected in the results as he was pushed all the way to the line in almost every race with a couple of boat lengths making the difference. Clive took the other 2 race wins and backed this up with consistent results in the top 4 places. Stuart was consistent posting 3 seconds and 3 thirds but slipped back in a couple of races but is showing great boat speed. The crunch battle of the afternoon was between Guy and his friend Mathew and the pressure seemed to get to Guy. Mathew just managed to hold the bragging rights by 2 points in the end, with Stuart close behind. Malcolm and Steve also had a private battle with Steve prevailing, thanks to a third place in the last race. After 9 races, it was time to call a halt, and retire to the clubhouse to warm up.
A very enjoyable afternoon of DF95 sailing, with some good banter on the sidelines and some tricky sailing conditions picking the right shifts and being in the right area of the lake to pick the wind shifts. Congrats to Paul showing a master class in being at the right place at the right time (for most of the time)
Thanks also to Malcolm for the A fleet results and Clive for the photos.
