c

Author: Paul Allen

Vane 36 Nationals


1 Shaun Wyeth 83%
2 Peter Hopkins 76%
3 Peter Stollery  71%
4Chris Harris      70%
5 Lewis Wyeth   60%
5 Graham Wyeth 60%
7 Derek Priestley 58%
8 Rob Vice         56%
9Peter Whiteside  51%
10 Martin Roberts 48%
11 Oliver Stollery  46%
12 Graham Reeves 45%
13 Zak Roberts 32%
13 Graham Elliott 32%
15  Dave Geldard 29 %
16  Mike Parkington 18%
17 Andy Fernie     17%
A selection of photos taken during Saturday is now available in the Gallery Section of the Birkenhead website.

IOM Winter Series 6 – Saturday 16th February

15 boats turned out with a good variance of designs, including V9’s, ‘Slimtel’, ‘Viper’, ‘Widget’, ‘Red Wine’, ‘TS2’ and ‘Britpop!’.
The wind was a little erratic though making the sailing interesting and making the fleet bunch together on many occasions but giving the tail enders a good chance to come through with the gusts.
Yet again the sportsmanship of all was extremely good and all rules and penalties were taken with no question.
Brad Gibson sailed a perfect 6 races before tea time with no one skipper giving him much to worry about. After tea in race 7, Sue Parkington sailed a great race chasing Brad all the way, unfortunately she dropped 2 places at the finish line when not realising it was the finishing leg.
As the ‘Beautiful South’ sang though it was Brad that made ‘The Perfect 10’ with the wind from the South, John Brierley sailed consistently to be runner up with Graham Elliott in 3rd and the returning Graham Birkett in 4th. This made for 4 different boats, all World Championship winning designs spanning over 20 years.
Thanks to Jack and Bernie for running the race and making the tea.

1st         Brad Gibson 2                     8pts
2nd       John Brierley 84               23pts
3rd       Graham Elliot 09             29pts
4th       Graham Birkett 133         34pts
5th       Bill Culshaw 21                  48pts
6th       Martin Roberts 32            54pts
7th       Neil Westbrook 03            55pts
8th       Lawrence Drennan 57     61pts
9th       Andrew Peter 66               64pts
10th      John Berry   12                   68pts
11th       Alan Watkinson 23          73pts     (one 4th)
12th      Mike Parkington   82      73pts
13th       Sue Parkington 86          84pts    (one 4th)
14th      Dave Williams 20             84pts
15th      Chris Chatfield 7               90pts
after 10 Races

 

Birkenhead members at the Marblehead Ranking #1 and DFTT #1&#2

Last weekend Birkenhead club members were competing at opposite ends of the country with the Marblehead ranking race in Poole and the DF TT series in Southport. The Poole event was the start of the qualifying for the World Championship in 2020 at West Kirby, and two members Bill Culshaw and Dave Potter made the long journey south. Bill had an excellent day finishing 6th including a race win and a 2nd and Dave’s new Starkers showed potential with a 2nd in one of the races. At Southport the DF club members of Alan Watkinson, Andrew Peters, Peter Baldwin and John Brierley arrived to find the lake frozen but after a delay of one hour the 35 competitors managed a good days sailing in A+ rig conditions. At the end of day one, John benefited from winning the last race to finish 3rd, with Peter in 7th and Alan and Andrew getting to grips with the A+ rigs as the day progressed.

On the Sunday there was again another delay for thicker ice and as only seven races could be achieved, the fact of only one discard was to make the racing tight across the fleet of 35 boats.  John was level on points with “Uncle Derek” but on count back had to settle for 2nd overall.  Peter had a late charge to finish 5th and Andrew and Alan had close competition all day .
Next weekend it is back to Gautby Rd for the next round of our Winter Series in IOM, Start time 1300. Come and join us at this Open Series.

IOM Winter Series 4

A welcome fleet of 15 boats for round 4 Of this years Birkenhead IOM winter series greeted our PRO Bernie McNulty under cold grey skies. A rigs were unanimously chosen with a light 3-8 knot SE wind blowing mostly straight down the course from the clubhouse end.

From the outset the usual names of Roberts, Potter, Brierley and Culshaw and Gibson got away well in the shifting conditions. Others to do well at times were locals Lawrence Drennon and Neil Westbrook with a podium heat finish apiece.
After 11 races in total were completed with 2 discards, Brad Gibson took the day with a score of only 9 points with his 23 year old ‘pimped’ boat that enjoyed the light conditions. Rounding out the podium were Bill Culshaw with another strong showing in second and John Brierley edging out Martin Roberts for third by a single point.
A number of both new and visiting skippers from as far north as Fleetwood and east of the Pennines with designs new and old enjoyed a great days sailing and we welcome more in future rounds. Plenty of advice and tuning tips were shared throughout the fleet with none more evident than top skipper Graham Elliott sharing the controls for the day with daughter Millie. Congratulations Millie in leading us to the windward mark in the penultimate race showing the rest of us how it’s done.
Our next round of the Winter Series is on February 2nd feel free to join us

1st      Brad Gibson                 9pts
2nd     Bill Culshaw                  23pts
3rd      John Brierley               30pts
4th      Martin Roberts           31pts
5th      Dave Potter                 41ots
6th      Lawrence Drennan    52pts
7th      Neil Westbrook            59pts
8th      Alan Watkinson           66pts
9th      Andrew Peter               75pts
10th    Gary Benson                  84pts
11th    Howard Garner             86pts
12th    John Berry                       94pts
13th   Michael Benson             103pts
14th    Phillip Davies                 119pts
15th    Millie Elliot                     120pts