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Author: Peter Baldwin

DF95 & DF65 Social Racing 2025 – 2/4/25

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
  1. John Brierley                               8pts       4 wins
  2. Clive Warren                               9pts       3 wins
  3. John Carlin                                20pts        1 win
  4. Alan Watkinson                       21pts
  5. Phyl Fanning                            29pts        2  x 3rd
  6. Martin Wittingham Jones   29pts       1 x 3rd
  7. Richard Walker                        34pts
  8. Steve Miller                                47pts
  9. 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
  1. Clive Warren          6pts        6 wins
  2. Sally Collings       11pts        1 win
  3. Phyl Fanning        18pts
  4. David White          19pts
  5. Dave Howard       23pts    (3  x races and 3 x dns)

 

 

 

 

IOM Winter 2024/5 #6 – 29/3/25

A reduced fleet due to National events afar presented themselves for the Midday start with a patchy SW breeze arcing across the lake.

PRO Dave Williams ably assisted by Neil Westbrook opted for a clubhouse end startline for race 1 with skippers timing their runs for an eased shhets first leg. It quickly became apparent that driving deep in gusts and trimming in for height in the lighter spots would take full concentration. Race winners up until the halfway break were Brad 3, Rob McIntosh 2 and Martin Roberts with 1, plus Andrea Roberts well in the mix with the leading pack. Alan Watkinson sadly succumbed early on to electrical issues.

After a biTE to eat and a drink, skippers returned to conditions swinging a little further to the right and a decision was taken for Race 8 to start from the far end with a more traditional windward beat forming over the course. While the leading group of 4 continued their tussle with often a struck match, or secret squall between them, others were getting to grips with the conditions. Our ‘Rookie’ Noah McIntosh was improving at a rate that saw him mixing with the lead group for extended periods, claiming a 4th place finish. Both Phyl Fanning and John Beech being new to the fleet showed continued improvement over the day to a level where latter races were finished with the full fleet on the same leg in at times top limit gusts and tricky shifts.

A good day across the board saw Brad take a closely fought win from Martin and Rob back in third. Once again, thanks to Dave and Neil for a superb effort in at time trying conditions.

Our next Race Day is on the 12th of April as the final hitout for club members and guests before the Nationals at Lincoln over the Easter Break. Entries can be made on the link below to join us for some of the UKs best IOM racing.

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2025 – 26/3/25

DF65’s

Early race conditions (c) Dave Williams
Race 4 Leeward gate (c) Dave Williams

Another light wind Wednesday morning greeted those that arrived to sail.  There were occasional Westerly gusts, but they were very short lived and as the first “race” started at 11:00, there was the faintest breeze from the North (or was it NE, perhaps South or maybe SW??).  A simple course set out by our RO Dave Williams, only occupied half the lake using the finish mark as a “Windward” mark, a spreader and the gate took 20 minutes for the first race.  This was enough for a few, who packed up and left, leaving the others to slug it out over a total of 8 races by 12:30.  To be fair, by the end of race 4, the Westerly breeze was sort of filling in and by the last three races, was a nice and reasonably steady A+ breeze and so the RO extended the course to run the whole length of the lake.

Race 7 (c) Paul Plested

The racing today ended up being a sparring match between James and Peter, who traded wins and podium positions throughout the morning. They each ended up counting the same results, with James just gaining the upper hand by winning the last race.  There were some good results from a number in the fleet with Sally Collings, Alan Watkinson, Paul Little, Mike de St Paer, Malcolm Harvey and Clive Warren featuring close to the front of the fleet at some point during the morning.  Having started with 10 boats we were down to only 7 for the last two races.

Many thanks to Dave for starting and finishing the races and to Malcolm for processing the results again.  Photos from Dave and Paul show the range of conditions.

Final Race Conditions (c) Paul Plested

DF95’s

With only 3 boats around, the DF95 session was more one of training than racing this afternoon.

Next week will be the first wednesday of April and so the DF95’s will occupy the morning slot and the DF65 the afternoon one.

RG65 TT2 2025 – 23/3/25

Another day and a different breeze – one that was difficult to find as it kept itself well hidden for most of the morning.  Our RO and chief wader Paul Plested was kept busy moving marks around in an attempt to create a course that allowed for some racing without it being a procession.  We started sailing from the clubhouse end, then the wind had other ideas and we sailed the opposite way around for a short while before returning to something like the original course.  How long should the course be was the key question today as at times, race duration extended to 20 minutes for two laps and so had to be shortened and then lengthened again when the breeze picked up towards the end of racing.  Paul did a sterling job in both trying to keep racing going whilst also rescuing boats that seem to wrap themselves on the mark tubes with insufficient brreze to remove themselves.  The breeze did pick up and straighten to come from the far end for the last three races, but after the earlier difficult sessions racing was finished after 12 races.

Onto the racing; today it was John Tushinghams’ turn to be leader of the pack with five wins from the 12 races sailed and take the overall win.  Next in terms of race wins was Tobias Laux with 4 wins, but relegated to third place by Alan Bennett with just two (all sailing Ivy’s) and Peter Baldwin (Uno) with one. Bill Culshaw sailed consistently all day and took the fourth place overall, leaving a clutch of four Ivy’s at the top of the leader board.  Peter Baldwin and Robert Macintosh were both sailing Uno’s and picked up fifth and sixth spots.

We should have had fifteen boats racing today, but unfortunately one boat had terminal arm winch failure before we started sailing.  Another couple of boats had issues which put paid to their event and an early homeward journey.  Chris Elliott was one of these, which was unfortunate as he had shown good boat speed in a number of races, but unfortunately was having issues for most of the day, which had stopped him from performing well overall.

Special mention to our Junior member George, who stuck at it, with what can only be described as very tricky wind conditions finishing 11th overall with a number of eight and ninth places and a prize for being first junior.

Thanks go once again to Paul Plested and wife Sharon for running the racing assisted today by Malcolm Harvey carrying out the scoring and for Joss managing the galley once again as well as bringing yet more cookies after we had eaten most of yesterdays batch.  Paul also found time when not in the waders to take more photos.

The next RG65 TT’s are at Fleetwood over the weekend of 12/13th April, with an NoR promised soon.

RG65 TT1 & RG65 Winter 2024/5 #6 – 22/3/25

As sailors and the event team started to arrive, there was already a nice ESE breeze straight down the lake from the clubhouse end.  Our RO, Paul Plested soon donned the waders and worked with the Commodore to set out a windward leeward course starting at the far end of the lake.  Setting a good start line proved to be a bit tricky as the wind was having difficulty on deciding whether it was from the top left or right corner.

After a short briefing, the fleet of 17 RG65’s got started on time in a decent mid to top suit A swing rig breeze, with just a couple of boats using a full sized conventional rig.  The day was sailed at a decent but steady pace of 4 races followed by a break for a drink or lunch, with 16 races completed by the time the wind shut down (well actually reversed direction!) at around 16:00.

The day belonged to Alan Bennett sailing an Ivy with 7 wins, followed by Tobi Laux (another Ivy) with four, Graham Elliott (Electronica) with three, then Martin Roberts (Uno) and Bill Culshaw (Ivy) with one each.  Aside from these race winners, a number of boats had some good results and even had the lead at some point, but unfortunately never quite made that elusive first place.  Chris Elliott had a  number of seconds after a difficult start to the day missing the first two races with gear problems. Peter Baldwin also had a good day, but never managed to capitalise on some decent positions mid race.Vernon Appleton and Roger Hopper were also going well  with Vernon picking up a second and third during the day and based upon his speed later in the day, may well be better placed tomorrow.

As the full results sheet below will show, Alan Bennett not surprisingly won the day on 25 points, with Tobias Laux second on 32 points and then Graham Elliott in third on 41.  It was close for fourth to seventh place with only 6 points separating these 4 boats.

Out thanks go to our RO Paul Plested and his assitant wife Sharon, Joss in the galley for making drinks and some great cookies and also to Paul for some cracking photos.