DF65’s
Another excellent 65 fleet turnout today, with twelve skippers ready to race. Lovely blue sky and – slightly unusually for Gautby road – lovely blue water as well but with a cold South Easterly breeze which had various folks looking for extra layers of insulation. The usual course with the start at the far end and a nice wide line allowing a really good choice of start position.
Paul was fast straight away with wins in races one and two and maintained a slight but significant boatspeed edge the whole day. James won race three, and then it was business as usual again for Paul in race four. Very close racing meant there had now been four different second place boats in four races, Clive, Mike, Paul and James. James then sailed very consistently to score seconds in races five and six, while Clive and Mike counted some rather variable results by comparison.
The final three races were a slight variation with Mike scoring one, one, three against Paul’s two, two, and one point two as RO, however by this stage Paul was long gone leaving James, Clive and Mike to fight it out for second. Clive was unlucky to have to count a seventh in the last race with Mike just making it to second in front of James by half a point.
As well as sailing consistently well Paul was visibly the quickest boat on the track, and although he was pushed at various stages ran out a clear winner. Very competitive racing again with a few OCS calls and turns. It was great to see Neil racing again after a bit of a layoff and he was unlucky to get tagged and suffer a broken mainsheet which meant he missed the last two races.
Thanks to Dave for getting us out and started on time and for the photos once again, and to Malcolm for collating the results which are shown below using the Afleet software.
DF95’s
The afternoon conditions were very similar to the morning with the wind from the east, and whilst this looked a steady breeze basically straight down the lake the reality had some large windshifts which switched the prominent tack from port to starboard along the length of the lake coupled with a few smaller shifts to keep helms on their toes. The sun shone and it was a good A rig setup, an extended final beat was set to provide a full length beat. 6 boats were ready to start on time at 13-30. A self monitored start and first to finish recorded the final positions.
Race 1 and it didnt take long to lose our first casualty, when rounding the gate mark in third place Paul suffered control issues which kept him out for the rest of the afternoon, a shame as he sailed so well in the morning. Martin sailing his new hull for the first time showed good race speed finishing second behind Clive with Alan third. Race 2 and this set the tone for the next 2 races with Clive taking the win and Alan getting ever quicker in second, with close battles for third, Malcolm taking it in the 2
nd race and Martin in the 3rd. Race 4 and 5 and Alan continued his improvement and took the race wins, with Clive second and John finally getting his boat performing taking two third spots.
Race 6 and It was Clives turn to return to winning ways, with John making further improvent taking second, Alan would have finished third but a lapse in concentration saw him heading for the windward mark and missing the finishing line, gifting third spot to Malcolm. Race 7 Unfortunately Alan had to leave, Clive handed himself a starting Handicap, starting at the leeward gate marks whilst the rest used the standard start line. This worked well
and provided a tight finish, althoough Clive finally caught them up 3/4 of the way up the final beat with Malcolm second and Martin third. Race 8 with a similar starting arrangement, this time the fleet, held Clive off agin until very close to the finish line and although he caught Malcolm and Martin due to a coming together he couldnt catch John who took line honours.
Summary
Good social racing in the sunshine with a decent breeze. Competition through the fleet was split in 2 with Clive and Alan at the front and the others having their own very tight battle with a different outcome each race.
Thanks to Paul who stayed behind to RO a couple of races and take the photos and to Malcolm for tabling results in A Fleet
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.
