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Author: Peter Baldwin

DF95 Winter Series 2023 #5 – 6/4/24

After a forecast that promised 20 knots gusting 35, it was a surprise to find only a gentle breeze nearly down the lake.  All 10 sailors setup with their A rigs and Peter donned the waders to move the marks around to provide a reasonable windward/leeward course.

Just before the start time of 12:00, the wind had increased and the strength of the gusts was such that most sailors opted to change down to their B rig, with John Brierley, John Beech, Alan Watkinson and Peter Baldwin the only ones left in A.

Peter had a great start and won six of the 7 races sailed in the first session whilst continuing to (only just) manage with his A rig.  Occasionally losing control, there was only one race where it took so long to recover that he dropped three places to the chasing B rig boats.

John Brierley had an early exit after a boat mechanical issue that couldn’t be resolved at the club, leaving just 9 boats to fight it out for the rest of the day. Mike De St Paer had a great start and was often in the lead at the first mark, only to be overtaken by Peter when the wind dropped on the run and also had some bad luck with the gusts.  After some early problems and a change of rig in Race 2, Alan had some great results, culminating in a win in Race 6.  Paul Plested, Frans King and Dave Howard also had podium positions at some point during the afternoon, producing some close but fair racing especially considering the gusty conditions, when it was difficult to ensure that your boat kept clear of those around you.

After an extended first session of 7 races, a short breeak was called and when the fleet resumed, Peter was now in a B rig, but we should probably have all been in C as the gusts had increased significantly with some of them coming down vertically as the wind had veered more to the South and therefore more over the houses than earlier.

At the end of race 9 and with concerns over boat and rig damage, it was decided to call an end to racing rather than slogging on with a smaller rig.  Full results below after Malcolm scored at the end of racing using AFleet.  Sincere thanks must go to Paul’s wife Sharon for acting as our RO today, keeping score and allowing us all to race.

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2024 – 3/4/24

DF65’s

Twelve DF65 sailors arrived today to be greeted by persistent drizzle and not much breeze, however the day got better as reported below.

To begin with the breeze was about southerly, with the usual flat area in the clubhouse corner. Dave and Mike replaced all the marks which had been removed from the lake for the 36 vane event, and Dave had the foresight to lay a start and gate at both ends of the lake.

Racing started in this very light and patchy breeze, with four winners (Andrew / Mike / Alan / James) in the first four races, and just as everyone was wishing for some breeze there was a 180deg shift and everything started again from the clubhouse end in a very gradually increasing N.W. breeze. Dave’s south end start line worked well as it was tricky to decide a sweet spot on the line, but James once again aced the next races to win four in a row, and after 8 races ran out a comfortable winner.

Dave sailed very consistently to come second ahead of Mike who had a couple of wins but was less consistent and had to take a couple of self-inflicted penalties after hitting marks.

Another day of tight racing in tricky conditions. Well done James and thanks as usual to Dave for the results which ended as follows:

  1. James Douglas               7pts     4 wins
  2. Dave Williams              16 pts
  3. Mike de St Paer            18 pts    2 wins
  4. Sally Collings               21 pts
  5. Paul Plested                  24 pts
  6. Alan Watkinson          25 pts     1 win
  7. John Carlin                    27 pts
  8. Neil Westbrook           30 pts
  9. Andrew Potter             34 pts     1 win
  10. Richard Walker           40 pts
  11. John Beech                    47 pts
  12. Malcolm Harvey         51 pts

DF95’s

Just 5 boats ventured out with A rigs with the breeze proving too much after two races. So four then raced with B rigs, but after a further two races, two of these made the sensible decision to call it a day. The final pair then struggled on for 2 more races, before packing up as they should probably have dropped to C rigs.                   #Breezyafternoon

MYA Vane 36 Nationals – 30 & 31st March 2024

After 16 races over the weekend the overall results were as follows with a very close finish and some tight position scores down the sheet:

  1. Peter Whiteside        64pts
  2. Chris Harris                63pts
  3. Derek Priestley          42pts
  4. Oliver Stollery           40pts
  5. Sam Roberts               39pts
  6. Peter Stollery             29pts
  7. Amber Geldard          24pts
  8. Zak Roberts                19pts

Report to follow in due course hopefully with some more photos.

Recent Successes by Club Members at Open events

On the 17th March, 3 members travelled to Fleetwood for their Mayoral Cup IOM Open.  With 18 entries, Brad Gibson in his new “Post Punk” design claimed top spot with a dominating 12 wins from the 14 races sailed.  Graham Elliott (Britpop!) was second and Peter Baldwin (Britpop!) fifth.

Over the weekend of 23/24 March the RG65 Flanders Cup was held in Belgium.  This was attended by club members Graham Elliott (Electronica) and Bill Culshaw (Ivy) who ended up in 3rd and 5th place (in a competitive European field of 30 boats) in what was a windy event.  Unfortunately, the website with the full results and photos has currently been suspended for some reason.  I just have the following low resolution photo of the final score sheet:Meanwhile John Brierley, John Carlin, Clive Wareen and Peter Baldwin were all competing in Rounds 5 (DF65) and 6 (DF95) of the DFTT being held at Lincoln over the same weekend (23/24 March).

Saturday was probably as breezy as the Flanders Cup in Beligium, starting with B and then C rigs needed as the wind picked up on the DF65.  John Brierley had a storming final set of results finishing on top with Peter in fourth, John Carlin 16th and Clive 19th in a fleet of 28 boats.

Sunday in the DF95 was breezy, but not as much as the Saturday.  Starting in C rig, the fleet ended up in A rig with the wind nearly switching off in the final race.  After an excellent start, Peter faded to finish in 5th, with John Brierley 6th, John Carlin in 10th and Clive 28th in a bigger fleet of 39 boats.

A report for each day with results and the current TT overall position can be viewed via the following link (scroll down for the reports and results for each day):

https://dfracinguk.com/results-24/

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2024 – 27/3/24

DF65’s

All the signs were there for a good morning of A rig racing for the 14 helms, with the breeze straight down the lake from the clubhouse as we arrived and even as most boats went on the water a few minutes before the start.  Then, a heavy rain squall flattened the boats and soaked the competitors for a couple of minutes before the clock went on.  The rain thankfully stopped, but took most of the wind with it and made it veer through at least 45 degrees, so that by the time we started, the key skill (or was it luck?) was to work out where the most breeze might be on the course to take you to the windward mark the quickest (and it was often not the shortest route).

The conditions were not to the liking of Mike dsp and John C and they both dropped out after a few races along with Paul Little who had things to attend to.  This was a pity for them, as the breeze during the later races was probably the best of the morning.  During the seven races completed, the wins were shared between 4 helms.  The winner sometimes being decided on the final beat into the finish when the leader at the gate could be becalmed in the middle of the lake heading nicely for the finish, whilst a later boat in the fleet sailed up the far bank and got a very nice breeze into the finish.

Peter Baldwin gained 3 wins, James Douglas two, with Neil Westbrook and Andrew Potter taking one each.  The morning however went to James with a very consistent set of results, just one point ahead of Peter, with Neil eight points adrift in third place.

  1. James Douglas              73   12pts
  2. Peter Baldwin               63   13pts
  3. Neil Westbrook            03   21pts
  4. Andrew Potter             194  22pts
  5. Clive Warren                  53   27pts
  6. Paul Plested                   54   28pts
  7. Alan Watkinson          373   33pts
  8. Simon Bates                   69   37pts
  9. Dave Williams                33   46pts
  10. Frans King                       95   51pts
  11. John Carlin                       11   58pts
  12. John Beech                       80  62pts
  13. Mike De St Paer              35  67pts
  14. Paul Little                         45  76pts

DF95’s

After the frustrations of racing the DF65 in the morning, unfortunately only 4 skippers turned out for the afternoon, partly due to the morning experience but other commitments also took their toll on the normal fleet.
For those that did stay there was a very pleasant surprise in store for them.  The very fluky southerly wind from the morning, was replaced with SE which was just enough of a shift to straighten the direction to not quite down the middle of the lake but took out a lot of the dead spots that were seen in the morning. Added to this it was strengthening throughout the afternoon and with some added sun it was a very enjoyable sail.
It was a good A rig wind at the start of the afternoon with a few shifts but no real holes to fall into. As is normal with Gautby Rd picking the right shift to tack on was imperative to stay in contention, and if you picked a wrong one and got headed you were suddenly tail end Charlie. The same course as the morning was used, with one lap sprints to maximise the number of races. With only 4 boats although racing  was very light hearted, and more social than racing, but most enjoyable. Unfortunately Alan had to leave after 5 races for a prior commitment  after taking 4 wins and a 3rd..  The remainder continued to enjoy themselves in the freshening wind that would have been good for a B rig in the later stages but we all stayed on A’s. After 11 races grey clouds started to threaten so we call it a day.
Final results didnt really matter but Alan had the bragging rights with 4 wins, John B 3 wins, with Clive and Dave both on 2.

IOM Winter Series #6 – 23/3/24

The weather forecast from a week out had strong WNW winds predicted and in a rare occurance, held true for the final round of the 2023-24 IOM Winter Series at Birkenhead.

With a number of skippers away representing the club at events abroad (Belgium RG 65 Nationals) and around the country (DF TT at Lincoln), it was an eager 6 skippers who fronted with C suits bar one, firmed up for action.

As is his standard, PRO Dave Williams had us away at 12pm sharp with a course stretching the best part of the lakes length. Early races were hard fought between Brad Gibson, Alan Bennett and Martin Roberts, with Brad breaking for a number of early wins.

The race pace was quicker than normal in the conditions with all enjoying the quick beats to windward and even quicker runs to the gate set deep in the chop at the leeward end. The first six races flew by and a break was had for refreshments in the warmer confines of the clubhouse. 

Martin came out of the blocks firing for race 7 to take a well fought win from Brad. Graham Birkett was enjoying a slight ease in the wind with his rejuvenated Widget sporting a B rig and throwing no end of spray on the runs.(Best get the C rig done Graham!). Better races were also had by both Alan Watkinson and Charles Legg.

Race 8 again had Martin leading only to find trouble at the gate with misfortune that took him from a further push fir the top placings. Brad, Alan B and Graham were swapping places in some close races with Alan taking a strong race 10 win.

With 3 o clock approaching it was agreed that after 13 races that all had enjoyed the day and a close to racing ws called as the skies opened and the WNW bared its teeth.

In the wrap up it was Brad who took the day with 11 wins for a score of 11 points from 13 races. Alan Bennett took a deserved second place and the perseverance of Graham Birkett saw him round out the podium with third.

Thanks as always to Dave Williams and Neil Westabrook for running a great days racing. We look forward to the start of our IOM Summer Series on April 27 and invite anyone looking to join us for some final practice in for the Nationals at Poole the following week.  Folow the link to enter or register your interest.

  1. Brad Gibson            42  Post Punk    11pts
  2. Alan Bennett         180  Britpop!       23pts
  3. Graham Birkett    133  Widget          37pts
  4. Martin Roberts     122  Chimera       42pts
  5. Alan Watkinson     23  Britpop!        55pts
  6. Charles Legg           40  K2                   58pts

Best of luck to our Vane 36 skippers over Easter and our travelling Marblehead and IOM skippers at upcoming Ranking events early in April.

Pics by Victoria Gibson