Birkenhead Radio Sailing & Power Club
Please note that due to the relatively cold weather we are experiencing at the moment, the lake is currently frozen (3 times as thick on Thursday than Wednesday) and not expected to thaw by sailing on Saturday.
We have therefore taken the decision to cancel sailing on Saturday this week and hope that if temperatures rise next week sailing may resume from Wednesday 14th. Lake conditions will be reviewed again next week.
Our reporter on the spot had this to say about today:
“A good turnout for the DF65’s today, but unfortunately we were unable to sail due to a combination of ice and no wind. Neil, who was back from his holiday, made a welcome tea for everyone and the World was put to rights”
Hopefully there will be more wind for Saturday (10/12/22) when it’s the next round of the DF/RG65 Winter Series. The forecast is reasonable for wind and hopefully the ice will have cleared. Get your entries in!
Sailors arriving for the second IOM Winter Series were disappointed to find little breeze blowing and the only ripples were from the flock of Canadian Geese patrolling the lake. However the first race started with a very light breeze generally from the NE (and so almost across the lake) but with some large shifts that could see it come from the East or North during any race. Two boats missed the start and one pulled out early on leaving only seven to fight it out for line honours which went to Brad Gibson sailing a borrowed TS2. Race 2 again started with only 7 boats and this time it was John Brierley’s turn to take the win, which he then repeated in Race 3. Brad then had another win in Race 4, with Martin Roberts finally getting into a groove, winning Races 5 and 6 before a break for a drink. 
After the break, Paul Allen took his first win in Race 7 and then Graham Elliott won the eighth and final race in very light winds. As there was very little breeze, the fleet unanimously agreed to call it a day and have an early finish. This left John as a clear winner, with Brad in second and a consistent Alan Bennett in third.
Thanks must go to Dave Williams for running the racing today (plus taking a few photos of the “action”) and for Bernie who helped out Dave and made everyone warm drinks.
There was a good A+ breeze from the clubhouse end and so the existing mark positions made for a decent one lap windward leeward course. Malcolm Harvey opted to be RO for today as his main masthead mainsail tie failed just before racing was due to start, but racing still got underway on time at 11:00.
Peter Baldwin took the wins in races one, two and four, with John Carlin races three and five. Mike De St Paer then had a string of 3 wins in races six to eight before John took race 9, leaving Mike with the win in the final two lap race 10. Many races were very close throughout the fleet, with one race having 4 boats cross the line within a single second, but Malcolm coped admirably on his own, to separate the boats and get the finish order. The breeze did pick up slightly during the morning and the gusts caused a number of boats to lose control downwind, but it was never for too long and some boats even managed to escape falling over completely.
With excellent consistency and the highest number of wins (4) Mike took the morning, with John five points behind in second and Peter a further two points behind in third.
Thanks to our RO Malcolm having his tablet with him to score today, here are the full results. These were available to view soon after racing had finished for the day.
Wednesday November 23rd saw the sort of weather conditions that had even the best skippers despairing. We started with near flat calm, a start-line at the clubhouse end of the pond that was heavily biased to port and finished with an eighth race with a storming downwind start. On any single leg, the wind could come from dead astern to dead ahead within the space of a few metres. Between the marks, success seemed to depend on working out whence the wind was blowing and adjusting sails and course accordingly. In all, it was a most testing day. Mike De St. Paer rose above these conditions and came in a well deserved first with ten points, closely followed by James Douglas on 11.
Results after 8 Races and 2 discards
A good A+ wind from the Clubhouse end greeted the 15 keen sailors. Alan Watkinson volunteered to be RO and was able to keep the racing at a good pace managing to run 10 races. The wind although strong at times did ease off during the racing causing the usual problems of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Mike and John managed the conditions well taking most of the wins between themselves. Clive Warren, new to radio sailing took 3rd overall with a very consistent run of top 4 positions.
After a quick lunch break, 8 DF95s took to the water sailing the same course as the DF65s with a volunteer RO Paul Little, many thanks go to him on behalf of the “fleet”. Racing to the first mark was very evenly matched as it was only after the spreader that the leading boats managed to pull away. 5 races were held with the last race “three laps”! Thanks go to John Beech for the photos of the DF95’s.
