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Author: Peter Baldwin

IOM Winter Series 2023/4 #5 – 24/2/24

Another excellent days racing for the IOM class for Round 5 of this years Winter Series at Birkenhead.

11 skippers were on the line for the 12pm start that included 2013 World Champion Rob Walsh from Fleetwood.

With a faint Westerly arriving on cue, racing got underway with a slightly reduced course length to compact the fleet. Early races were tight with an often congested windward mark needing a careful approach and the occasional slice of luck to get through cleanly. Graham Elliott, Brad Gibson and Rob were the early front runners with the odd boat length seperation at the finish.

By the time Race 4 got underway the breeze had strengthened a little with streaky gusts offering plenty of opportunty to climb or fall up the beats and extend or be swallowed up on the runs. Martin Roberts, Graham Birkett, Bill Culshaw and Alan Bennett started showing form with a number of solid races splitting the early leading group.

At the halfway point a break was taken for refreshments, a re-trim and a course change to lengthen and add a spreader mark at the windward end of the course (thank you Martin).

It was great to have Guy Cowper IOM racing with us for the first time with his Lintel MMX and see the rapid improvement in his racing over the course of the day.

Alan Watkinson came out of the blocks strongly to lead the fleet up the first beat of Race 7 and enjoy mixing with the leading pack. The improvement was noticeable across the fleet with the distance from first to last narrowing in the stronger breeze.

Both Graham Elliott and Rob Walsh took race wins with some tight covering duels taking place on the final beats to the finish.

In the end after 12 races (2 Discards) it was Brad who took the day from Rob with Graham slipping out of contention in the latter races.

Thanks once again to Dave Williams for being RO with great assistance from Neil Westbrook today.  Photos courtesy of Victoria Gibson and Dave Williams.
  1. Brad Gibson           42   BG                     13pts
  2. Rob Walsh               25   Britpop           19pts
  3. Graham Elliott      09   Britpop           32pts
  4. Martin Roberts     22    Chimera         39pts
  5. Bill Culshaw           21    Britpop            46pts
  6. Alan Bennett       186    Mirage             47pts
  7. Alan Watkinson   23    Britpop            76pts
  8. John Berry              12    Viper                 77pts
  9. Charles Legg          40   K2                      82pts
  10. Graham Birkett   133    Widget            89pts
  11. Guy Cowper            16    Lintel MMX  95pts

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2024 – 21/2/24

DF65’s

A forecast 20+ knots of breeze didn’t really materialise at Gautby road. Initial thoughts of B rig were changed to A, and in fact A+ would probably have been sailable.

The wind was approximately southerly, and once again very shifty although there was a bit more pressure today. The standard course from Saturday’s racing looked to be just about right, and although the line appeared to be starboard biased it turned out to be a pretty good compromise. In fact, the wind went gradually right over the morning’s sailing but even so it was possible to make a useful start from well down the line for most of the day.

14 skippers turned up to race, but perhaps this should be 13 plus 1 as John Brierley was really in a class of his own, winning 6 of the 9 races, and should probably have won another but was tagged and stopped at a start.

Racing was once again very close for much of the morning, and conditions meant that no one could relax at any part of a race. There was a certain amount of frustration at the shifts and flat spots which caught everyone out at some point.

Final results finished as shown below, with thanks again to Dave Williams for doing them:

  1. John Brierley                7 pts            6 wins
  2. Mike de St Paer          20 pts
  3. John Carlin                   21 pts             2 wins
  4. Neil Westbrook           25 pts             3 x 2nds
  5. Paul Plested                  25 pts
  6. James Douglas             26 pts            1 win
  7. Simon Bates                  36 pts
  8. Clive Warren                 37 pts
  9. Frans King                     57 pts
  10. John Beech                    59 pts
  11. Dave Williams              61 pts
  12. Richard Walker            65 pts
  13. Dave Howard                67 pts
  14. Malcolm Harvey          75 pts

DF95’s

Gautby Road never ceases to amaze us, and today was no different. During the last morning race for the 65s the wind dropped off, became more fluky and it didn’t look good for the afternoon.
A quick look at the lake prior to starting and A rigs were selected by the 6 skippers participating in the 95’s. The wind had filled in and swung round frum a South Easterly to a South Westerly, so still  coming over the houses but not as shifty as the morning.  The result of the change of direction necessitated a change of course. The Start Line was set at the club house end and a single buoy rounding to port located close to the pathway on the housing estate side was used as the windward mark ensuring a beat was necessary for rounding, returning to the gate at the clubhouse end.
As has been adopted, starts were self monitored and first to finish recorded the results.
Racing got underway and as is normal in the 95 fleet it was very competitive, there were still enough shifts and holes to catch the helms out, which led to the lead changing more than once.
It didn’t take long for the wind to increase in strength and after 3 races, it was decided to change to B Rigs. In truth a C Rig was probably needed but as 3 of the 6 didn’t have Cs we gave it a go with the B.  Race 4 and it didn’t take long for our first DNF, with Frans suffering rigging failure.  The boats were nosediving downwind and difficult to tack and we also lost Malcolm.  After finishing and with the wind building further still, Neil decided that discretion was better than valour and called it a day. This left Clive , Dave and John B to change to the C rigs.  In Race 5, unfortunately Dave suffered rigging failure (his new C rig had failed its first test) before he could even get on the water, the wind had turned even more and was virtually straight down the lake. The B rig was the perfect choice, “tackable” and no nose diving but a brisk walk / jog to keep up downwind was needed. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and possibly the best wind Gautby has seen on a Wednesday in a while, but with only 2 functioning boats it was more fun time than serious racing.
The results from first 4 races (to try and make it fair)
1.   Neil Westbrook      8pts     2 x win,  1 x 2
2.   Clive Warren          9pts     1 x win,  1 x 2,  2 x 3
3.   Dave Howard        12pts    1 x win,  1 x 2,  1 x 3
4.   John Beech             13pts                     1 x 2,  1 x 3
5.   Frans King             22pts
6.   Malcolm Harvey  23pts

DF/RG65 Winter Series 2023 #5 – 17/2/24

It was another light SE breeze again today, but this week we ran from the South bank walkway.  Once again the marks needed some adjustment and so Peter donned the waders and shifted things around to produce a reasonable windward/leeward course and with 3 DF65’s racing this week, a separate windward mark 10m downwind of the one set for the RG65’s.

We had an excellent turnout of ten RG65’s and three DF65’s, with the RG65’s mostly sailing with a full sized swing rig.  The wind looked fine for the swing rig during pre-race practice and up the first beat and then a prolonged gust hit the fleet downwind, with plenty of nosediving and some loss of control creating some position changes.  John Brierley led the race in his newly launched Ivy, until the last beat when he was overtaken by both Bill Culshaw and Alan Bennett.  Wins were spread around the front of the fleet in this first half with Graham Elliott and Alan taking two wins each and Peter Baldwin one.

After a break for lunch, Alan had the best afternoon session with three wins, John picking up two and Graham managing a further one.  Dave Williams had a better afternoon sporting an A swing rig and this helped improve his overall position to finish ahead of Martin Roberts who had gear failure in race 9 and missed the final 4 races.  A great afternoons sailing marred only slightly by the appearance of rain for the last few races.

Many thanks to Neil Westbrook who acted as RO for the afternoon and Dave Williams for working out the scores at the end of the day.

  1. Alan Bennett            Ivy                     68  16pts
  2. Graham Elliott        Electronica     09  26pts
  3. John Brierley            Ivy                     84  27pts
  4. Peter Baldwin          Uno                   63   32pts
  5. Bill Culshaw              Ivy                     21   37pts
  6. Dave Williams          Uno                   33   72pts
  7. Martin Roberts        Pocket Rocket  133  74pts
  8. John Berry                 Uno                         71  74pts
  9. Alan Watkinson      Uno                         23  78pts
  10. Charles Legg             Uno                       26   79pts
DF65 Report
Only 3 skippers turned up for the 5th Winter Series but that didn’t spoil the enjoyment. We were greeted at the lake by a South Easterley breeze, from the clubhouse end and after Peter had shuffled the buoys around to produce a biased start line, good  beat to a windward mark (as there were only 3 of us there was no need for a spreader mark), so it was straight back diagonally down the full length of the lake to a gate, with 2 laps set, then finishing half way up the lake. We shared the start with the 10 RGs, they had a separate windward mark about 10m further on as well as a spreader which proved almost a perfect handicap and meant the fleet was close with the DFs and RGs finishing at the same time
A+ rigs were the order of the day, and with the wind direction coming through the houses there were plenty of shifts to pick, but picking the right one was important. The wind built over the first couple of races and nose diving downwind added to the tricky conditions but after a couple of more races it subsided and remained  good A+ conditions.
The racing between the DFs was very close and although Paul didn’t get the win he was craving for, he did lead around the last mark on more than 1 occasion losing it only on the final beat to the line, and considering he is new to RC sailing, once he sorts his fingers from his thumbs out, it won’t be long before he gets his first win!! The main battle for honours was between Tony and Clive and it took a win in the last race for Clive to edge the days honour. 12 Races were sailed and a big thank you to Neil Westbrook who was our RO for the day,
1    Clive Warren            14pts    6 x wins,  6 seconds
2    Tony Sedgewick     14pts    6 x wins, 4 seconds
3     Paul Plested             25pts    2 x seconds

 

DF65 Social Racing 2024 – 14/2/24

Continued strong DF65 turnout today with 13 skippers, all of whom might have been forgiven for thinking it was Groundhog day at Gautby road. No sign of Punxsutawney Phil, the legendary groundhog alleged to herald spring and, for the second week running, not much sign of any wind either.

It blew in fits and starts approximately from the clubhouse, and the usual course was used with a fairly generous top spreader to try and get away from the flat patch in the top corner out into the wind.

The line looked to be somewhat starboard end biased, but Frans did a race one flyer start from the Port end, and although eventually overhauled after sailing into one of the many flat spots made everyone realise that there were some options at the start.

It seemed to pay to try and sail just outside the windward side flat patch to pick up a lift into the windward mark, but every race seemed to bring exceptions with those sailing close along the windward shore winning out, and in other races getting completely beached while others sailed round – or even either side of them.

Mike dSP eventually ran out the winner with 3 wins, and all agreed after 2 hours that 8 races were enough for the day.

Thanks once again to Dave Williams for sorting out the result with averages, which finished as shown below:

  1. Mike de St Paer      9 pts   3 wins
  2. Alan Watkinson     13 pts  1 win
  3. Andrew Potter        19 pts 2 wins
  4. James Douglas       20 pts
  5. Neil Westbrook     21.6 pts  1 win / 2 seconds
  6. Paul Plested            21.6 pts  1 win / 1 second
  7. John Carlin              31 pts
  8. Dave Williams       39 pts
  9. Charles Legg          40 pts
  10. Richard Walker     41 pts
  11. Dave Howard         46 pts
  12. Frans King              52 pts
  13. Malcolm Harvey   62 pts