Author: Peter Baldwin

DF65’s

A slightly depleted field of six skippers arrived to sail at Gautby road to very little wind and some significant flat patches on the water. The wind direction was approximately south or even south with a bit of east, which was strange as at the coast it was a solid 20mph south south west.

Racing started using the usual course which was a reasonable fit without adjustment. As so often the line looked rather pin biased, but the very shifty conditions meant this turned out not to be too important. The racing was self monitored with the first over the line doing the scoring.

The first four races took about 40 minutes and a short adjournment was proposed by Dave as the wind showed signs of a major shift. This turned to be a good call as by 12,15 the wind had filled in from approximately North West, although was still very irregular and shifty, and the start was moved down to the club end.

Three more races were completed by 12.45 giving one discard. The conditions remained extremely tricky but just as the 65s were finishing showed signs of filling in a bit.

There was very close racing, despite the conditions, with apparently hopeless positions being recovered and vice-versa. Clive and Mike won three each to finish one point apart, with Phyl Fanning winning Race 5 by a hefty margin with detail results shown below.

Thanks to Dave for doing the results sheet and keeping us all organised.

1. 35       Mike de St Paer         9pts   3 wins
2. 53       Clive Warren             10pts  3 wins
3. 33       Dave Williams           17pts
4. 1019   Malcolm Harvey      20pts
5. 550     Phyl Fanning            24pts  1 win
6. 39       Richard Walker        34pts

DF95’s

Three skippers stayed on from the mornings sailing to take part in the DFG95 who were joined by 3 more.

The wind was similar to the morning, predominantly from the SSW meaning from the housing estate which provides very shifty conditions as the wind filters through. For the majority of the time the wind was stronger than the morning and by the end of the session there was a case for changing rigs to a B. The shifts although very frustrating made the racing very interesting with, on many occasions places gained and lost right up to the finish line.

A similar windward/ leeward course was set, starting as the morning session finished with the start at the clubhouse end of the lake. With only six skippers the starts were self monitored and first to finish recorded the finishers. It was decided to go for quantity rather than quality so 1lap races were set with the final race 2 laps.

From the start Alan and Clive dominated the racing  taking 10 first places between them. Behind them there was a battle royal for the minor places, Phyll started well clocking up 2 third places, whilst Guy started poorly finishing last in the first 2 races. John was more consistent and Malcolm was feeling the effects from the mornings exertions until finally stopping after 8 races. Race 3 and Guy had sorted whatever problems he had and took the second place behind Clive and followed this up with a third in race 4. It was Johns turn to shine in race 5, after leading for most of the way managed to convert it to the win from Alan, whilst Guy and Phyll couldn’t be separated on the line taking equal 4^th place. As the wind strengthened John and Guy seemed to get into their stride and this culminated with Guy taking the race win in race 11, which was well deserved. After 12 races it was time to say farewell to another typical Gautby Rd day, full  of frustration at what might have been, for some but enjoyed by most.

Results  (12 races , 2  discards)

1. Clive Warren          14pts   6 wins
2. Alan Watkinson    16pts   4 wins
3. Guy Cowper            31pts   1 win
4. John Beech              33pts   1 win
5. Phyl Fanning          42pts
6. Malcolm Harvey   59pts

A light breeze from the Clubhouse end greeted the eight DF65 sailors for this stand alone Open event.  Unfortunately a combination of club skippers taking holidays and involvement in other sailing activities curtailed the number of club skippers and we only had one visitor in the form of Tony Broad from Great Orme MBC.

Peter moved a few marks around the lake to try and make a decent (some may differ on that description with the wind shifts we had!) windward/leeward course, starting at the far end of the lake.  After a short briefing from Paul Plested we started promptly at 10:00 under the watchful eye of Sharon Plested (Our combined RO and scorer for the day).

The wind was light, patchy and very shifty with some shifts making boats change tack without the helm moving his thumb.  Racing was slower than we had hoped and a short drinks break was taken after 65 minutes with only 3 races completed.  Peter Baldwin set the early pace with two wins, but Paul was close behind with a single win plus a second and Clive had a consistent 2,2,3 score.  Neil Westbrook was going well and managed a third in Race 2.

After the break we sailed another 4 races before stopping for lunch, with Peter picking up 3 of the wins, Clive taking the other win and a clutch of seconds.  Paul was still consistent with thirds and a second.  Tony Broad picked up a second in Race 5 after a slow start to the day getting used to the conditions.

Prior to starting the afternoon session, Peter and Paul assessed whether the course should be switched, but decided to leave it as it was, however after another single race, Peter donned the waders and shifted everything around, so that we started at the clubhouse and had a starboard hand windward mark close to the shore.  For the first couple of races this was okay, but the wind finally  began to blow down the lake by Race 10 and we rattled through the final seven races in good time before the 16:30 cutoff time.

Other than a slight hiccup in Race 11 when Peter picked up some debris, he continued to dominate the front of the fleet, with only Paul managing to take three wins from him in the nine races after lunch.  Clive was still doing well, but couldn’t quite match Paul for boat speed, especially later in the afternoon.  As the breeze picked up, both Duncan Neale and Tony had some better results, picking up seconds and thirds in a number of races.  Dave Williams was also finding the increase in breeze to his liking and picked up a third in Race 9.

Sadly, Neil Westbrook had a couple of issues on his boat.  After sorting the first problem, he started the next race only to have a power failure during that race and so decided to have an early bath.

So after 16 races, Peter was first overall, with Paul pulling away from Clive by the end in second place and Clive in third.  Duncan sailed well in the later breeze and managed to put a point between himself in fourth and Tony in fifth.

Thanks go to Sharon for being our “do it all” RO and taking photos of the racing, Chris Westbrook for looking after the galley and Dave Williams for photos of the prizewinners.  A good if at times frustrating day.  Our next open is for the DF95 on Saturday 1st November followed by the Strebor IOM Open on the 8th.

A game of two halves today as the lake had to be recommissioned ready for Saturday’s DF65 Open event. This involved replacing the marks and also doing a litter pick of the whole site.

Since algae stopped racing some 4 weeks ago, the marks had been removed and today recovered from the undergrowth around the lake. They were then re-roped with a new set of weights kindly obtained by Dave W.

Dave W collected the marks early on and then Peter, Dave White and PaulP  sortied the ground tackle, PaulP then went wading to replace the marks and the usual accumulation of over 4 weeks of litter was picked up by another squad.

PaulP had to leave before sailing, which left 6 skippers ready to go, although Phyl couldn’t get his transmitter to talk to the boat so had to miss the racing, otherwise we would have been 7. The wind was SE “ish”, top of A+, with some hefty gusts and corresponding lulls. Since the day was really about seeing if the algae had dispersed sufficiently to enable meaningful racing, it was agreed to go ahead with A+ although A might possibly have been a better fit.

Peter was a dominant first overall with 3 wins in 5 races, the other wins being Andrew Potter and Mike. Mike led the first race but then appeared to hit something after rounding the gate, but subsequent investigation by Peter indicated that this was probably the mudbank at the far end (with the low water level) so after racing the gate was moved upwind a bit.

Andrew missed the last race due to winch line pulley failure, and as the rain was starting it was agreed that enough was enough after 5 races.

Not a day of champagne sailing, but very pleasant to be back racing, with final results as shown below.  Hopefully numbers will increase again soon after the holiday period.

1. Peter Baldwin       63      5pts   3 wins
2. Mike de St Paer    35      9pts    1 win
3. Andrew Potter    194    11pts     1 win
4. John Carlin             11     12pts
5. Dave Williams      33    17pts
6. Dave White            94   21pts