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Author: Peter Baldwin

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2024 – 10/4/24

DF65’s

Spring has (allegedly) sprung, but there wasn’t much evidence of it at Gautby road this morning, where arriving sailors were greeted by a rising S.Easterly breeze, persistent rain and a temperature of around 7deg C. Not a great Spring day.

On the up side there was a bit of breeze, and early launchers returned to say that A+ should actually be A, and even then there were some chunky gusts at the top end of A rig. The resident fishermen started to pack up straight away and were no problem at all.

The usual course was used, other than that one of the gate marks was missing and it was agreed simply to do a port hand leeward mark rounding. Strangely no one seemed keen to go for a paddle and replace the mark.

There were 11 skippers to start – a good turnout given the unpromising conditions – and after a small delay while everyone changed rigs Dave Williams got the racing started.

The first three races had three different winners, and the final beat up from the bottom mark proved tricky to get right. The starting line looked port end biased from the lake edge but proved to be a good compromise. Mike and John then shared the remaining 5 races between them with Mike just running out the winner.

Sally had boat trouble after only two races but very kindly stayed on to RO the rest of the morning. Thank you!

Clive managed three races, but then after sorting out what looked like a rudder servo problem returned to race; unfortunately with the hatch not completely sealed. His boat partially sank, but was fortunately close to the bank and nudged ashore safely, which ended his day. Dave Howard arrived late and only completed one race before having to fix a rigging issue. All in all an eventful mornings racing.

Racing was closer than the results might suggest, with places being swapped right up to the line. Final results as shown below with thanks to Dave and Malcolm for sorting them out, and thanks again to Sally.

  1. Mike de St Paer          7.2pts      4 wins
  2. John Carlin                 10 pts        3 wins
  3. Neil Westbrook         17 pts
  4. Paul Plested               22 pts
  5. Dave Williams          30 pts         1 win
  6. Frans King                 30 pts
  7. Richard Walker        32 pts
  8. Malcolm Harvey     46 pts
  9. Clive Warren             50 pts         3 races
  10. Sally Collings            63 pts         2 races
  11. Dave Howard            64 pts         1 race

DF95’s

Following a morning of wetness with a chilly wind only 4 brave skippers got their boats rigged for the afternoon, the weather forecast and Easter holidays putting a lot of people off. As it turned out, the afternoon weather forecast didn’t materialise and the rain stayed away. The wind eased slightly from the morning making the A rig a perfect choice, the generally South Easterly direction remained similar to the morning, with the normal shifts and holes associated with Gautby Rd to keep the helms on their toes, it was very easy to pick a bad shift and end up head to wind, loosing meters.
Paul martialled the start line and the first home recorded the scores.
8 races were sailed, a mixture of one and two lap, Paul started as he meant to go on taking the first 2 races, before Clive stepped up to take the 3rd. Meanwhile after taking a second in the first race Dave managed to tune his boat to a standstill and took time out to make some rigging adjustments in the clubhouse. Race 4 and Paul was on top again before Mike got in on the act taking race 5. Once again Paul took line honours in races 6 and seven before Mike won the final race. All races were very close between the boats with the lead changing hands regularly in most races but it was Pauls day who had his boat set up just right and mastered the conditions with 5 wins.
1,   Paul Plessed      –    5 wins
2.   Mike de St Paer  –  2 wins
3.   Clive Warren       –   1 win
4.   Dave Howard

Club Successes at the Marblehead Ranking Races 2 & 3

Over the weekend of 6th & 7th April, Marblehead Ranking Events 2 & 3 took place at Fleetwood MYPBC.  Both days supplied gusty breezes that started diagonally across the lake and straightened as the day progressed.

On Saturday the club had entries from two club members; Brad Gibson sailing his own and latest design a Grunge, with Martin Roberts sailing Andrea’s Starkers Squared – a design that is 31 years old and a boat that is 22 years old competing on equal terms.  They filled the top two positions with Brad first and Martin second.

On Sunday unfortunately only Brad was representing the club, but once again he took the overall win.

This coming weekend has the first two IOM Ranking events being held at Eastbourne with Brad and Peter Baldwin competing.

Winter Series are Complete – Summer Series Start on 13th April

All of the 2023/4 Winter Series are now complete and the overall results for each class are currently shown on the Current Standings page.  When at least a couple of events for each class are completed in the Summer series for 2024, these results will be moved to a dedicated page and link for 2023 in the Results Tab.  The podium positions for each class and the attendance numbers are as follows:

IOM Winter 2023/4

  1. Brad Gibson        Post Punk    300    pts
  2. Graham Elliott   Britpop!       270.3 pts
  3. Alan Bennett       Britpop!       210.9 pts

RG65 Winter 2023/4

  1. Alan Bennett        Ivy          300    pts
  2. John Brierley       Uno        283.9 pts
  3. Bill Culshaw         Ivy         230.7  pts

DF65 Winter 2023/4

  1. Clive Warren      101     pts
  2. Jon Whitehead  100    pts
  3. Tony Sedgwick   50.5 pts

DF95 Winter 2023/4

  1. John Brierley    282.8  pts
  2. Peter Baldwin   282     pts
  3. Martin Roberts 265.5 pts

Vane 36 Nationals – Additional Photos

A few additional photos taken by Peter Stollery and a short video taken by Clive Warren of a downwind start between Sam and Peter Whiteside have been added to the Album for the recent MYA Vane 36 Nationals 2024 at Birkenhead.  See:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156223785@N07/sets/72177720315938567

They include this great one of Zak Roberts catching the fast and slippery boat of Chris Harris at the end of a fast 3 sail run down the length of Birkenhead Lake.

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