Birkenhead Radio Sailing & Power Club
Just a reminder that the AGM for Birkenhead RS & PC is this Saturday starting at 13:00 and will be held at:
Royal Mersey Yacht Club, Bedford Road East, Rock Ferry CH42 1LS
All members are welcome to attend and your committee hopes to see you there. The bar should be open and there will be tea, coffee and cakes/biscuits available as refreshments.
A brisk WNW breeze, blustery but dry, saw 16 sailors arrive for another well attended and exciting mid-week DF65 race. ‘A’ Rigs were in order, to contend with some big gusts to start the day, moderating slightly then steadying for the final two lap race,with 10 races completed overall. Don MacKinnon did us proud as self- elected Race Officer for the day, and as the scores show, it was a very closely contested day’s racing, which is proving to be the case for most Wednesday races, as the skill levels of newer members improve.
Birkenhead Radio Sailing Club was also well represented at the national DF65 & DF95 TT circuit event at West Lancs YC in Southport last weekend, with 9 BRSC members competing at the event, fielding more members than any other MYA Club for the final event of the year, with 3 BRSC members finishing in the Top Ten overall results for 2021. Full results are available at https://dfracinguk.com/
Today’s Results
Eight DF65 sailors arrived to sail in light drizzle and next to no wind. After deciding there were enough takers the OD Mike de St Paer set a short windward leeward course using some of the marks from Saturday’s IOM event, (but not necessarily in the right order).
The breeze filled in just enough to get the boats moving, and with finding the wind and avoiding the holes the racing was surprisingly close with much place swapping.
Richard Robinson was the man to catch, with five wins from eight races. Enthusiasm waned at race eight and it was agreed to call it a day after a challenging couple of hours racing.
Saturday 6th November saw 14 skippers from 5 different clubs competing for The Strebor Trophy and Northern District Championships, the 14 skippers also included 3 IOM World Champions.
Thirteen sailors were greeted with a larger lake than normal due to the overflow being blocked, now sorted by Neil. The wind from the top factory corner was mostly light with the occasional strong gust. Paul Little our OD set a long course with the windward mark causing a few ‘SpecSaver’ moments for several skippers, turning before the mark. Paul manage to give us ten races with the final being a two laps. The Wednesday racing is very closely competitive, as seen by today where we had seven different winners. Thanks again to Paul for the running of the races.
In this the last of the 2021 Summer series for both the RG65 and DF65, sailors had to contend with a wide range of wind conditions in strength (0-10kts) and direction (anywhere from NW to SW), although at least the sun shone to warm up proceedings after the morning rain.
The RG65’s started in a low aspect A rig in the stronger and gusty conditions, but most changed up to a full height swing rig after a couple of races as the wind moderated. Peter Baldwin won the first race before John Brierley had a string of 5 consecutive wins, helped in part with Peter not changing up with everyone else, assessing the difference in performance between rigs. After the break, Peter changed up to full height swing rig and proceeded to take the final two races, with racing stopping as the wind disappeared after the earlier 10knot breeze. Behind these two, who took the first two places in each race, Dave Williams and Neil Westbrook shared most of the final podium places with Alan Watkinson managing to take one in Race 4. This left John on top with his five wins to Peter’s three and Dave Williams in third.
Meanwhile, in the fleet of four DF65’s, the wins were shared around quite evenly with Andrew Peter and John Carlin taking three wins each and Derek Matthews the remaining two. This gave a tight podium with Andre on top with 9pts, John in second on 10pts and Derek third with 11pts.
The final results for this short series of seven events are contained on the Current Standings page here. Next week is the IOM Strebor Open, with two weeks off (one for the Club AGM on the 20th November) before starting the RG/DF65 Winter Series on 27th November.
