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Author: Peter Baldwin

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 24/5/23

An almost perfect sailing day, with a fresh NW breeze, with some substantial gusts to keep you ‘on your toes’, and make life on the water more interesting. The results show just how incredibly close the racing was, with wins shared by seven sailors across the fleet.The sun shone all morning, and we chased a brood of 8 baby ducklings with their mother up and down the lake. They quickly learned how to keep out of the way, after some very near misses on the first race.

John Carlin                                     11    35 Pts
Alan Watkinson                         373   36 Pts
Clive Warren                                 53   51 Pts
James Douglas                             73   52 Pts
Andrew Peter                             919   53 Pts
Neil Westbrook                           03   54 Pts
Mike De St Paer                           35   65 Pts
Don Mckinnon                          933   71 Pts
Richard Walker                            39  76 Pts
Dave Williams                              33   81 Pts
Charles Legg                                 21   91 Pts [ 1 X 4th ]
John Beech                                     80  91 Pts [ 1 X 5th ]
Frans King                                     95  113 Pts
Martin Wittingham-Jones     54  166 Pts [ Rtd ]

IOM Summer 2023 #1 (20/5/23)

A sunny start to the day with a very light breeze from the Clubhouse end. Racing commenced soon after 1.00pm with a guest from Kendal joining in with a boat he had just collected from Martin.

Another welcome club member Andrea joined us with her main objective to beat Martin. After two leisurely races the wind increased and swung 180 degrees, the new course seemed to suit everyone with very close racing and four different race winners. The only downside of the day was with the amount of debris floating down the lake with the wind change with some boats being affected more than others.

Thanks to Dave for running the racing and to Bernie manning the canteen providing welcome drinks. After 12 races the results were:

  1. Martin Roberts     17pts 6 wins
  2. Andrea Roberts    19pts 3 wins
  3. Alan Bennett         23pts 2 wins
  4. John Berry              34pts 1 win
  5. Alan Watkinson   42pts

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 10/5/23

While heavy rain showers battered most of the Wirral, Bidston remained as dry as the proverbial bone which provided very pleasant sailing conditions in a 10-15kt SE breeze blowing for the most part straight down the lake towards the clubhouse. A rigs were nominated, which proved the correct choice for 95% of the time, with the other 5% being spent knocked over downwind in the gusts, with the usual potential deleterious effect on results. The standard course was used with a windward and spreader mark followed by a downwind gate (which provided overtaking or undertaking options) and then to the finish. Despite what seemed a relatively stable wind direction on the shore, big gains or losses could be made on the upwind legs just by being in the right part of lake for the puffs or on the right or wrong side of what was clearly a shiftier wind pattern on the water.

Alan’s boat didn’t fancy the conditions and pulled the old ‘poor connection’ trick which allowed him to kindly volunteer to RO for the whole session.

John won fairly convincingly, due to good upwind speed, several race wins and consistent results when not winning.  Mike forgot to bring half his boat but was able to borrow a fancy yellow keel which allowed him to just sneak 2nd in front of James while Neil’s total lack of consistency relegated him to 4th

  1. John Carlin               14pts (4 wins)
  2. Mike St Paer            22pts (1 win)
  3. James Douglas       23pts (2 wins)
  4. Neil Westbrook     28pts (2 wins)
  5. Andrew Potter       32pts
  6. Clive Warren          39pts
  7. Dave Williams       42pts (1 win)
  8. John Beech              54pts
  9. Frans King              63pts
  10. Malcolm Harvey  73pts

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 3/5/23

With a brisk SE breeze blowing from behind the clubhouse and down the lake, some optimists rigged A plus, but it became apparent even before the first race that the sensible option was an A Rig.

9 sailors took turns as RO, so 9 races, and the gusting wind gave everyone a nose dive or two, which meant race places changed frequently.  This resulted in Race Wins spread across the fleet, with Alan Watkinson taking 4 wins to take the day, John Carlin 2 wins, and Andrew Peter, Frans King and Stan Metcalf all managing a race win apiece.

Very close racing, as the scores show, and welcome sunshine and more than enough wind, made for a very pleasant and enjoyable day’s sailing.

  1.   373   Alan Watkinson 15 pts
  2.      11   John Carlin           17 pts
  3.   919   Andrew Peter     31 pts
  4.    95   Frans King           37 pts
  5.    33    Dave Williams    39 pts
  6.    46    Stan Metcalf       42 pts
  7.    39    Richard Walker  43 pts
  8.    21     Charles Legg       47 pts
  9.    80    John Beech          53 pts

DF95 Summer 2023 #1 (29/4/23)

The forecast for today was not very encouraging, but 9 home DF95’s turned out along with one visitor sailing with us after picking up a boat kindly brought back from Eastbourne by John Brierley.  Martin setup the course for a light Easterly, but by the time the start gun went we were running down to the first mark.  Confusion rained as some boats forgot that this was a mark to be rounded to port and proceeded to start taking it as a gate, stopping themselves just in time, but taking another boat the wrong side of the mark.  After only a single lap, John Brierley took the win, with Alan Watkinson second.  We then sailed race 2 from the original windward marks as the start line, before Martin then donned the waders again and moved the Start marks for Race 3. John B took the win in Race 2 with John Carlin in second.  Race 3 went to Clive Warren, with visitor Jon Whitehead (first time out in a 95) in second.

The light sea breeze that had now formed brought plenty of floating debris down the lake for boats to catch on and some boats were more unlucky than others.  John B again took race 4 from Peter Baldwin, before Peter got the measure of the breeze and had wins in Races 5 and 6 with John B second.  John B had his revenge and took races 7 and 8 with Peter in second and Clive and Jon picking up thirds.  Peter and John B shared the final two wins and second places, with the consistent Clive finishing third in each.

John Brierley took the day from Peter Baldwin, with Clive Warren in third, although it could have been a different result if John Carlin hadn’t suffered from gear failure and missed the last 5 races.

A great turnout for the first of 4 in a series over the summer for the DF95, the next one being on the 8th July.

  1. John Brierley        84  10pts
  2. Peter Baldwin     172  14pts
  3. Clive Warren         93  28pts
  4. Alan Watkinson   23  34pts
  5. Andrew Peter      179  42pts
  6. Jon Whitehead      49  47pts
  7. John Beech           288  48pts
  8. Dave Williams      33  50pts
  9. John Carlin             50  53pts
  10. Malcolm Harvey  19   73pts

Photo courtesy of Gill Warren.

VMYG & Open Sailing Day Saturday 22nd April

This coming Saturday is an Open Sailing and Vintage Model Yacht Group (VMYG) Day.  Please bring along whatever boat you wish to sail in the friendly company of others.  All are welcome including any non-member or potential member.  It would be helpful if you could use the link in Upcoming Events to show you interest in participating.  Here are some pictures taken at one of the previous events.