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Author: Peter Baldwin

DF65 Social Racing #12 (23/3/22)

A beautiful spring morning, with brilliant sunshine and a light southerly breeze greeted 14 sailors for race 12 of the DF65 Social racing series. A plus rigs were chosen, and as the designated race officer Dave Williams had unfortunately taken to his bed with Covid, Paul Little stepped up and did a grand job of running 10 races, with a two lap race to finish the day, despite having no starter clock.

Another very enjoyable Wednesday’s racing, with very good competition and close results across the fleet.

  1. Mike de St Paer          35  18 pts – 3 wins
  2. Neil Westbrook          03 24 pts – 2 wins
  3. Richard Robinson   901  24 pts – 1 win
  4. Andrew Peter            919  30 pts – 2 wins
  5. Simon Bates                69  33 pts – 1 win
  6. Andrew Potter          194 39 pts – 1 win
  7. John Carlin                   11  40 pts
  8. Martin James            813  50 pts
  9. John Beech                  80  66 pts
  10. Charles Legg               21  68 pts
  11. Malcolm Harvey    1019 72 pts
  12. Stan Metcalf                46 79 pts
  13. Paul Whalley               53  98 pts

Our best wishes to Dave Williams for a speedy recovery, and if anyone has the DF race starter clock hidden away, please return it to the normal locker in the clubhouse.

DF/RG65 Winter Series 2021 #7 (19/3/22)

Today’s racing was the last round of the RG65 Winter series, five skippers entered and were greeted to the best weather of the year so far, with wall to wall sunshine and a good blow down the middle of the lake from the car park.
All skippers opted for their B rigs, but soon found out this was too much after the first race and nobody successfully managed to get downwind. The gusts were just too big, so we took a quick break to all change down. Unfortunately Graham, with his newly acquired Argon, did not have a smaller rig so had to persevere, Martin had the perfect size rig that he had made in the week for these conditions and his Pocket Rocket relished the conditions after missing the first race due to a failing receiver, but then was able to borrow one from Graham.
The racing was closer than the scores suggest with Alan, Dave and Neil getting the most out of their boats and all sailing well, unfortunately Graham suffered receiver problems and missed quite a few races until he managed to fix Martins old receiver and get back on the water but still in the wrong rig.
Martin won 7 races out of the 9 he sailed in with Alan getting 2 wins with his ever improving Scurry and Graham with just 1 win, 10 races sailed in all before we all agreed the wind was still increasing and to call it a day.
Many thanks to Bernie for starting and finishing the fleet and Jack for supplying the tea and coffee at intervals.
  1. Martin Roberts       133      pocket rocket        9pts, 7 wins
  2. Alan Watkinson      23        scurry                     17pts, 2 wins
  3. Neil Westbrook       03        uno                          19pts
  4. Dave Williams          33        uno                          33pts
  5. Graham Elliott         29        argon                     35pts,1 win
After 10 races
This leaves the overall results for the RG65 Winter Series as follows, With Graham Elliott the winner by a clear margin.

DF65 Social Racing #11 (16/3/22)

On arrival at the the lake today our RO, Neil Westbrook thought he was going to have problems setting a course due to the lack of wind, but within 15 mins it miraculously filled in to a good A+ choice. Donning the waders he was able to set a good start line with only a couple of eager starters being caught out.

Up to the windward mark, spreader, down through the gate to the usual finish halfway up the lake. Richard started with a win but the following races were taken between Mike and John with James allowed to take just one.

The final two lap race, saw John Carlin after his TT race weekend away romp ahead to win by half a lake distance. The overall winner Mike, was so consistent his lowest position after discards was 3rd. Thanks again to Neil for keeping the race moving and managing ten races.

  1. Mike de St Paer        12 pts 5wins
  2. John Carlin                14 pts 3wins
  3. Richard Robinson  20 pts 1win
  4. Andrew Potter         27 pts
  5. James Douglas        40 pts 1 win
  6. Paul Little                 50 pts
  7. David Williams       56 pts
  8. Martin Allan            59 pts
  9. Charles Legg           62 pts 1 x 5th
  10. Stan Metcalf            62 pts
  11. Don Mackinnon     73 pts
  12. John Beech               86 pts

DF65 Social Racing 2022 #10

17 boats turned up to race with the wind threatening to increase during the day. The wind direction from the south east and A rig was chosen to be used. As racing progressed the wind increased in strength and altered in direction, this caused the wind to become very shifty with big gusts and areas of no wind. The direction was now from over the clubhouse and at times coming down vertically and going in all directions with many boats turning into submarines on the downwind legs.

When the scores were finally added up, it was all very close at the top with only 5 points separating the first four boats.  Thanks to RO Simon Bates who managed to give us 10 races in the difficult conditions.

  1. Alan Watkinson        19 pts 4wins
  2. Mike de St Paer         22 pts 3wins
  3. Neil Westbrook        22 pts 4th
  4. Richard Robinson   24 pts 1win
  5. James Douglas          36 pts 2wins
  6.  John Carlin                36 pts
  7. Charles Legg              45 pts
  8. Don Mackinnon        57 pts
  9. Richard Walker         70 pts
  10. Paul Hounslow          73 pts
  11. Paul Little                   78 pts
  12. Martin James            79 pts
  13. John Beech                 94 pts
  14. Andrew Potter          97 pts 2 x7ths
  15. Malcolm Harvey      97 pts
  16. Paul Whalley           110 pts
  17. Ken Roscoe               129 pts

IOM Winter Series 2021 #5 (5/3/22)

An excellent afternoons sailing at Birkenhead for the fifth IOM Winter series.  The wind, out of the north, made conditions at the windward mark interesting but the wind over the rest of the lake was predominantly down the centre of the lake.

Charles launched his new bright yellow K2 today, which showed it will be a quick boat. John and Martin were to fight it out at the front and with the rest of the fleet having their moments at the sharp end, the racing was extremely close.

After the tea break Graham, after bringing the wrong keel for his Widget last week, brought two this week and found the black Widget is very quick, giving him a win in  two races.  In addition, Bill, Alan and Neil were always in the mix giving a really competitive afternoon’s sailing.

Once again, thanks to Bernie and Dave for running the racing and Jack supplying the hot drinks.

  1. John Brierley        84   Britpop  16pts  4 wins
  2. Martin Roberts    22   Vanilla   17pts  5 wins
  3. Bill Culshaw          21   Britpop  33pts
  4. Alan Watkinson   23  Britpop  36pts  1win
  5. Graham Birkett  133  Widget   39pts  2wins
  6. Neil Westbrook    03  Widget   46pts
  7. Charles Legg         25   K2            69pts

Overall Series positions are available on the Current standings page, with one event left in the series on 26th March.

DF65 Social Racing 2022 #9 (2/3/22)

A great turnout of 17 Skippers showed on a rather cold, grey, and wet day.

Although there were some lulls, the choice of A rigs proved to be correct as there were some chunky gusts making for quite testing racing. The wind direction allowed OD Mike St Paer set a standard windward / leeward course using the full length of the lake – a relief after the last couple of weeks of S. Westerlies blowing over the houses.

Competition was keen right from the off, with five different winners for the first five races. Conditions led to a number of collisions but with no apparent damage.

Neil Westbrook ran out the eventual winner, with five firsts beating a consistent Peter Baldwin who was unlucky to be tagged more than once near the start.

  1. Neil Westbrook       03     14pts – 5 wins
  2. Peter Baldwin          63     22pts – 1 win
  3. Andrew Potter         94     31pts – 2 wins
  4. Alan Watkinson    373     35pts – 1 win
  5. Richard Robinson 901    37pts
  6. John Carlin                 11     41pts
  7. Andrew Peter          919    51pts
  8. James Cameron        73    52pts
  9. Simon Bates               69   66pts
  10. Dave Williams          233   70pts (ahead on countback (one second))
  11. Paul Little                     95   70pts
  12. Richard Walker          39    74pts
  13. Charles Legg                21    94 pts
  14. John Beech                   80   96pts
  15. Sally Collings           829    110pts
  16. Paul Whalley              53      112pts
  17. Malcolm Harvey    1019    117pts