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Author: Peter Baldwin

Strebor IOM Race & ND Championships 2021 – Report and Results

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.
The wind direction for the day was not the most favourable, a South West direction with massive holes and gusts to contend with but ‘A’ rig was definitely still the choice of rig for the whole day.
Peter Baldwin kindly wore the waders to set the buoys with a windward, leeward gate course and plenty of bias on the startline and the leeward gate The first five races were dominated by Rob Walsh and Brad Gibson, with them taking the top two positions in each race, something that never happened for the following 11 races. After completing 16 races, we had 5 different race winners, a bit of rain, a bit of sun, plenty of wipeout gusts but most importantly 14 smiling faces.
It was good to see our visitors and mention must be made to Peter Walters who had travelled the furthest from Lincoln to launch his new Venti design. In the end it was Brad Gibson that took the win on countback from Rob Walsh with Darin Ballington rounding off the podium, all sailing the BritPOP! design. Then in 4th was Graham Elliott sailing his Widget design and 5th was Martin Roberts sailing his Vanilla design.
Much thanks must go to Bernie and Dave Williams for starting us, Jack who stood outside all day finishing us at the age of 92, Judith for scoring us and Joyce for the refreshments.
The next ‘Open’ event at Birkenhead is our much loved Xmas race on Saturday 18th December, entries are now open for this by clicking here or following the links on the home page.
Photo’s are from our photographer on the day – Dave Williams.  Compare the image at the start of the report taken when we started with that below from  the middle part of the day when the gusts were at their strongest.  All of the photo’s from the day are held on our Flikr acount here.

DF65 Social Racing #25 (3/11/21)

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.

  1. Mike De St Paer           20 pts 2 wins
  2. James Douglas             23 pts 1 win
  3. Richard Robinson       28 pts 2 wins
  4. Derek Matthews          30 pts 2wins
  5. Simon Bates                   33 pts 1 win
  6. Neil Westbrook             34 pts 1 win
  7. John Carlin                     35 pts 1 win
  8. Dave Williams               47 pts 9th.
  9. Richard Walker            65 pts
  10. Stan Metcalf                  72 pts
  11. Sally Collings                74 pts
  12. Malcolm Harvey          88 pts
  13. Paul Whalley                 94 pts

RG/DF65 Summers Series #7 30/10/21

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.

Overall results – RG65
  1. John Brierley             84    uno                       7 pts  5 wins
  2. Peter Baldwin           63     uno                       9 pts  3 wins
  3. Dave Williams          33      uno                     19 pts
  4. Neil Westbrook        03      uno                    24 pts
  5. Charles Legg             26      uno                    29 pts
  6. Alan Watkinson        23     Scurry/Argon 32 pts
  DF65
Andrew Peter           919                   9 pts   3 wins
John Carlin                  11                   10 pts   3 wins
Derek Mathews         57                  11 pts    2 wins
Paul Little                   45                  23 pts

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.

DF65 Social Racing #24 (27/10/21)

With a strong B suit wind blowing over and between the houses, the course set by Neil used the whole lake and proved to be an interesting one to sail. If you were fortunate to get the right lift, a slow start was soon to be not a problem. With seven different winners, everyone was in with a chance. Fortunately we only had two retirees and this was due to radio problems. Many thanks to John Carlin for volunteering to be OD and giving us 10 good races.

  1. Alan Watkinson      19 pts. 3wins
  2. Neil Westbrook       21 pts 2wins
  3. Richard Robinson  21 pts 1win
  4. David Williams       34 pts 1win
  5. Mike De St Paer      39 pts 1win
  6. Derek Matthews     43 pts
  7. Don Mackinnon      46 pts 1win
  8. Simon Bates             52 pts
  9. Paul Little                 56 pts 1win
  10. Sally Collings           63 pts 1 x 2nd
  11. Richard Walker       63 pts 0 x 2nd
  12. Charles Legg          101 pts (Rtd early)
  13. Barrie Baugh         105 pts. (Rtd early)

IOM Summer Series #7 23/10/21

A Southerly wind, with large holes near the clubhouse end, met the five competitors for the IOM race #7. Because of the nature of the conditions the racing was extremely tight with Bill Culshaw getting the worst luck of all. Competitors throughout the afternoon, often leading and then falling into an area of no wind. Alan Watkinson was constantly challenging and managed two race wins. With ten races completed the result for the afternoon was decided in the last fifteen metres of the final race when John Brierley and Dave Hollom fell into one of those flat spots and Graham Birkett skilfully sailed past to take a well deserved win. Thanks again to Bernie and Jack for running the racing. A thoroughly enjoyable afternoons sailing in difficult conditions.

  1. Graham Birkett    133        widget                         17pts                      3 wins
  2. Dave Hollom         62          dead reckoning       18pts  {3 x 2nds}  2 wins
  3. John Brierley        84           brit pop                      18pts  (2 x 2nds)  2 wins
  4. Alan Watkinson    23          brit pop                     22pts                      2 wins
  5. Bill Culshaw           21          brit pop                     27pts                     1 wins

After 10 races

M Ranking #5 @ West Kirby Sun 17/10/21

Sunday dawned as cloudy and mild but without the early rain that had been forecast for the early part of the day.  The wind once again was from the SE, but a little stronger than Saturday at 10-11 knots. Racing got underway soon after 9:30 and a total of 6 races were sailed by 11:30 when the breeze again started a shift towards the SW and racing had to be stopped until the wind settled and the course could be reset to sail from the Promenade.  A further 9 races were then sailed before the cut-off time. At least the sun was now out to warm the competitors and although the wind had initially reduced in strength as it shifted, by the time racing resumed there were some stronger gusts.  Some competitors held onto their top rigs as long as they could but eventually had to change down.

Once again, Brad Gibson dominated the day with a scoreline almost a third of the second placed boat, Austin Guerrier, with Rob Vice a short way behind in third place. Most of the wins were taken by those on the podium, although Darin Ballington took two race wins and Martin Roberts one. Darin unfortunately had electrical problems in Race 9 which forced an early end to his day.  Martin had a long hook up on a mark warp when in a good position and then lost another race due to gear failure which also ended his chances of a higher position.  At the prizegiving, Brad thanked everyone for coming to the event and also thanked all those club members who helped run the event over the weekend.

A great but ultimately tiring days sailing with a good breeze, sunshine and no rain made for a good weekend at West Kirby.

Sunday photos courtesy of Gill Pearson. A full set of photos taken is on our Flikr page here.  If you would like a full resolution version please email the Webmaster (see Contact page)