Category: Fleets

A very cold, wet and light wind day at Gautby Rd. Only six keen sailors arrived willing to take part. The start was delayed whilst many hands assisted Neil in rebuilding his boat after having to replace various components.

The usual start at the top of the lake down to the port rounding of the windward mark spreader to port and then a run to the gate and then a beat to the finish mark. As we were sailing with only six, the start line was self monitored with out problems.

Neil felt he had to show his gratitude for the help he received and promptly took the first two races! Those two races looked as though we had two separate fleets with Neil, Clive and Alan half a lake a way from David, Charles and Dave.

Then with the wind increasing and the shifts becoming more obvious the fleet closed up and brought David and Charles into the reckoning with a win and two wins respectively. Neil then unfortunately had battery problems and was out of the next three races and then Alan’s rudder failed on the last race. The racing was so close at times the finish line almost needed a camera to spot the first to cross. Due to his consistency the days honours went to Clive with his four seconds and two firsts.

1. Clive Warren             10pts 2wins
2. Neil Westbrook       15pts 3 wins
3. Alan Watkinson      15pts
4. Charles Legg            18pts 2wins
5. David White             23pts  1win
6. Dave Williams        26pts

DF65’s

John Brierley got away in the first race only to become becalmed near the end of the downwind leg.  He was then swallowed up at the leeward gate by the fleet coming down in breeze and, to add insult to injury, he was taken out by another boat, which pushed him down the fleet.  Paul Plested seemed to have benefited the most from this, but he lost out to both Andrew Potter and Charles Legg who sailed around him just before the finish, with Phyl Fanning finishing with a creditable 4th.

For the remaining 5 races the same two boats, which seemed to have more boat speed than the rest of the fleet, took the top two spots, with Paul just edging out Andrew into second in all 5 to take the day with a decent haul of first places, helped by Andrew in one race as he was OCS for one of the starts. Clive scored several thirds to put him 3rd overall and John was fourth, although John missed the last two races as he needed to get away early.

Dave W had a good day overall and his points tally was close to those above him, and Charles also finished well in several races, but not quite consistent enough to push him up the table.

Finally thanks must go the Neil Westbrook who acted as Race Officer for the day.

DF95’s

The afternoons sailing conditions were very similar to the morning with blue sky and a wind that was nominally easterly (from the industrial estate) but did whatever it wanted! Creating large shifts and holes for all the skippers to fall foul of.

A rigs all round for the 5 boats that were on the start line, being Easter, holidays, child minding took its toll, so with such a small fleet the starts were self managed and first to finish recorded the results. Sailing got underway on time at 1.30pm and 8 races were sailed

Considering the conditions and the spread of experience the sailing was very close, Steve Miller, very new to both sailing and RC sailing (about 6 weeks) shows consistent improvements and  managed a 3^rd position which 15ft from the line looked a certain 2nd before he got headed by a wind shift and Clive took the opportunity to nip ahead. Paul ran out the clear winner with 7 wins, his only loss being race 5 when he had a loss of steering issue for about 10secs (or did he?) and Clive took line honours. Martin had a very consistent day and was pushing the front 2 in most of the races and finally got his reward with a 2^nd place in race 7to go with his five 3rds.

With such tricky conditions, and they were tricky with beats turning into reaches and at some stages even runs, and holes in the wind when the boats sat going nowhere , the skippers all did very well and results in some races were extremely close. It all provided an enjoyable if challenging afternoons sailing.

Results  8 races (2 discards)

1. Paul Plested                              6 pts      7 wins
2. Clive Warren                           12 pts      1 win
3. Martin Withington Jones  17 pts
4. Phyl Fanning                          25 pts
5. Steve Miller                             26 pts

DF95’s

Nine skippers turned out for the DF95 morning racing to be greeted by a lovely sailing day by Gautby Rd standards.  A top end A rig wind and blue sky with sun, there was a chill provided by the easterly breeze, which in practical terms was straight down the lake with a touch of industrial estate thrown in to make things interesting.  Neil Westbrook offered to be our RO for the morning, and our thanks go out to him. The course was set utilising the full length of the lake with a windward mark,  spreader and a gate then back to the finish half way down the lake.

Neil got us underway on time, and straight away was brought into action with a general recall. Lessons learnt, and for the rest of the morning the skippers behaved themselves. Racing was competitive, with plenty of private battles throughout the fleet.

The first race saw Clive lead the way from start to finish with John B chasing him in second and Alan third.  Race 2 and 3 and John after tweaking his set up John B got into his stride to record 2 straight wins followed by a much improved performance by Dave W taking 2 second places, Alan and Martin filling up the top 3.  Race 4 and Richard lead round the final mark with John right behind, it looked like Richard was going to take the win until 10m from the line John overtook him. But in true style Gautby Rd had its own plan, and John  B then got in trouble and let John C through to take the win with Clive second and Phyl third.  john B and Richard finally finishing in fourth and fifth respectively. Unfortunately Dave W lost his rudder servo during this race and had to retire from the rest of the morning.

Races 5, and 6  and Clive and John B shared the top spots with one win each and one second each, leaving John C and Phyl to share the third places. Alan decided that the wind had build sufficiently to change down to a B  rig after race 5 so missed out on race 6, 7 and 8, and true to form John and Clive had one win and one second each with John C and Alan with his B rig taking the third spots

It was a great sail and enjoyed by all on the bank, thanks again to Neil for being RO allowing the sailors to make the most of the conditions and Dave Williams for yet more photos.

1. John Brierley                               8pts       4 wins
2. Clive Warren                               9pts       3 wins
3. John Carlin                                20pts        1 win
4. Alan Watkinson                       21pts
5. Phyl Fanning                            29pts        2  x 3rd
6. Martin Wittingham Jones   29pts       1 x 3rd
7. Richard Walker                        34pts
8. Steve Miller                                47pts
9. Dave Williams                           53pts

DF65’s

1. Clive Warren          6pts        6 wins
2. Sally Collings       11pts        1 win
3. Phyl Fanning        18pts
4. David White          19pts
5. Dave Howard       23pts    (3  x races and 3 x dns)

DF65’s

Another light wind Wednesday morning greeted those that arrived to sail.  There were occasional Westerly gusts, but they were very short lived and as the first “race” started at 11:00, there was the faintest breeze from the North (or was it NE, perhaps South or maybe SW??).  A simple course set out by our RO Dave Williams, only occupied half the lake using the finish mark as a “Windward” mark, a spreader and the gate took 20 minutes for the first race.  This was enough for a few, who packed up and left, leaving the others to slug it out over a total of 8 races by 12:30.  To be fair, by the end of race 4, the Westerly breeze was sort of filling in and by the last three races, was a nice and reasonably steady A+ breeze and so the RO extended the course to run the whole length of the lake.

The racing today ended up being a sparring match between James and Peter, who traded wins and podium positions throughout the morning. They each ended up counting the same results, with James just gaining the upper hand by winning the last race.  There were some good results from a number in the fleet with Sally Collings, Alan Watkinson, Paul Little, Mike de St Paer, Malcolm Harvey and Clive Warren featuring close to the front of the fleet at some point during the morning.  Having started with 10 boats we were down to only 7 for the last two races.

Many thanks to Dave for starting and finishing the races and to Malcolm for processing the results again.  Photos from Dave and Paul show the range of conditions.

DF95’s

With only 3 boats around, the DF95 session was more one of training than racing this afternoon.

Next week will be the first wednesday of April and so the DF95’s will occupy the morning slot and the DF65 the afternoon one.