DF65’s
Another lovely day for sailing at Gautby road, with sun, a blue sky and a stiff and chilly N.W breeze blowing more or less straight down the lake for the 13 DF65 skippers today. The breeze called for B at most, and possibly C but as a few did not have C rigs available it was agreed to go with B at least to start with.
After the weekends sailing the top marks looked good, but the line was heavily port end biased. No one wanted to paddle so it was left as was, just about doable on starboard tack but clearly leaving only one place to be at the start. When the racing started a few made the starboard tack start work, but the heavy gusts made the tack unpredictable and as the racing progressed most preferred to start on port and pick their way through any starboard boats. Line discipline was surprisingly good, and on a few races a heavy heading gust in the last few seconds before the start left a pack of boats stalled well below the line.
Despite the line bias the beat was fairly true, requiring significant time on both tacks. There seemed to be a bit of a bend going up the lake suggesting a port tack board well over towards the far side before making a starboard cross back towards the middle of the course although, needless to say, this didn’t pay off every time. For the first race the lower set of top marks was used with rather a long spreader leg, and Dave’s suggestion to use the top mark set worked well, pulling the course slightly to the left at the top and shortening the spreader leg.
The approach to the top mark remained very shifty all day, and the run provided lots of entertainment and place changing as the gusts came through. The gate was quite close to the bank and, at least for the 65s, there was a steep chop which combined with the need to get back onto port meant it was easy to waste time getting the boats moving upwind and avoiding a stalled tack.
Mike emerged from all of this a clear winner with Clive again sailing very consistently to second just ahead of John, Simon and James in third, fourth and fifth respectively – these four boats covered by less than 2.5 points at the end. John was unlucky to have a transmitter battery failure having to take the two resulting missed races as discards, but got back out with some replacements kindly provided by Clive.
Overall a great mornings racing which tested heavy air sailing skills and setup. Very nice to welcome Martin James back after a layoff and thanks as always to Dave W, and Malcolm for the results.
DF95’s
Following on from the morning, 8 skippers including Matt Pritchard from GOMYC got their boats prepared for the afternoon. The sun was shining, the wind was generally westerly which in real terms meant straight down the lake from the far end with a slight bias from the houses. A similar course to the morning was used, the only difference being we used a different start line as the outer transit marker had drifted about 10yds downwind making the line too port bias, as fortune had it, the inner gate mark and the new position of the outer transit was a perfect line. The wind had freshened a little from the morning, which made the choice of rig a top end B. It would prove a test of durability particularly early doors when a number of rig weaknesses were found out by the strong gusts.
Before racing even started Malcolm was sidelined with rig issues, and the rest of us are very grateful to him for staying on to RO for the whole of the afternoon. Matt was the second victim of the wind, retiring in the warm up before the start of the first race, but would return for the second.
The first two races saw Clive out front with Guy and Stuart M both picking up a 2nd place and Alan taking two 3rds. Guy was the third casualty of the day with rigging failure in the second race.
Race 3, and as the wind increased further (white caps were now present on the “waves”) so the victims increased, Guy was a DNS still repairing, from race 2, Clive was a DNS with damaged rigging, and Stuart M was a DNS also with rigging problems. The score at this stage was Wind 5, Sailors 0, and we were taking a beating. Race 3, only had 4 competitors and Stuart T made the most of the opportunity taking the win, from Alan and Matt 3rd
Race 4 and 5, and Clive was still missing in the clubhouse, Alan and Stuart T taking the wins, with Matt picking up a pair of 2nd’s and Alan and Steve closing out the podium positions.
Race 6 saw the return of Clive albeit 20sec late for the start but still managed to sail through the fleet althoughcouldn’t quite catch Guy who took the win and the consistent Matt was 3rd.
Races 7 through 12 had a familiar ring to them with Clive taking line honours in all but race 9, which was won by Guy, both Matt and Guy taking two x 2nd places, and Alan and Stuart M picking up the other two 2nds.
Summary
A fantastic afternoons sailing, testing the rigs to the max, with plenty of gybing instead of tacking upwind and a fair amount of nose diving downwind. In the end the sailors won the day, and had a great afternoon, just a shame it had to come to an end.
Again thanks to Malcolm for, RO duties, photos and results, all much appreciated
Spring had definitely sprung at Gautby road this morning with blue sky, blue water, sunshine and a nice SSE breeze blowing more or less straight down the lake. Thanks to Peter B’s well publicised morning dip on Saturday all the marks were in really good positions, with the start line, top marks and gate all looking square on. The first two races used the lower top marks giving a long spreader leg, but then it was agreed to use the topmost marks giving a shortened spreader leg, but introducing some big shifts approaching the top mark.
An excellent turnout of 13 skippers made for a busy line, and all agreed to RO in turns with line discipline really not too bad and, although there was some barging at the inner end of the line, turns were being taken as appropriate.
Mike won the first race comfortably, then RO’d race 2 and never quite got back into it. John then won races 2 and 3, and then later went on to win races 5, 8 and 10 to run out a clear winner. The following pack was led by Clive who sailed very consistently to a clear second overall without any race wins, and then the next 5 places were covered by 9 points as shown below. Almost everyone – except John – had to count some really disappointing results as the day proved deceptively tricky.
The first beat and run seemed reasonably straightforward (well by Gautby road standards anyway) but then on the beat back up to the line it was very easy to make a wrong move as boats came across to the finish line side. There was much place swapping and not a few “hero to zero and sometimes back” moments giving four different winners as shown below.
The pressure very gradually increased over the morning’s racing to reach nearly the top of A+ for some of the runs but overall the conditions made the sailing a pleasure. Thanks as always to Commodore Dave for keeping things moving whilst also acting as photographer, and to Malcolm for the results of a great mornings sailing which are shown in full below. 
The racing was close all afternoon with places being gained and lost all the way around the course, Alan was fast out of the blocks and took the first race and was on the pace all afternoon, Stuart Mearns was 2nd and had his best ever consistent set of results, and 3rd was Neil.
Race 3: we lost Stuart T before the start when trying to tension his forestay a bowsie broke and he lost all rig tension, but returned after repairs for race 5. Meanwhile Stuart M was 2nd behind Clive with Malcolm Harvey 3rd, sailing with a B rig. Unfortunately, we also lost Neil at this point with terminal boat problems which was a shame as he was prominent in the 2 previous races.
Races 4 and 5: it was Alans turn to post 2 bullets, with Clive two 2nds and Stuart M two 3rds. Further back Joe was showing some good boat speed and was having a good battle with Phyl and Steve.
A great afternoon of sailing, Clive taking overall honours from Alan and Stuart M, who had a stellar day. Bragging rights in the Trunkfield household definitely goes to Joe, although I did hear Stuart saying it was beginners luck, Im not so sure!!!
Almost spring like feel to the weather today, with a light S.S.E. breeze and no rain. The marks at the top end of the course were just outside the clubhouse flat patch, although not ideally placed, and at the leeward end the start line looked to be heavily pin biased although that varied significantly over the mornings racing. The first race used a course with the beat running inside the start mark, but thereafter it was agreed to go direct to the top mark. Using a single bottom mark and not a gate resulted in some close encounters of the DF65 kind, and although there were a number of minor contacts during the morning in general everyone was good about doing turns where they were required. 
It was great to see such a good turnout, and of the twelve skippers there were some very welcome returning faces including Paul Little, Don, and Andrew Potter.
Conditions were shifty as always with the wind direction, and racing was very keen right from the start, with four winners in the first five races, Alan, John, Andrew, and Mike. The other two race winners during the morning were James, and Paul Little who was sailing a brand new hull after his previous one failed. The excitement of winning race five was clearly too much for Mike’s boat which had to be retired with a failed rudder servo, and Stuart missed a couple of races fixing a minor rigging problem. 
The wind went somewhat left during the morning and got lighter, but John continued at the front by winning two more races to finish on 13 points well clear of the rest of the fleet. Behind John second to fifth was extremely close as shown below, with only 2 points covering the next four boats, with full results shown below.
If we thought the morning wind was tricky, well in the afternoon it was twice a tricky and half the strength. It swung from SSE in the morning to SSW, which doesn’t sound a lot but meant it was now coming straight across the lake from the houses. This possibly counted or the reduction in strength but definitely provided a difficult and frustrating challenge.
The conditions were a great leveller and it was literally anybody’s race and the skippers couldn’t relax. Beats turned into runs and you could change from starboard to port tack without changing course. Added to this there were more holes than on a golf course to catch even the better skippers out. Its fair to say that Ian probably suffered the most going from the front of the fleet to the back on more than one occasion. As an indication of how competitive it was, 5 of the 6 skippers all recorded at least one 2nd place or better. However generally speaking it was Ian, and Clive leading the pack with Stuart T a close 3rd and the others making the most of when the front 3 got into trouble or just sat in a hole, which was frequent. Ian who had the worst of the luck decided enough was enough after 5 races, and after 8 races providing 2 discards the rest of us followed his lead back to the clubhouse
If you didn’t laugh at times you could have cried, but it was the same for all and in the end it was quite enjoyable in a masochistic sort of way. Good competition throughout the fleet, good banter and sailed in a social manner.
With a ridge of high pressure offering a brief respite from the continuously rainy month of February, it was a sparkling sunny scene that welcomed the seven skippers to Gautby Road. Great to welcome Phillip Barnes of Budworth SC for his first time racing his new 95. Philip and Graham Birkett of Budworth SC have done an amazing job at enthusing 16 of their members to buy DF95’s from a standing start only a few weeks ago and we wish them great success with their fleet.
Racing commenced in a light WSW breeze of about 5 knots max down the lake. A slight port bias was accepted on the line with clean starts and overall a good standard of rule compliance, following the excellent racing rules talk given by Clive and Paul the previous Wednesday.
Race one was a close battle of the “dynamic duo “of Clive and Guy with Clive taking the bullet. Phillip had some minor transmitter set up niggles on race 1, but with help of a tweak from Clive soon picked up the pace to take a well deserved second overall on the day.
Clive decided in race two to park on a yellow mark, which was not part of the course and several boats attempted to free him but to no avail. In assisting him Guy damaged his rig slightly, which caused him a few issues down the line scuppering his chances of a podium finish.
Eventually it was time to get the waders out to rescue Clive who by now had been stuck for ten minutes. Guy elected to wade out and got to within three feet of Clive’s boat when it miraculously freed itself! Was this another classic Clive wind up on Guy, or just Sods Law in operation?!! Either way racing could now recommence.
Neil Westbrook had a good day with great pace in the light airs often choosing to break away from the pack onto port into clear air and gain some good lifts. Dave Williams and Stuart Mearns both had a mixed bag of ups and down finishes, as did Charles Legg who looked strong in the early races.
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Another grey day with a real chill in the air, but dry and with an A+ S.E. Breeze blowing straight (or at least as straight as it ever does) down the lake from the clubhouse end. Even better the marks were in an almost perfect position with a good start line and gate, and as there were only five takers for the mornings 65 racing it was agreed to us a single windward mark with no spreader.
Alan was Mr Consistency with four wins and two seconds to finish on 15 points, well clear of Guy on 19 – who also won three races – in second. Mike followed one point later, with Clive on 22 and Dave on 25 with the detailed results shown below.
The full length of the lake was used with a standard windward mark, spreader and gate set, 1 lap races in order to fit more races in. Malcolm Harvey volunteered to keep us in check and be the RO for the afternoon, and unfortunately we lost commodore Dave before the first race with a main winch servo issue.
As seems to be the case recently, the racing was very competitive with 6 of the remaining 10 helms recording at least 1 win. Paul was fast out of the blocks posting back to back wins with Ian second. Clive was next to post a win with Guy second. Stuart T sailed a brilliant fourth race and build a 20m lead at the first mark which he held to the finish, Stuart M. posted his best result of the day taking second. Unfortunately we lost Paul in race 4 with a burnt out rudder servo. Race 5 and our fourth different winner, this time it was Ian’s turn who had been knocking on the door in a couple of the previous races but made it to the line this time.
Clive then switched on his motor and took 4 bullets from the last 6 races with Alan and Andy each picking a deserved win. The minor places were split between Ian, Alan, Guy and visitor for the day Matt Pritchard from Great Orme MYC.
At the end of 11 races, the light was beginning to fade and we decided to finish. Because the racing had been so competitive nobody knew who would walk away with the overall win. It had been a very closely fought taxing afternoon of sailing, with some big wind shifts and plenty of passing opportunities, and also plenty of opportunity to lose out by picking a wrong shift or by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Thanks to Malcolm for the results, being our RO and getting some photos of the action as well.
An “all persons bulletin” was distributed among the WhatsApp group of DF sailors polling for an early 09:30 Saturday session prior to the DF/RG 65 racing in the afternoon.
Five Skippers braved the rather dank and blustery morning at Gautby Road, with a fresh south easterly looking promising for some exciting sailing.
Starts were self monitored and to a good standard. Guy had to bail a few starts at the last minute, as Clive hounded him until his nerve cracked!
On a day with some huge shifts near the weather mark throughout the eleven races sailed, it was a masterclass by Clive drawing no less than seven “bullets” from his holster to win the day on 11 points. In second place was Neil Westbrook, sailing consistently well and only 6 points behind Clive. Guy seemed to fade a little mid morning but enjoyed some good tussles with the top three. Phyll Fanning finished the day with a well earned fourth having finally had a bit more luck with some wicked wind shifts.
