DF65’s
DF65 and DF95 social racing is back up and running after an extended late summer of disruption from low water, followed by water quality issues.
Today saw a fleet of 10 DF65’s on the water who were greeted with a 5-8kt breeze on arrival which was clearly A+ rig conditions. The forecast was for wind from the SW which is technically straight through the houses and across the lake …… i.e. horrible. In reality it was more westerly which was considerably better than SW and provided some good racing with plenty of the usual Gautby Rd jeopardy that could help or hinder. Dave kindly did RO duties rather than sailing and set the usual course apart from extending the beat to the far orange buoys.
Starts just about favoured a port tack start at the port end of the line …. a trick that Clive pulled off in a couple of early races before he bottled out and joined the rest of the fleet on starboard at that end of the line. The first beat was a case of not getting suckered into sailing across to the far side of the lake on port on what was clearly a permanent wind bend. It always felt good until you had to tack at which point it was a disaster. The best option was to take some starboard tack pain halfway up the beat to get on the inside of the bend and therefore sail the shortest distance to the mark. Those that got the tacking points right invariably ended up leading at the windward mark. Downwind was puffs and lulls with gains or losses to be made depending on whether you got a puff or sat in a lull. Nothing was over at the leeward gate with plenty of overtaking opportunities for those that got it right or disaster for those that got it wrong
Clive carried on his previous weeks performance in race 1 winning it in style and the omens looked bad for everybody else ….. until he confirmed that he had failed to buy a lottery ticket after last weeks efforts at which point he lost his mojo a bit and despite winning 2 further races had to count some mid table results to come third overall
Andrew was the most consistent on the day and never out of the top 5 with 2 race wins to come second overall but with 2 discards allowed John was able to nick the day with his 4 wins counteracting some other mid table results
James arrived late, missing the first 4 races and was always behind the game in learning the conditions on the day
A quick shout out to John Mackie sailing a DF65 for the first time who managed to avoid too much carnage with other boats and even got a second place in race 8. Thanks as always to Dave for acting as RO this morning , taking the photos and producing the results.
DF95’s
With the lake is now full of water and the water condition very good, for the first time in 3 months we were back to our standard racing programme with DF65s in the morning and DF95s after lunch. A good quality field of 10 skippers lined up on the start line for the first race including 2 new members John Mackie and Rod Darling.
The breeze had freshened a little from the morning and was perfect for A Rig. With the gusts well within the A Rig range. The same standard course as the morning was used utilising the full length of the lake, windward mark with spreader, leeward gate and beat the finish. We were honoured to have Trunkys’ partner Alison “volunteer” to be our RO for the afternoon, Commodore Dave reminded us to watch our Ps and Qs with Alison in charge and we were ready to start and just about on time.
The wind direction was generally westerly which could swing to northerly as you approached the windward mark, in laymans terms it was generally blowing down the lake from the far end with a slight bias from the houses but as you approached the windward mark the bias would swing to the industrial estate. This gave plenty of alternatives for the skippers to choose, although with the wind direction westerly, the start line was perfectly aligned and with 10 boats a port end flyer was never an option. Right from the get go, the racing was very competitive and it continued the same throughout the afternoon.
After 10 races sailed there were 5 different winners, and 7 skippers posting a 3rd or better. Special mentions for our 2 newbies, John Mackie, who was very quick in the first half of the session but faded in the second and Rod Darling, who sailed his 95 for the first time posted 3 fourths and 3 fifths and I’m sure he will soon be near the front of the fleet sometime soon. Congratulations to Clive for his victory and Alan for his second place.
Thanks go to Alison for keeping us in check and Dave W for the photos and tabled results
Unfortunately, the wind was having other ideas about providing any decent racing. A forecast of 6mph NNE was not in evidence as we arrived with a glassy lake covered in a green/brown “scum” which had not been present on Wednesday. Dave opted out of racing to act as RO, assisted by Neil who arrived during Race 1.
There was a light breeze at times, but insufficient to ever provide any ripples on the water. It also couldn’t really decide whether to blow from the clubhouse or the far end (and plenty of directions between them). Dave opted for a start at the far end for Race 1 with a single windward/leeward (sort of) and a finishing leg. Peter picked up a light breeze off the start and slowly pulled out a decent lead at the windward mark, keeping some breeze down the “run” and through to the finish. Clive ended up with his first of 5 second places to make him “Mr Consistency” for the day, with John Brierley rounding out the podium.
Race 2 resulted in the same podium places, before John had a run of three firsts. Dave did look at moving the start to the clubhouse end, but once there the breeze flicked back and so we returned to the original course and stayed there for the rest of the afternoon. Race 3 was won by John with Peter second and John Carlin third. An early break for a drink then followed as the wind was taxing everyone by this stage and having had a slightly faster second race, the third taking longer than the first!
We restarted with conditions much the same, although perhaps there was more breeze from the West. However, it was never consistent and your boat could easily tack itself with no input from the helm, before promptly tacking back again. Fortunately we were not moving fast enough for any incidents to occur when this happened. Race 4 and another win for John, with Clive next followed by Peter. At this point, John Carlin and Andy joined Martin W-J in the clubhouse and retired for the day, leaving six boats to “battle it out” for the points. John took race 5 and the podium as per Race 4. The final race became very much a mentally taxing drifter and our longest race of the day. Peter narrowly won this one, although it could have been anybody’s race up until the last mark. Clive had another 2nd and John third.
Dave then asked those remaining if we wished to sail another two for the second discard, but there was little enthusiasm for two more drifters and so we called it a day. Half an hour later as we were leaving, a steady 5 or 6mph was blowing down the lake from the far end, but that’s sailing for you!
Nine DF65 skippers today – still an excellent turnout, and a lovely summers day with a bit of wind (well in some places) and a comfortable mid 20s temperature.
The wind was approximately N.West, so blowing down the lake from the far end and it was possible to use marks in their existing position for the usual course format. The line was once again somewhat pin end biased, although with a slightly smaller fleet than last week this didn’t prove to be too much of a problem. Neil had again very kindly agreed to RO, and he had to call a number of individual recalls although we avoided any generals this week.
The beat – as ever – proved tricky, with a flat spot around half way up which caught everyone out at some stage. It paid to get away on Starboard from the pin and usually then paid to stay on Starboard as far as possible before tacking, but this didn’t always work as expected.
The top end of the beat was again very tricky with some major shifts and flat spots making for an interesting days racing. This was a day where starting well and boat speed, while necessary of course, were not the deciding factors overall, but positioning on the course and patience in dealing with the windless areas were key.
John Brierley aced the day with 5 race wins from 9 races, other winners being James, Clive, Stuart and Commodore Dave with one apiece – very good racing with only a few infringements and 2nd, 3rd and 4th covered by 3 points and then 5th, 6th and 7th covered by three points and quite a few positions decided by a few centimetres at the line .
Full results shown below with thanks again to Neil for ROing and to Dave for keeping it all running and doing the results.
The wind was interesting, a starboard biased start line meant a starboard start was preferred but and generally a long starboard beat paid off, if you could put a hitch in on a wind shift even better but generally three quarters of the way up the lake there was a shift to port to take you into the weather mark. The run as also tricky with the clubhouse side and middle favoured but it was pot luck which paid off. Finally the beat back from the gate to the finish was no certainty either, with both gate marks paying off in different races.
The pre-start problems didn’t seem to affect Guy and he was fast out of the blocks taking the first race with Martin 2nd and Clive finishing up the podium positions.
The fourth race saw Clive and Martin a long way clear, and duelling for the top honours until Martin hooked the gate buoy which moved him to the back of the field, Guy and Stuart profiting from Martins’ mistake.
At this stage after 6 races with 1 discard, Guy was leading the way with his consistency with 8pts, Clive was second with 10pts and Martin third with 13pts, so all to play for through to the finish. Race 7 to 11 and Clive had a dream end to the session posting five straight bullets, leaving Guy and Martin to fight for the remaining podium positions.
Just like buses – you wait for ages, then 16 DF65 skippers come along to sail, a terrific turnout today for social racing despite missing some key players.
Neil ran a couple of practice starts – a great idea – which confirmed that the pin was where to be so the starts were very busy with the expected group of boats all occupying the same bit of the lake. Neil called a couple of general’s and a number of individual recalls, but didn’t use the threatened black flag. It proved tricky to see individual sail numbers pre-start but, given the numbers, the starts seemed very fair overall.
There was a bit of left bias to the beat although that changed somewhat in the top half where, even though the wind direction was nearly straight down the lake, there was just enough West in it to make the top half of the beat and the approach to the top mark unpredictable. This made each beat and the approach to the top mark different, and lots of skippers made or lost a number of places here.
Paul emerged from all this with a string of firsts to win 4 out of 8 races and run out a clear winner. Mike Dsp only won one but was consistent enough to bag second just a couple of points clear of Clive, with Alan fourth. A number of skippers had to finish early for various reasons – John Brierly put in some top early results but then found his boat was leaking badly and having just replaced a lot of the electronics he opted to call a halt. Malcolm stopped early to do some boat maintenance, Mike Dsp missed the last race due to an RX battery failure, Andrew Potter suffered rig damage in a race 8 after Port/Starboard clash and Stuart also missed race 8 having posted some very good results.
Following on from a great turnout of DF65’s in the morning there were 9 skippers on the start line for the DF95’s in the afternoon. Wind, whilst a little up and down, was still straight down the lake, allowing for the standard course to be used, with everyone on A rigs. Neil Westbrook took on RO duties again and he was quick to call out those who sought to get away early, and there were a few of them caught out over the afternoon.
Clive Warren also started slowly, but like Alan he got better as the afternoon wore on, with four podium positions in the last four races of the day including a last race win. He may well have threatened Alan for second overall if he’d hung on to 2nd in an earlier race, which went begging after tangling with a running boat when lying 2nd on the short beat to the finish
Charles Legg also picked up good points early on and was in contention most of the afternoon but was a a tad shy of boat speed at times. Steve Miller also showed that he is getting better, with a fourth in one race and also being upfront early on in a number of races, which will eventually become results at the line as he progresses.
On a day when a good part of the country was sweltering in 30C+ temperatures, Gautby Road today served up a very pleasant sunny day with the temperature only reaching 24C at 14:00. This was probably due to the great 4 to 6mph breeze coming off the sea and blowing straight down the lake for the 6 (well 7 for a while) competitors who were out racing this morning.
Peter started off well and took Race 1, with Dave Williams close behind, although they seemed to have their own wind and pulled well clear of the chasing bunch, with Stuart eventually taking 3rd. Peter led once again in Race 2, but a wrong choice at the Leeward gate saw both Alan and Stuart nip through and give Alan the win after an uncharacteristic 6th in the first race.
Peter then polished off most of the other races until Race 8 when he picked up a sunken object on the start line. Finally extricating himself after about three minutes, he dutifully went back to ensure that it didn’t stay in the course area and had to be rescued by Steve Miller putting the waders on!
This gave Alan another win to add to a series of mostly second places and second overall. Having had a great start to the day, Stuart picked up 7 points from a DNC in Race 5 after a “snowball” knot required retying or perhaps even re-stringing and a 5th, allowing Commodore Dave to take 3rd overall. Charles had a few decent results, but unfortunately lacked the consistency to figure higher in the placings overall.
We were joined temporarily by John Brierley testing out new electrics after problems at the Nationals and to be fair he did win each race that he sailed, but our scorer didn’t add him to the score sheet with 6 missing races. Thanks to Dave for producing the final scores and taking a few photos for illustrating the report.
