DF65’s
The forecast suggested that the fleet could be moving down the rigs as the day wore on, but for the 65s in the morning A+ was manageable…just! Whilst the general wind direction was from over the clubhouse, the shifts and gusts were significant, with big gains/losses bringing smiles/tears depending up on how well you coped with them.
The racing throughout the fleet was close, with several four boat close finishes, and with others just pipping competitors on the line. Paul Plested made it a challenge for anyone else to take top spot on the day by winning the first four races. However, John Carlin, after a slow start, found his form posting two 1sts and several podium positions to finish a clear 2nd overall on the day.
Clive Warren was, at one point, closer to the top two than the final result suggests, but gear failure meant he missed three races and also had to count a retired. Andrew also had boat issues, but managed to get back afloat, only missing one race. Charles Legg opted to sit the racing out after the first two races.
James Douglas was joined on the day by his son, Cam, who took turns racing 73, with James hopping over to Dave William’s boat on at least one occasion. Richard Walker, Stuart Mearns and Stuart Trunkfield (first time with his DF65) all featured at or near the front of the fleet in several races, but struggled to hang on through to the finish, apart from Stuart M who did bag a 2nd in race seven. With only five points separating them, Richard came out on top in this mid fleet tussle.
David White and Malcolm Harvey battled on in the challenging conditions, with David edging out Malcolm on the day.
DF95’s
Seven boats took to the water for the afternoons 95 racing. The conditions were similar to the morning with strong gusts swirling across the lake from / through the houses causing wind shifts across the full course. The starboard tack was favourite but wouldn’t take you the full length of the lake to the windward mark so the main decision for the skippers was when to tack across and which wind shift could be trusted, pick the wrong one and places were lost.
After 3 races it was clear that the boats were split into 2 groups with Paul picking up 3 bullets and Clive 3 seconds showing the way to the rest of the fleet who were very equally matched, with Stuart T, Charles and Steve all sharing a podium spot each. It was then suggested by Robbie Mac (who popped along to see what was happening) that Clive and Paul take a handicap, and start between the leeward spreader mark buoys, about 20m behind the main start line and located slightly further towards the far bank, a good suggestion that worked really well. Rob also stayed to RO the next 3 races, thank you.
This didn’t deter Paul who was reading the conditions best all day and continued his winning streak, with some very close finishes but finishing with 7 wins in the 8 races sailed, with Clive taking the other win in the last race. Meanwhile the handicapping was working well with Stuart M picking up 3 second places, with Stuart T and Clive picking up the remaining 2. Charles picked up 2 more thirds, along with Paul and Steve. Malcolm kept plugging away and managed a fourth and was closer in many races than the results show.
After 8 races the rain came and brought some really strong squalls across the lake and it was decided to call it a day rather than take a rig change and put the wets on.
A good afternoon and the handicapping worked well to produce much closer racing. Well done to Paul for a stellar morning and afternoon, and to the 3rd to 6th skippers who were covered by 4 points, great racing.
We arrived today expecting no wind, but in fact there was a gentle NW ish breeze blowing with just enough Northerly in it to miss the clubside housing. Another excellent turnout of 11 skippers started, including ex-Commodore John B, for what turned out to be a really interesting mornings racing very kindly run by Neil who got the racing away promptly.
The start looked to favour a port tack start but the line could be laid on Starboard. James made a couple of port tack flier starts work, but the size of the fleet and the shifts meant most preferred to approach on starboard. Line discipline was surprisingly good, with only one general, so Neil didn’t have to use the threatened black flag.
Initially it appeared to pay to continue on starboard before tacking, but again that changed during the morning, and then at the top of the beat there was a big port tack lift – but not every time – and also an intermittent very flat patch at the far side before the starboard layline tack to the top mark which caught a few out.
The gate was also interesting with successful last beats made from both sides, and a surprising amount of place swapping on this last leg.
John B showed his experience and class by winning 4 of the 9 races sailed to win by two points from James who took a couple of races to get going but thereafter sailed very consistently to a close second place.
Alan was the best of the rest, beating Mike on countback for third and closely followed by John in fifth. Very nice to welcome Martin James back and a well done to Stuart Mearns who is sailing quicker every time and finished the day in sixth.
Very close racing on the water with the usual thanks to Dave for organising us and taking the pictures, and today to Neil for ROing on a really chilly day.
Well! that was a breezy day of racing for the last of the DF95 Winter Series. Top end of C rig straight down the lake, with gusts that would have challenged the D Rig. As folks seemed focused on rigging their boats it was down to Paul Plested to climb into the waders, then lay a missing starting buoy and move the leeward gate upwind away from confused wave patterns on the leeward shore.
Thirteen skippers had turned up to race and it ended up being the John Brierley/Martin Roberts show, with these racing neck and neck all afternoon, with the rest of the fleet following on behind. Besides these two there was only one other race winner, which was Paul Plested in race 8.
In the session before lunch, John Brierley bagged two 1sts and four 2nds, with Martin fairing a little better with four 1sts and 2nd having missed the first race. Whilst most struggled early on if not all day, Bill Culshaw demonstrated his experience in the conditions posting a 2nd in race one and two 3rds in this session. Alan Watkinson also bagged two 2nds, and Duncan Neale picked up a 3rd and 4th. Paul Plested, opted to drop down to a D rig after the first race, but was too late for the start of race two and only found out in race three that it was the wrong decision, finishing 9th and last on the water. Charles Legg had a very short sailing day having to retire from race one and not making it to the start line again.
After a pit stop for lunch and the opportunity to fix damaged boats, the fleet got away again in what initially looked to be slightly less wind. However, the marginal drop in breeze was short-lived and it was top end C for all of the second session until the last race when the wind did start to ease.
As with the early session Martin and John continued to trade positions in races 7 to 12, only this time Paul Plested managed to get in the mix on several occasions, although not quite able to hold either John or Martin off until the finish. Martin took line honours in three of these six races and John picked up two, with three 2nds. Paul, after his poor sailing (and decision making) in the first session, bagged four 3rds and a 1st, which bumped him up to third overall on the day, but a long way back from the top two.
Both Duncan and Bill continued to sail well in the conditions, picking up 3rds and 4ths, with Bill edging out Duncan on the day to finish 4th overall. Clive was also consistent with a string of 4ths and 5ths throughout the day leaving him 6th overall. Guy Cowper was also quick around the course and if he’d managed to stay out of trouble he could well have been higher up the final scoreboard.
As for the two guys racing on their own for most of the day, it was Martin who took the overall win only one point over an equally quick John.
A+ rig was selected for the conditions wind strength around 6 to 10 mph.
The first start had a strong starboard end bias but the real advantage was gained as always picking the right shifts and lifts some of which were false, so places exchanged frequently both up and down wind as the wind veered.
The bulk of the fleet started the day at the starboard end for the first few races but gradually moved down the line as the wind changed. The far side started to look good and sometimes worked but there were large flat patches to fall into.
John got off to a good start winning the first race followed by Clive winning the following two. Competition was close through the fleet Simon getting a first and second followed by Charles with a second in the 5th race. Dave, Stuart and Richard battled it out for the remaining places with nothing clearly settled until crossing the finish which was very close at times.
The sun was out and a lovely afternoon was to be had at Gautby Rd, The wind remained nominally easterly meaning that it was blowing from the clubhouse end with a bias from the industrial estate. Eight 95’s (including visitor Matt Pritchard from GOMYC) were ready to race on time and we were lucky enough to have Sadie (Joe’s girlfriend) volunteer to RO for us again. The same course as the morning was used, being a standard windward mark, spreader and leeward gate.
Similar to the morning, the wind was tricky with a number of holes and false shifts catching everyone out, but it was also a great leveller with 5 of the 8 skippers notching up at least 1 win and only Matt not dropping into the bottom 2 at some stage of the afternoon.
The first decision for the skippers was whether to tack down the near (control) bank where in theory there was better wind or whether to start at the far end of the line on starboard and look for the shift that was ‘sometimes’ present which provided a great lift on port. It was a 50 / 50 chance. The second decision was how to approach the top windward mark where the wind was swirling with no consistency and many a place was lost or won at this point. The run was equally challenging with probably the centre to control side of the lake being the safe option. But sometimes the mid to far side paid off, and on one occasion Stuart T picked up 4 places in 30meters after rounding the spreader by staying further out. The gate was just as tricky, much like the start, do you head for the port tack to the line, or stay in the better air and put more tacks in. The truth was it was a day to be in the right place at the right time.
Matt was the pick of the bunch and notched up a very consistent scorecard including four x 1st places and three 2nds. Stuart T sailed consistently fast all afternoon and notched up three 1st and three 2nds, and in the end after 12 races with 2 discards the two could only be separated by 1 point.
Meanwhile a little further back Clive was also consistent with two 1sts and four 2nds with Alan also picking up two 1sts but his consistency didn’t match Clives and finished 5 points adrift.
Stuart M also sailed well and picked up a deserved 1st in the penultimate race but a couple of bad results kept him (just) in the bottom half of the finishers.
Joe , Malcolm and Steve had flashes of brilliance with Steve and Malcolm both leading (in separate races) when rounding the gate mark only to drop back on the tricky last beat to the line.
Another great afternoons fun, although frustrating at times for everyone. Congrats to Matt for the overall win, also to Stuart T who takes the bragging rights home over son Joe (who beat Stuart last time)
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.
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.
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.
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.
