Category: dragonforce

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.

DF65’s

Another excellent 65 fleet turnout today, with twelve skippers ready to race. Lovely blue sky and – slightly unusually for Gautby road – lovely blue water as well but with a cold South Easterly breeze which had various folks looking for extra layers of insulation. The usual course with the start at the far end and a nice wide line allowing a really good choice of start position.

Paul was fast straight away with wins in races one and two and maintained a slight but significant boatspeed edge the whole day. James won race three, and then it was business as usual again for Paul in race four. Very close racing meant there had now been four different second place boats in four races, Clive, Mike, Paul and James. James then sailed very consistently to score seconds in races five and six, while Clive and Mike counted some rather variable results by comparison.

The final three races were a slight variation with Mike scoring one, one, three against Paul’s two, two, and one point two as RO, however by this stage Paul was long gone leaving James, Clive and Mike to fight it out for second. Clive was unlucky to have to count a seventh in the last race with Mike just making it to second in front of James by half a point.

As well as sailing consistently well Paul was visibly the quickest boat on the track, and although he was pushed at various stages ran out a clear winner. Very competitive racing again with a few OCS calls and turns. It was great to see Neil racing again after a bit of a layoff and he was unlucky to get tagged and suffer a broken mainsheet which meant he missed the last two races.

Thanks to Dave for getting us out and started on time and for the photos once again, and to Malcolm for collating the results which are shown below using the Afleet software.

DF95’s

The afternoon conditions were very similar to the morning with the wind from the east, and whilst this looked a steady breeze basically straight down the lake the reality had some large windshifts which switched the prominent tack from port to starboard along the length of the lake coupled with a few smaller shifts to keep helms on their toes.  The sun shone and it was a good A rig setup, an extended final beat was set to provide a full length beat.  6 boats were ready to start on time at 13-30. A self monitored start and first to finish recorded the final  positions.

Race 1 and it didnt take long to lose our first casualty,  when rounding the gate mark in third place Paul suffered control issues which kept him out for the rest of the afternoon, a shame as he sailed so well in the morning. Martin sailing his new hull for the first time showed good race speed finishing second behind Clive with Alan third.  Race 2 and this set the tone for the next 2 races with Clive taking the win and Alan getting ever quicker in second, with close battles for third, Malcolm taking it in the 2^nd race and Martin in the 3rd.  Race 4 and 5 and Alan continued his improvement and took the race wins, with Clive second and John finally getting his boat performing taking two third spots.

Race 6 and It was Clives turn to return to winning ways, with John making further improvent taking second, Alan would have finished third but a lapse in concentration saw him heading for the windward mark and missing the finishing line, gifting third spot to Malcolm.  Race 7 Unfortunately Alan had to leave, Clive handed himself a starting Handicap, starting at the leeward gate marks whilst the rest used the standard start line. This worked well

Cold North N West wind as forecast for the DF65 crew today. It wasn’t blowing quite straight down the lake which had consequences as covered below.

Dave W set the usual course using the top set of windward marks and a nice wide line. The line looked to be starboard end biased, and was actually so, but no one fancied going paddling in the cold to adjust it.

The wind had enough north in it for the far side of the lake to have flat patches where the wind was chewed up by the trees and buildings and this meant that the breeze in the prestart park zone was variable to say the least, and caught a few people out. In one case the breeze simply disappeared for a minute or two, and in other cases there were heavy gusts in the last few seconds before the start resulting in the odd OCS.

Neil (“I like a good discard”) very kindly offered to RO and got the racing through very smartly. Most of the starts were very competitive, and the beats were challenging all day. It looked as if the starboard end would pay with then staying on starboard for a while before tacking. However, there were plenty of exceptions to this. Paul made a couple of early port tacks pay big time, but in other races this didn’t pay for those who tried it. It also seemed to pay to come across on port at the top of the beat to avoid a flat patch beyond the windward mark. This port tack approach to the top mark made for some close calls and a few port and starboard incidents during the morning.

Paul sailed very well to win four races and just win the morning overall, more so since he missed race 7 when a main batten started to detach. Mike and John were second and third, one point behind with Mike only ahead on countback.  Fourth, fifth and sixth were Simon, Dave and Clive all within three points – Clive discovering afterwards that his mast gate had loosened clearly upsetting the boat trim.

Overall results as shown below, with thanks again to Neil for ROing and Malcolm for collating the results. Another very competitive day of 65 racing.