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Category: dragonforce

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2024 – 24/7/24

DF65’s

Almost flat calm at Gautby road on arrival today, with a few catspaws at the far end of the lake.

Alan used his years of competition experience to assess the conditions and immediately volunteered as RO – a very sound decision in your scribes view. Frans had hedged his bets by bringing a very impressive looking electric speedboat but decided to sail when the time came.

What breeze there was seemed to come from the clubhouse end, so it was agreed to start at the far end using a short slightly zig-zag course. This worked well, and the wind then turned to make it a running start, so the start was moved down to the clubhouse end only to have this work as a running start too. The wind then gradually filled in from a more North and West direction as the morning progressed making more sense of the course.

The running starts actually made for very close racing, with crowded arrivals at the first marks and there were plenty of opportunities to sail into areas of no wind and vice versa.

John C made the best of the conditions with four wins, followed by Clive with three and then Mike dsp with no wins but a string of OKish results but not quite enough speed. Final results as shown below with thanks again to Alan for running the racing and Dave for doing the results.

  1. John Carlin           10 pts          4 wins
  2. Clive Warren        12 pts          3 wins
  3. Mike de St Paer   13 pts
  4. Dave Williams     18 pts           1 win
  5. Neil Wesrbrook  22 pts
  6. Sally Collings      29 pts
  7. Frans King           36 pts

DF95’s

Firstly and most importantly, it was great to see John Beech back on the shore line with a transmitter in his hand following his recent illness and looking fighting fit.
Now onto the sailing, and after a very tricky and often frustrating morning, there were only 4 skippers willing to put themselves through the turmoil again of the light southerly or westerly depending on what part of the lake you were on. The reality was that the wind generally had settled more in the Westerly direction and had filled in providing a mid A rig breeze. Don’t be too fooled though, there were still plenty of holes and shifts to allow position changes and to challenge the helms.
Sailing got underway using the full length of the lake and utilising a standard course, starting at the clubhouse end to a spreader taken to port, back down the lake through a gate and to the finish line half way up the lake. With only 4 boats competing the starts were self monitored and the first across the finishing line recorded the results. Single lap races were the order for the day. Seven races were sailed before rain set in and the skippers called it a day.
Clive seemed to master the conditions best winning 6 of the 7 races, although he was pushed hard by the other helms at various stages including Frans who led race 5 until the last 5meters from the line and also John who won the last race. The fight for minor places behind Clive was very competitive with Martin, Frans and John alll recording good results and swapping positions.
Results after 7 races with 1 discard
  1. Clive Warren                            93   6pts   6wins
  2. Frans King                                59  15pts
  3. John Beech                              288  17pts   1 Win
  4. Martin Withington Jones    77  18pts

DF65 Social Racing 2024 – 17/7/24

Ten sailors arrived hoping to have an enjoyable days sailing, unfortunately this was spoiled through lack of wind.

The RO set the usual single lap course starting from the top end of the lake down to the Clubhouse end, where all the boats in close competition with each other left the windward mark to port and then on to the spreader. It was only after passing through the gate that the boats spread out.

With the first boats taking twenty minutes to complete the race the majority vote was to abandon racing for the day.

DF65 Social Racing 2024 – 3/7/24

Nine sailors today and just a light breeze from the top of the lake on arrival. Racing started at 11.00am, and by 11.45 we had managed just two races. The normal course was sailed but with using existing marks a long distance spreader. All the starts were well disciplined as to be called over would have been a disaster.

John Carlin led the first race and looked to be on for a certain win until he sailed into a hole, allowing the following boats to catch him with Alan taking his first of two wins. Such was the unpredictability of the wind that two of the races had photo finishes between four boats. After three races and the light wind dropping to zero at times, a final race was decided to enable one discard. Even so, three skippers still had had enough and retired.

  1. Alan Watkinson   4pts 2wins
  2. Dave Williams      6.2pts 1win
  3. Richard Walker   9pts 1win
  4. Frans King             9pts
  5. Charles Legg         9.2pts
  6. John Carlin            15pts
  7. Malcolm Harvey 15.2pts
  8. Paul Little              18pts
  9. David White          23pts

Due to a lack of cooperation from the wind to produce anything to sail with, DF95 racing was cancelled.

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2024 – 26/6/24

DF65

The forecast was for a hot, hot day at the lake but at least we were promised some wind.  The existing mark positions were deeemed suitable for a standard one lap windward/leeward course with the breeze blowing down the lake from the clubhouse and so we managed to get started very soon after 11:00 with 10 sailors each taking it in turns to be RO for 10 races completed by 13:00.

Peter managed to get clean away in race one as nobody else seem to spot the left shift that arrived shortly before the start and give him the first of four consecutive wins, only interrupted when he acted as RO allowing Paul P to take his first win.  The top 4 or 5 slots were keenly contested with Paul P, Mike DSP, John C and Alan all achieving podium spots, although after a difficult firstrace, John C was looking good and consistent.  After Race 5, the race wins were shared between John C (3), Paul P (1) and Peter (1).

Peter helped a number of sailors to adjust their boat settings after some difficult races and the fleet then seemed to be more compact  with some good tight racing.

Peter took the morning with his 5 wins, closely followed by Mr Consistent John C with 3 wins and then Mike DSP in a creditable third and had no wins.

  1. Peter Baldwin              63  10pts
  2. John Carlin                    11   13pts
  3. Mike DSP                       35  19pts
  4. Paul Plested                 54  20pts
  5. Alan Watkinson        373  29pts
  6. Neil Westbrook           03  33pts
  7. Charles Legg                21   40pts
  8. Paul Little                      45  43pts
  9. Dave Howard               00  45pts
  10. Malcolm Harvey     1019  55pts

DF95

There was a little less wind for the nine DF95 sailors, but still more than enough to give decent racing for nine sailors in the A rig.  Unfortunately though, the wind had started to veer more towards the South and so the beat could turn out to be nearly a fetch, but mostly needed some deft tacking in the shifts to make the best gains to a revised windward mark closer to the shore.  we were joined this week by visitor Paul Shepherd where this was only his second time on the water. Again we took it in turns to be RO and completed 9 races.

After the first race where Paul P finished a close second to Peter, he unfortunately had to drop out for the day with electrical issues.  This left eight sailors to complete the afternoon, with much rig tweaking, advice and adjustment to suit the conditions.

It was also Peter’s afternoon in the 95 after his sucesses in the morning, with only Alan taking a win from him, with Martin picking up the other win whilst Peter was RO.  Alan and Neil were having a good tussle, which looked to be going Neil’s way for second place, until battery failure enforced him to sit out the final two races.

Close racing again, with much to be gained or lost depending upon how you managed to deal with the shifts and gusts that came down the course, with some of them not always being predictable or long lasting!

  1. Peter Baldwin           172    6pts
  2. Alan Watkinson         23   13pts
  3. Neil westbrook           03   16pts
  4. Martin W-J                  77   21pts
  5. Paul Little                     14   24pts
  6. Dave Howard               00  26pts
  7. Malcolm Harvey     2019  33pts
  8. Phil Shepherd              49  40pts

DF95 Summer 2024 #3 – 15/6/24

The forecast for the day suggested that the 6 sailors who turned out would probably get soaked, with the added risk of possibly being struck by lightning, but whilst the surrounding areas seems to suffer deluges of rain, Gautby Road escaped with a very light shower early on, with increasingly bluer skies as the afternoon wore on. Winds were light from the NW with some big shifts, so A rigs were the order of the day.
Paul got off to a good start winning race 1 followed by Clive and then Peter. After that the first session went more to form, with Peter notching up 4 wins on the bounce followed by a third. Paul continued to post some good results, all being in the top 3. Clive and John were also pushing for the front, with Clive posting 2 seconds and John securing a 1st and a 2nd. In race 4 John decided to moor up on the leeward gate mark for a rest, which ultimately required a spell in the club waders to recover his boat. Both Dave and Martin were getting good starts. Dave was struggling with upwind speed having only just finished rigging his new A set minutes before going afloat.
The big talking point of the first session, was what were we all hitting below the water? All strikes were in the same broad area, but not in one spot. Clive seem to have more than his fair share. All we could conclude was that we were hitting fish, or that they were attacking us!
After the tea break, normal service was resumed at the front with Peter scoring another 5 firsts and a third, although he was having to work hard for some of those. John thought he’d won one, only to realise he still had another lap to go, but he was consistent in the second session posting 4 seconds. Paul did manage another 1st, but was not as quick around the course in this session with only one other podium result. Clive was getting some great starts and was in the mix for the front in most races. Dave was far more competitive after a bit of rig tweaking by Peter over coffee. Martin was also quicker in the second session. The fish were still causing problems, but they were less fussy, with everyone being impacted at some point.
As it turned out, it was a very enjoyable afternoon’s racing.
  1. Peter Baldwin                            172 12pts 9 wins
  2. John Carlin                                   50 23pts 1 win
  3. Paul Plested                               154 25pts 2 wins
  4. Clive Warren                                93 31pts
  5. Dave Williams                             33 46pts
  6. Martin Whittingham-Jones  77 59pts

DF65 & DF95 Socal Sailing – 12/6/24

There seemed to be a promising middle to top end A+ breeze when we arrived at 10:15, although nothing like a summers day, requiring fleeces and coats on all morning.  At least the wind was still from (generally) WNW and so the course from Saturday sufficed and enabled us to get started soon after 11:00, although without Peter and visitor Andy Dines whilst they sorted Andy’s boat and A+ rig out, with Dave Williams running the first race and a plan for everyone to run a race each.

Andrew Potter had a storming first race  and led by a good margin at the finish.  In the second, James Douglas took the win, hotly pursued by John Carlin, Clive Warren and Paul Plested for a very close finish.  Peter ran this second race, only for Dave to lose his steering and end his day.  We therefore changed to Dave acting as RO for the rest of the morning and Peter discarding his first two (unsailed) races.

Peter then took the next four races, albeit with some luck in the shifty conditions coming into the finish.  Jon Whitehead then won race 7 and Alan Watkinson, race 8.  Clive got the win in race 9 with James roundong out the day with a second and final win.

Peter took the morning with his clutch of wins, but Paul placed second after a consistent morning with only one result outside the top 4 and of course no win.  Jon was third with another (relatively) consistent set of results, which were hard to achieve in the conditions.

Overall some very close racing this morning with boats separated on the finish line by only inches at times especially at the front of the fleet and wins spread around 66% of the fleet.

  1. Peter Baldwin             63  18pts  4 wins
  2. Paul Plested                 54  22pts
  3. Jon Whitehead           771  27pts  1 win
  4. Clive Warren                 53  33pts 1 win
  5. Alan Watkinson         373  34pts 1 win
  6. James Douglas              73  35pts 2 wins
  7. Andrew Potter             194  38pts 1 win
  8. Andy Dines                     36  58pts
  9. Malcolm Harvey       1019  68pts

There wasn’t much enthusiasm for 95 sailing after lunch with limited numbers.  Peter and Clive used the opportunity to replace the anchor warps on the final 5 marks which weer being coated in weed growth.