Category: dragonforce

Another strange day weather wise, wind from top left hand corner, we all used A but we probably could have sailed with A+. 10 sailors, so the decision to drop one race to act as RO meant everyone had nine races.

Alan, finding the course to his liking took races one and two, Mike then took up the challenge and took the third and fifth race. Neil won the fourth race but Alan and Mike took the rest of the races between them. Further down the fleet there were several close battles especially with Richard who managed a good run of two seconds two thirds and two fourths.

Ten races were held the last finished just before the heavy downpour.

1. Alan Watkinson   9pts 5 wins
2. Mike de St Paer   11pts 4 wins
3. Neil Westbrook   22pts 1 win
4. Richard Walker   23pts
5. Charles Legg         31pts
6. Dave Williams      32pts
7. Clive Warren         35pts
8. Frans King             39pts
9. Paul Little              48pts 1 x 3rd
10. Malcolm Harvey 48pts

The absence of any real breeze when the sailors turned up to race only lasted until every one of the 12 had kitted their boats with an “A” rig and started to put them on the water.

The wind from somewhere over the houses had stiffened enough to require a “B” rig which everyone adopted before racing started.  In addition, as the lake was full to overflowing racing took place on the northern side of the lake.

The stiffness of the breeze led to some challenging conditions which made sailing difficult for the first 5 of the 10 races but everyone took the bashes and bumps in good spirits and as usual the wind over the houses was a bit hit and miss.

The wind stiffened further for the last 5 races with gusts making starts difficult and controlling boats generally a challenge particularly on a beat.

John Brierley was able to cope with the conditions best of all with 8 wins from 10 starts with Mike De St Paer’s consistency giving him second place with 5 seconds and 2 thirds and John Carlin taking third, with 2 firsts and a brace of seconds.

Thanks go to Dave Williams and Malcolm Harvey shared RO duties looking after 5 races each.

Only 8 competitors remained to sail (after a lake tidy) in this the last DF65 Social racing of 2022.

The wind was a light breeze over the houses and a Windward/Leeward course was setup by Peter, which tested the patience of most sailors during the morning.  The wind had the ability to switch direction suddenly catching some out especially when it happened on the starting line.  By the end of the session, the breeze seemed to be picking up from a more WSW direction, but there were still plenty of holes to fall into.

There were 5 different winners in the 7 races sailed.  Mike De St Paer had the most consistent day and two wins to take the morning overall.  Peter Baldwin was second with just one win and Richard Robinson taking third with two wins, but losing two races due to a battery problem.  Racing was close throughout the fleet with countback separating 3rd and 4th and also 5th and 6th.

The next Wednesday Sailing will be on the 4th January, although there is DF/RG65 racing on Saturday 31st December starting at 12:00.

After lunch a small group of 5 sailed DF95’s, with some informal racing and help with tuning setup.  The wind was as fickle as before lunch with some larger gusts which died away by 3pm, when everyone packed away.

There was a good A+ breeze from the clubhouse end and so the existing mark positions made for a decent one lap windward leeward course.  Malcolm Harvey opted to be RO for today as his main masthead mainsail tie failed just before racing was due to start, but racing still got underway on time at 11:00.

Peter Baldwin took the wins in races one, two and four, with John Carlin races three and five.  Mike De St Paer then had a string of 3 wins in races six to eight before John took race 9, leaving Mike with the win in the final two lap race 10.  Many races were very close throughout the fleet, with one race having 4 boats cross the line within a single second, but Malcolm coped admirably on his own, to separate the boats and get the finish order.  The breeze did pick up slightly during the morning and the gusts caused a number of boats to lose control downwind, but it was never for too long and some boats even managed to escape falling over completely.

With excellent consistency and the highest number of wins (4) Mike took the morning, with John five points behind in second and Peter a further two points behind in third.

Thanks to our RO Malcolm having his tablet with him to score today, here are the full results.  These were available to view soon after racing had finished for the day.

Wednesday November 23^rd saw the sort of weather conditions that had even the best skippers despairing. We started with near flat calm, a start-line at the clubhouse end of the pond that was heavily biased to port and finished with an eighth race with a storming downwind start. On any single leg, the wind could come from dead astern to dead ahead within the space of a few metres. Between the marks, success seemed to depend on working out whence the wind was blowing and adjusting sails and course accordingly. In all, it was a most testing day. Mike De St. Paer rose above these conditions and came in a well deserved first with ten points, closely followed by James Douglas on 11.

1. Mike De St Paer                 35         10pts       3 firsts
2.  James Douglas                  53         11pts       3 firsts
3. Alan Watkinson              373         17pts       2 firsts
4. Clive Warren                       73        19pts
5. Richard Walker                  39       22pts
6. John Carlin                           11        32pts      1 first
7.  Andrew Potter                 194       34pts
8. Charles Legg                       21        36pts
9. Sally Collings                   829       39pts
10. Frans King                           95       44pts
11. John Beech                          80       51pts
12. Paul Little                            45       66pts

Results after 8 Races and 2 discards