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Category: dragonforce

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 10/5/23

While heavy rain showers battered most of the Wirral, Bidston remained as dry as the proverbial bone which provided very pleasant sailing conditions in a 10-15kt SE breeze blowing for the most part straight down the lake towards the clubhouse. A rigs were nominated, which proved the correct choice for 95% of the time, with the other 5% being spent knocked over downwind in the gusts, with the usual potential deleterious effect on results. The standard course was used with a windward and spreader mark followed by a downwind gate (which provided overtaking or undertaking options) and then to the finish. Despite what seemed a relatively stable wind direction on the shore, big gains or losses could be made on the upwind legs just by being in the right part of lake for the puffs or on the right or wrong side of what was clearly a shiftier wind pattern on the water.

Alan’s boat didn’t fancy the conditions and pulled the old ‘poor connection’ trick which allowed him to kindly volunteer to RO for the whole session.

John won fairly convincingly, due to good upwind speed, several race wins and consistent results when not winning.  Mike forgot to bring half his boat but was able to borrow a fancy yellow keel which allowed him to just sneak 2nd in front of James while Neil’s total lack of consistency relegated him to 4th

  1. John Carlin               14pts (4 wins)
  2. Mike St Paer            22pts (1 win)
  3. James Douglas       23pts (2 wins)
  4. Neil Westbrook     28pts (2 wins)
  5. Andrew Potter       32pts
  6. Clive Warren          39pts
  7. Dave Williams       42pts (1 win)
  8. John Beech              54pts
  9. Frans King              63pts
  10. Malcolm Harvey  73pts

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 3/5/23

With a brisk SE breeze blowing from behind the clubhouse and down the lake, some optimists rigged A plus, but it became apparent even before the first race that the sensible option was an A Rig.

9 sailors took turns as RO, so 9 races, and the gusting wind gave everyone a nose dive or two, which meant race places changed frequently.  This resulted in Race Wins spread across the fleet, with Alan Watkinson taking 4 wins to take the day, John Carlin 2 wins, and Andrew Peter, Frans King and Stan Metcalf all managing a race win apiece.

Very close racing, as the scores show, and welcome sunshine and more than enough wind, made for a very pleasant and enjoyable day’s sailing.

  1.   373   Alan Watkinson 15 pts
  2.      11   John Carlin           17 pts
  3.   919   Andrew Peter     31 pts
  4.    95   Frans King           37 pts
  5.    33    Dave Williams    39 pts
  6.    46    Stan Metcalf       42 pts
  7.    39    Richard Walker  43 pts
  8.    21     Charles Legg       47 pts
  9.    80    John Beech          53 pts

DF95 Summer 2023 #1 (29/4/23)

The forecast for today was not very encouraging, but 9 home DF95’s turned out along with one visitor sailing with us after picking up a boat kindly brought back from Eastbourne by John Brierley.  Martin setup the course for a light Easterly, but by the time the start gun went we were running down to the first mark.  Confusion rained as some boats forgot that this was a mark to be rounded to port and proceeded to start taking it as a gate, stopping themselves just in time, but taking another boat the wrong side of the mark.  After only a single lap, John Brierley took the win, with Alan Watkinson second.  We then sailed race 2 from the original windward marks as the start line, before Martin then donned the waders again and moved the Start marks for Race 3. John B took the win in Race 2 with John Carlin in second.  Race 3 went to Clive Warren, with visitor Jon Whitehead (first time out in a 95) in second.

The light sea breeze that had now formed brought plenty of floating debris down the lake for boats to catch on and some boats were more unlucky than others.  John B again took race 4 from Peter Baldwin, before Peter got the measure of the breeze and had wins in Races 5 and 6 with John B second.  John B had his revenge and took races 7 and 8 with Peter in second and Clive and Jon picking up thirds.  Peter and John B shared the final two wins and second places, with the consistent Clive finishing third in each.

John Brierley took the day from Peter Baldwin, with Clive Warren in third, although it could have been a different result if John Carlin hadn’t suffered from gear failure and missed the last 5 races.

A great turnout for the first of 4 in a series over the summer for the DF95, the next one being on the 8th July.

  1. John Brierley        84  10pts
  2. Peter Baldwin     172  14pts
  3. Clive Warren         93  28pts
  4. Alan Watkinson   23  34pts
  5. Andrew Peter      179  42pts
  6. Jon Whitehead      49  47pts
  7. John Beech           288  48pts
  8. Dave Williams      33  50pts
  9. John Carlin             50  53pts
  10. Malcolm Harvey  19   73pts

Photo courtesy of Gill Warren.

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 26/4/23

A bright sunny day but with a cold light wind from the Clubhouse end. Ten sailors using A+ rigs started sailing to suddenly realise although the wind looked steady it was far from it, with various holes strategically placed around the lake causing many problems. So the next race you tried to sail a different course only to find the holes had moved.

Racing at the front was very close with three boats on equal points before discards. The master of the Day was Neil with his four wins. Mike getting off to a good start unfortunately had to leave early. Ten races were held with each skipper acting as RO.

  1. Neil Westbrook   10pts 4 wins
  2. John Carlin            15pts 2wins, 2x2nd, 3x3rd and 2x4th (better last race)
  3. Clive Warren        15pts 2wins, 2x2nd, 3x3rd and 2x4th
  4. Dave Williams     28pts
  5. Charles Legg        30pts 1 win
  6. Stan Metcalf         37pts
  7. Frans King             48 pts
  8. Malcolm Harvey  45pts
  9. John Beech             45pts
  10. Mike de St Paer     47pts 1 win

Don’t forget that next Saturday (29th April) is the inaugural race afternoon at Birkenhead for the DF95.

DF65 Social Racing 2023 19/4/23

A deceptive wind from the Clubhouse end made the thinking to go A+. After the first race it was decided that was a bad decision and all changed to A rig.

Mike was the complete master of the conditions, taking eight races without any real competition. Those behind notably James, Alan, John and Neil were fighting for second place honours with some very close racing between them. Clive started well but his last four race results pulled him down.

Twelve races were held.

  1. Mike de St Paer     10 pts 8wins
  2. James Douglas      22 pts 3wins
  3. John Carlin             29 pts
  4. Alan Watkinson   30 pts 1 win
  5. Clive Warren         37pts
  6. Neil Westbrook    45 pts
  7. Andrew Potter      56 pts
  8. Dave Williams      59 pts
  9. John Beech             65 pts
  10. Paul Little               71 pts
  11. Malcolm Harvey  76 pts
  12. Frans King              77 pts

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 12/4/23

A very cold morning and strong winds with plenty of gusts thrown in greeted the seven sailors. B rig was chosen but a few wished for C rig before the end of racing.

The usual course was sailed with the start line at the top end of the lake. Most of the eight starts were clean with the exception of John who managed three call backs!!

Racing for the line honours was always between John and James with James eventually wearing John down to take the final race. Six points separated the rest of the fleet with places won or lost on the downwind leg depending if you were lucky enough to dodge the gusts. Unfortunately we lost Andrew after four races due to electrical problems. Thanks to Dave for acting as RO.

  1. John Carlin             6pts 7 wins
  2. James Douglas     11pts 1 win
  3. Clive Warren         23pts
  4. Richard Walker   25pts
  5. Malcolm Harvey 28pts
  6. Frans King             29pts
  7. Andrew Potter      32pts