DF65’s
Sunshine and wind … what more do you need for a fun morning of DF65 racing? The forecast and a look at the lake on arrival both suggested we were on for a B rig day so I was a little surprised to find everybody setting up with A+ rigs. John was first to be ready and was sent out to test the conditions. He returned 5 minutes later and unconvincingly confirmed the A+ rig selection, then went back to have another test. As soon as everybody had got their A+ rigs on, John returned to say that A rigs were required … so we all changed down.
The wind was blowing predominantly straight down the lake from the clubhouse end. I say ‘predominantly’ as rarely is anything straightforward at Gautby Rd. The usual course was set (no need to waste time and space explaining it!) and we all set off on the first race. A rigs proved to be right and the first half of the beat was reasonably consistent. However as we got towards the windward mark the bit of easterly in the forecast had a pretty dramatic effect with unpredictable 30 degree shifts coupled with big puffs and even bigger lulls. These conditions persisted throughout the morning and proved to be a great leveller in every race. Starts weren’t critical and it was only how you managed the final third of the beat that really made a difference. First around the windward mark generally got away and went on to win the race.
By race 3 the wind strength had increased another notch which turned it into a lottery downwind as everybody started nose diving, which led to a change to B rigs for the rest of the morning. Clive proved the most consistent winning the day with 2 race wins. Alan also showed consistency to come second without winning a race. Dave might have won overall if we had been on B rigs all day … he came third winning 2 races and was only let down by his race results with the A rig, and a special shout-out to Stuart who won race 4.
Thanks to Neil and Andy for doing all the RO duties and Dave for the photos.
- Clive Warren 16pts. 2 wins
- Alan Watkinson 18pts
- Dave Williams 20pts. 2 wins
- Andrew Potter 21pts. 1 win
- Stuart Mearns 28pts. 1 win
- Guy Cowper 28pts
- John Carlin 29pts. 1 win
- Don McKinnon 48pts
- David White 49pts
- Simon Bates 51pts
DF95’s
The sun continued to shine, and the easterly wind continued to blow providing a great afternoons sailing for the 13 boats preparing to take to the water, including Phil Hackney from Budworth and prospective member Rob Riddle (a friend of Guys). We were also very pleased to welcome back Paul Mearns after his illness and Graham Birkett.
The conditions warranted B rigs and this proved correct but in a couple of races the conditions increased to top end B but was just about manageable. The standard course was set using the full length of the lake. The normal format of self monitoring of the start and the first to finish records the results was to save average points for RO’ing, and also to maximise sailing for all.
Joe was the first casualty, with a broken on / off switch which kept him out for the first races, Alan started as he meant to go on taking the win in race 1, with Graham and Clive filling up the podium. Steve had a very good race taking 4th as did our visitor Rob but unfortunately we lost John Carlin with boat failure.
Racing was very competitive and in the second race it was Graham who took line honours followed by Clive and Stuart M who sailed a great race to take 3rd.
Alan took the next two races and Guy picked up a second place finally showing some boat speed picking up a second, the conditions also picked up a further casualty with Andy Mearns having boat issues.
Race 5 and it looked like Clives’ consistency would pay off, but just 5m from the line. he caught a bag around his keel allowed Graham, Stuart M and Guy all to pass and fill the top 3. Clive finally got his revenge in the next race with Alan and Guy chasing, Phil Hackney pulled up at this stage having only an A rig and sailed well considering he was so over powered.
The final races saw Guy take 2 bullets with Alan taking the other with Graham, Stuart M, Stuart T and Clive filling the podium spots.
After 9 races time ran out which was a shame as the racing was first class with 4 different race winners and 7 different podium finishers. Congrats to Alan, taking the overall honours and to Graham, Guy and Clive with a point between each of them.
Thanks to Clive for the photos and Mal for the results in A fleet.
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.
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.
To avoid the very choppy area at the leeward gate it was decided to start between the inner start mark and a pole on the shore, and also use this mark as a port rounding leeward mark. All the top marks were in place, and this turned out to be a good course although the resulting start line was slightly short of which more in a moment.
Given the chilly temperature, eight skippers seemed a good turnout, not forgetting a shout out for Dave White who didn’t have a C rig and very kindly volunteered to RO for the morning.
John won the first race, Peter the next two and Guy the fourth setting a pattern for the day with these three winning all of the morning’s races. Peter was really in a league of his own winning 5 races, discarding a second and finishing comfortable clear of the field. Guy sailed very consistently with one win and three seconds but couldn’t quite match Peter, while John and Clive finished close behind, equal on points, with John winning on countback from Clive who sailed very steadily all morning as well.
This was a day where boat handling was really at a premium, and those who dealt successfully with the sailing conditions right at the top end of C rig, were clearly better. Tacking was also tricky for most, and with the short line requiring a quick tack onto port in conditions where it was easy to miss a tack made for some rafting at the bank after the start, although fortunately with no apparent boat damage.
An interesting and quite challenging mornings racing for all, with thanks again to Dave White – assisted by Neil – for ROing, to Commodore Dave for keeping us all organised (and taking the photos) and to Malcolm for the results which are shown in detail below.
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.
