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Category: dragonforce

DF65 Social racing #32 (10/8/22)

Seven sailors turned up, more in hope than expectation of enough wind in which to sail. They were rewarded with a light but useable wind mainly running the length of the pond from the Gautby Road end. Most races were conducted with a start-line at the Northwest end of the pond, two port-hand turning marks at the bottom and a single turning mark at the far Northwest. As the wind died in the Northwest corner, the final race was run with the start-line as a gate. With fickle winds, positions changed regularly throughout each race and several people scored firsts. Nevertheless, consistency won out, with Andrew Potter coming a well-deserved overall first. The results were:

DF/RG65 Summer 2022 #6 (6/8/22)

7 RG 65’s made it to the start line for todays race, 5 UNO’s, 1 ARGON and 1 ELECTRONICA. A lovely top suit wind from the top end with plenty of gusts and shifts, with all choosing there maximum sail area rigs, mostly swing rigs but 2 conventional rigs.
The wind did gradually build through the day and there was plenty of downwind diving on either side of tea break.
The day belonged to Bill Culshaw sailing a chartered Electronica, who achieved a very impressive set of scores, top 3 finishes in all but one race and this was with 3 recalls for him through the day. Peter Baldwin was not far behind on the overall scores in second place sailing his Uno followed by Graham Elliott sailing his Argon.
Race winners were. Bill Culshaw (6), Peter Baldwin (4), John Brierley (1), Graham Elliott (1)
Many thanks must go to Paul Hounslow for starting and finishing us and Jack for making the tea.
  1. Bill Culshaw            Electronica      14pts
  2. Peter Baldwin         Uno                     20pts
  3. Graham Elliott       Argon                 27pts
  4. John Brierley           Uno                     28pts
  5. Alan Watkinson     Uno                     45pts
  6. Charles Legg           Uno                     57pts
  7. Dave Williams        Uno                     64pts

DF65 Social Racing #31 (3/8/22)

Thirteen sailors turned out today, with a few that hadn’t made it down for a number of weeks.  Initially the view was that the breeze suited the A+, but when the start time came around, it was definitely A and verging on a B Rig due to the strength of the gusts, estimated at around 16 knots, mostly straight down the lake from the far end, but with some significant gusts catching the unwary out.Peter moved the marks around for a windward leeward single lap course and we got started around 11:10 having changed down.  Everyone took it in turns to run a race each, but that meant thirteen races had to be completed, leading to a slightly later finishing time of 13:10, stopping a few sailors from participating in every race.John Brierley and Peter Baldwin mostly had a good close tussle for race wins John with 6 and Peter with 3, although there were also  wins for Derek Matthews (2), Alan Watkinson (1), and Dave Williams (1). Racing was mostly very close throughout the fleet, with rarely anyone getting well in the lead, never to be challenged. John won the day, with Peter close behind and then 3rd place had to go to countback to split Dave from Neil.  A great mornings racing, with thanks going to Dave for working out the final scores.

  1. John Brierley              84  15pts
  2. Peter Baldwin            63   17pts
  3. Dave Williams         233   39pts (1 win)
  4. Neil Westbrook         03  39pts (0 win)
  5. Alan Watkinson      373  46pts
  6. Mike De St Paer         35  47pts
  7. Derek Matthews        57  64pts
  8. John Carlin                   11  65pts
  9. Richard Walker          39  69pts
  10. Paul Hounslow           82  90pts
  11. Malcolm Harvey     1019  92pts
  12. John Beech                    80  96pts
  13. Charles Legg                 21  112pts

Next Saturday afternoon (6th) is racing for the DF and RG65, why not join us.

DF95 Social Racing practice afternoon (27/7/22)

Five Skippers put their boats on the water to have some sprint racing of a single lap and allow comparison of rig and sail settings and see what worked and what didn’t. Dave Williams very graciously agreed to loan his fin and keel to someone who forgot theirs and his reward was then to run the racing for everyone.  A big thank you to Dave for doing this.

There were some interesting results and differences in boat speed, although this was at times difficult to judge with the wind being very patchy.  By the end of the session comprising 8 races, the boats were more evenly matched  and some sailors have some future work to do, to re-rig or even obtain replacement sails before the next session.

Peter took the lions share of 6 wins for first, with Neil picking up the other two (in a borrowed boat) for second and Alan finishing with a strong cluster of podium places to edge Andrew out of third place.

An Album of photos taken by John Beech are available in the Gallery here

  1. Peter           172      6pts
  2. Neil              179     10pts
  3. Alan               04    17pts
  4. Andrew      288    19pts
  5. Richard         52   24pts

DF65 Social Racing #30 (27/7/22)

The forecasts were about right for wind today – generally from the NW but with some big swings to the W or even N and averaging about 3 knots so A+ was the order of the day for the eight sailors.  As the gusts (6 knots max!) came through there was often a false shift as it hit and if you tacked on that it often resulted in lost distance or even places.  Neil took the first race, followed by Peter in the second and John C the third. Peter took the next three and the final race, with John C having another win in Race 7.

With eight sailors each taking a turn we completed eight races of one lap plus a beat to the finish in just under two hours.  With the strength of the wind and the planned DF95 session to follow, the last race was also a single lapper.  There were no general recalls but that was in part due to the light winds we often had at the start leading to many boats being a good boat length behind the line.  Peter Baldwin took the day, with John Carlin second and Neil Westbrook third.

  1. Peter Baldwin            63       7pts  (5 wins)
  2. John Carlin                  11       12pts (2 wins)
  3. Neil Westbrook         03      16pts (1 win)
  4. Andrew Peter             19      20pts
  5. Alan Watkinson      373      22pts
  6. Richard Walker         39      27pts
  7. Charles Legg              21       36pts
  8. John Beech                 80       40pts

DF65 Social Racing #29 (20/7/22)

After the last few days of intense heat, today was a complete contrast. Sweaters and coats were worn to combat the chilly B rig wind. We welcomed Chuck again to our Wednesday races with him using B rig for the first time. All the starts were very good with no recalls. Alan, reading the wind shifts, dominated the day with 5 wins. Overall the racing was very close with the final decision of which course to take through the final gate could gain you a few places or lose them. Surprisingly with no gear failures everyone completed the 10 races.

  1. Alan Watkinson       12 pts 5 wins
  2. Andrew Potter          17 pts 2 wins
  3. Neil Westbrook        19 pts 2 wins
  4. Dave Williams          23 pts
  5. Andrew Peter            24 pts 1 win
  6. Chuck Millican         27 pts
  7. Charles Legg             31 pts
  8. Richard Walker         42 pts
  9. Malcolm Harvey       52 pts
  10. John Beech                  54 pts