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Category: dragonforce

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2025 – 21/5/25

DF65’s

Another lovely day at Gautby road with sunshine, blue sky, and a quite penetrating NWest or WNWesterly breeze blowing straight down the lake. Sailing Sec. PaulP had asked for an early start today to allow some time for a clean up after the 65’s, and another excellent turnout of 10 skippers were there with James and Phyl a tad late, missing the first few races

Neil “I like a good discard” very kindly agreed to RO the morning’s sailing, and got started promptly using the usual course. Gate and line worked well during the morning, with the line perhaps pin end biased but the gate paying off at different ends at different times.

Four different winners for the first four races showed that the beat and the gate had some big gains (and losses) to offer but as the morning’s racing progressed Peter’s consistency and speed moved him comfortably ahead of the pack despite winning only three of the ten races.

PaulP, Mike and Clive were 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively, and James would definitely have been in the mix but had to include a DNS in his score.

Frustratingly the morning’s sailing was also affected by some weed and other hidden debris which snagged a number of boats on a completely random basis, and almost everyone suffered at some stage during the morning. The clean-up exercise after the 65’s seemed to help for the 95 racing though.

Another day of excellent racing, with five different winners, and some excellent boatspeed from Paul and Commodore Dave. Very nice to see Graham Elliot win a race with Dave’s boat as well. Many thanks to Neil for RO ing, and DaveW for doing the results which follow in detail below:

  1. Peter Baldwin                63  14pts  3x1st
  2. Paul Plested                  154  23pts  2x1st
  3. Mike De St Paer             35  25pts  1x1st
  4. Clive Warren                   53  28pts 1x1st
  5. James Douglas               73  34pts  3x1st
  6. Paul Little                        45  38pts
  7. Dave Williams                33  42pts
  8. Don MacKinnon          933  58pts
  9. David White                    94  66pts
  10. Phyl Fanning                550  68pts

Photo’s courtesy of Dave Williams

DF95’s

If anything, the wind was better for the 95’s and the 5 skippers who raced than it was for the 65’s in the morning, with a mid to top end A rig breeze straight down the lake and the sun was shining.  The standard course was used with windward mark to port, spreader and a leeward gate.  Neil Westbrook kindly offered to be RO for the afternoon (as well!) and, with quick turnarounds, managed to get 10 races in.
The first race was won by Clive Warren, who went on to have a good afternoon, with Peter Baldwin 2nd and Paul Plested 3rd.  These three also bagged the top 3 places in race 2, with Paul crossing the line first, followed by Clive then Peter.  Race 3 and Martin Whittingham-Jones, who had a good afternoon of racing with good starts, scored a 2nd to Clive.  Martin did the same again in race 4, finishing 2nd to Paul.   In race 5, the signs that Paul’s day was about to go downhill were there when, closing in on Clive at the line, he inexplicably luffed the wrong side of the finishing buoy, when a first place was likely.  He still managed to gybe round and just cross before a fast finishing Peter.
Race 6 and Paul led from the first mark until the final beat, when another misjudgement left him and Phyl Fanning locked together, with Phyl’s bow across Paul’s foredeck.  Phyl had been running on starboard at the time, with Paul on port!  Clive, who had got stuck on a mark on the first beat and was the length of the lake behind, realised that he could still bag 3rd if Paul and Phyl couldn’t untangle themselves quickly, which is exactly what he did.
In race 7 Paul managed to stay out of trouble finishing 2nd to Peter with Clive in third.  However, in race 8 Paul, on port, was clearly in two minds as to whether to lee bow or duck Peter on starboard.  He left it too late to do either and ended up tangled with bow and backstay snagged.  This gifted Clive a 1st and Martin a 2nd.  At this point Paul thought it wise to call it a day.

 

Oops!
Races 9 and 10 were carbon copy results, with Peter first, Clive 2nd and Martin 3rd.
As an afternoon goes, it was good racing with plenty of boat speed and close racing from all 5 skippers…just a little too close on a couple of occasions!  Clive came out top dog, closely followed by Peter and then Martin.
Thanks go to Neil for running the racing.

DF95 Summer 2025 #2 – 17/5/25

Only a few light zephyrs of breeze were apparent whilst boats were practising leading up to the 13:00 start.  Unfortunately this included winds from the general direction of both East and West.  Coming up to start time, the predominant wind was Easterly and so Peter and Dave agreed to start at the far end.

All was looking good during the countdown until 15 seconds before the start when….. the wind switched off and we started on a run.  This direction remained  for the whole race, making for an interesting time to sail the right course, with a windward gate and a leeward mark and spreader!  The race was taken by John Brierley aided in part by Peter thinking there was a run to go before finishing on a beat! Alan picked up third close behind Peter.

By the time of the next start a decent westerly breeze had set in which had some very odd short shifts as a gust rolled down the course, but produced a good A rig sailing day.  The sun was out but the breeze was cool leading to most sailors wearing two layers rather the expected single layer.

The day became mostly a shoot out between Peter and John Brierley, with Peter picking up five firsts and John taking four.  They did not have it all their own way however with Paul Little taking two wins and a second place with Neil Westbrook a win and second.  Although Alan didn’t pick up a race win during the afternoon, he did sail consistently with a second and a number of third places to take third overall.  Neil’s win helped lower his overall score and place him in fourth ahead of John Carlin, who had a number of third places, but wasn’t as consistent as Neil and Alan, dropping him into fifth.  Unfortunately after winning a couple of races, Paul Little didn’t finish two races and so had to count some lower places, narrowly dropping him down the overall positions.  Ian Davies had placed well in the first session of six races, but missed the second session and dropped him out of the overall running.

Overall a great afternoon for sailing and a good turnout of eleven sailors, who in the main took it in turns to act as RO for eleven races, with the final race start watched over by Peter and kindly finished by Paul.  Photos from Dave Williams (Race 1) and Peter (Race 3).

  1. Peter Baldwin                          172  13pts
  2. John Brierley                             84  16pts
  3. Alan Watkinson                        23  36pts
  4. Neil Westbrook                         03  39pts
  5. John Carlin                                  50  41pts
  6. Paul Little                                     14  44pts
  7. Dave Williams                             33  51pts
  8. John Beech                                 288  60pts
  9. Martin Whittingham-Jones  77  68pts  2x4th
  10. Phyl Fanning                             657  68pts  1x4th
  11. Neil Davies                                  133  73pts

DF65 Social Racing 2025 – 14/5/25

A real Gautby road day today for the ten 65’s. Lovely sunshine, and a bit of breeze blowing gently from wherever you thought it wouldn’t be, but sort of from the top corner opposite the clubhouse. The usual course format was used starting from the far end with a line which, as so often, looked pin end biased but starters on a number of races from that end either found a flat spot or got headed as they came back out on port– but not all the time.

Peter proved master of the conditions despite being becalmed on at least one occasion, albeit in the right place, and ran out a clear winner with five firsts over ten races. Alan sailed consistently well counting three wins to finish second, three points clear of Paul with one win.

These front three were comfortably clear of the pack, although there was close racing further down the order as well. The course was slightly shortened after race seven to squeeze in the last three races in time but this didn’t seem to affect the front three as shown in the full results below.

Thanks to Dave for getting us away on time (and the photos showing conditions early on), and PaulP for doing the results as shown below.

 

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2025 – 7/5/25

DF95

Skippers arriving at Gautby road today could be forgiven for thinking not just that they were in the wrong location, but possibly the wrong country. Blue sky, blue water, and a reasonable breeze blowing straight down the lake – it doesn’t get any better than that.

The usual course was used with the full length of the lake available. There was a bit of bias on the line but not enough to spoil the starts, but more importantly the leeward gate was definitely biased making for some very busy roundings and in Mdsp’s case a boat well and truly caught on the mark rope after cutting it too fine. After the first couple of races, Dave moved the finish up to the top of the course to give a second full beat which worked very well.

Clive aced the day with seven wins out of ten races, finishing comfortable ahead of Ian Davies who sailed consistently quickly, won two races and was unlucky not to win another when he was overtaken on the final beat. Martin also sailed very consistently to finish third ahead of Mikedsp who gradually got up to speed during the morning but also managed to hit most of the marks at one stage or another.

Richard was fifth, one point ahead of Dave and John who were tied on points with John finishing ahead on countback despite having to leave his boat caught on the windward mark in the last race.

A lovely day to race model yachts – full results as below.

  1. Clive Warren                                    9 pts           7 wins
  2. Ian Davies                                        21 pts           2 wins
  3. Martin Whittingham-Jones    28 pts
  4. Mike de St Paer                             29 pts           1 win
  5. Richard Walker                             36 pts
  6. John Beech                                      37 Pts           1x 2nd
  7. Dave Williams                               37 pts
  8. Malcolm Harvey                           59 pts

DF65

A disappointing turnout of only 4 skippers took to the water for some “extreme social sailing”  despite the blue sky and reasonable breeze. A+ rigs  were the order of the day.  We didn’t bother with a starter box, we didn’t even have a finishing post, just an imaginary line at 90 degrees to the finishing buoy.  The course was set, which was the same as the morning but with the finish halfway up the lake. Clive (our countdown clock for the afternoon) got the sailing underway with a countdown from 20secs.
After sailing 2 races we decided to swap boats and transmitters, the only exception being Charles who has his transmitter set up ‘left handed’ so it was decided this would be too much of a change for both Charles and the ‘swapee’. This proved to be an interesting exercise to see how different the boats were set up by different skippers. Two races were sailed in this format so the rotation went full circle.  A further 3 races with our own boats were sailed before we decided to call it a day.
Results
An Honourable draw all round, well what did you expect with extreme social sailing,
Thanks to David White, Andrew Potter, Charles Legg and Clive Warren for an enjoyable afternoon

DF65 Social Racing 2025 – 30/4/25

A bright sunny day welcomed the skippers to Gautby Rd, the wind was a light breeze coming generally from the East but with a few twists and turns to keep the skippers on their toes. Eight boats turned up, however only 7 made it to the start line with Dave Williams having ongoing transmitter problems forcing him to drop out. His loss was our gain, as he volunteered to be our RO for the morning.
No discussion required as A+ rigs were the order for the day. Dave set the course, start at the far end of the lake, windward mark at the clubhouse end  (the first one, as the the top of the lake was in wind shadow), back to a gate and a beat to the finish half way back up the lake. Racing started  on time at 11:00 and 8 races sailed
Race 1, – Paul and Clive  had a close battle at the front, Clive led at the first mark and dropped into a hole on the run and Paul passed him.  These 2 were clear of the rest of the field which was headed by Alan and Richard in hot pursuit. Paul took line honours with Clive 2nd and Alan 3rd.
Race 2, – This time Paul was called back for an early start providing the rest of the field with a head start. Alan took advantage at the front of the race, Paul had other ideas and a close battle until the finish with Paul taking his second win, with Alan just losing out in the last few metres finishing 2nd and Clive 3rd with the minor places being hotly contested with Malcolm sneaking in ahead of Don.  Race 3 and a slight change to  the course, the finishing line was moved further up the lake to provide a longer second beat. The same 3 broke away from the pack, with Alan leading round the first mark, from Paul followed by Clive. At the gate Paul took the port one while the other 2 took the starboard one.  Paul soon realised that he had a senior moment and forgotten the new finish line, allowing Alan to cross the line first followed by Clive. The race for the minor places was a tight as ever with Don coming out on top.
Race 4,  Clive got a great start and split from the rest of the pack staying on starboard tack whilst the others tacked onto port, this paid off with a good lead at the first mark, behind him the usual suspects of Alan and Paul were joined by Richard in a battle for the minor places. The positions didn’t change until halfway up the final beat as Clive snagged some debris which stopped him in his tracks and alllowed the majority of the fleet to pass him. Line honours agin going to Paul, Alan 2nd, Richard 3rd and Clive finishing in 5th.  Race 5 and 6, – followed a similar pattern to the previous races, with Paul, taking two more wins, Alan two 2nd and Clive two 3rds. Don had found some consistency and added 2 more 4th places to make it 4 in a row.
Race 7 – This time Paul, Clive and Alan were joined by Richard to battle for line honours, whilst behind the overall minor placings only separated by a couple of placings so there were private battles throughout the fleet. Clive notched up his first win with Paul 2nd and the inconsistent Richard 3rd  It was Davids turn to take the honours in the minor places.  Finally to Race 8, Richard was first at the windward mark followed closely by Clive, Paul and Alan, at the gate there was nothing in it and anybody’s race. Richard and Clive opted for the port gate whist Paul took the Starboard mark and sailed into an unfavourable windshift. Clive managed to pass Richard on the beat back up the lake to take his second win, Richard holding on to 2nd with Alan also passing Paul for 3rd. Further down the oeder David took his second 5th place on the trot.
Summary
Good  mornings sailing with a steadyish breeze, a few windshifts and a couple of holes to catch the unawary out. Close racing at the front with Paul the clear winner but not having it all his own  way. The lower order also highly competitive with very close racing.  A big thank you to Dave  Williams for standing in for RO allowing maximum sailing time for all the others, and also for the photos.
  1. Paul Plested            7pts        5 wins
  2. Clive Warren         12pts        2 wins
  3. Alan Watkinson   13pts        1 win
  4. Richard Walker    24pts
  5. Don McKinnon     27pts
  6. David White           33pts
  7. Malcolm Harvey  35pts

DF95 Summer 2025 #1 – 26/4/25

Stock photo – no photographer available today

Nine skippers made the effort to get down to the club early for the first of several double class days over the coming months, with the DF95s starting at 10:15 (followed at 13:30 by IOMs).  After some shifting of buoys the racing got going just after the designated time, with a standard 2 lap windward/leeward course with a beat up towards the clubhouse end in a 7/8 mph A rig breeze.

First to bag a bullet was John Carlin who sailed a perfect race despite the efforts of both Peter Baldwin and Paul Plested to overhaul him.  Then it was Peter’s turn to cross the line first, followed by Paul and then Alan Watkinson, who showed some good speed throughout the morning.   After 2 seconds, Paul P managed to post a 1st in race 3 closely followed by Peter and Alan.
For the next 3 races in was the Peter show, with 3 straight bullets, with Paul P, Alan and John C scoring 2nds and 3rds, although both Martin Whittingham-Jones and Paul Little had both been well placed throughout those races, both scoring 4ths just behind the leaders.
Paul P did manage to break Peter’s winning streak in race 7 with Alan coming in 2nd again.  Race 8 and Paul L showed the fleet a clean pair of heels from the off to cross the line first, followed by Paul P then Peter.
Race 9 was Peter’s from start to finish and it looked like Malcolm Harvey and Alan would be scrapping for 2nd as they rounded the final gate marks, but a coming together stopped both of them in their tracks, gifting Paul P another 2nd and Phyl Fanning, who is definitely getting quicker around the course, a 3rd.
Whether or not the collision in the previous race spurred him on, but Alan was away from the start and never looked back bagging a well deserved first place and a strong performance all morning.  Paul L also sailed well picking up his third 4th place of the day to go with his 1st.  Whilst not having it all his own way, Peter came out the clear winner on the day, followed by Paul P, then Alan.