Birkenhead Radio Sailing & Power Club
This coming Easter Weekend sees the start of our IOM series on Saturday 31st March (10 days in series, 6 best to count). A reminder that this year this is an Open Series and members from other MYA Clubs are welcome to attend (£2 on the day). Racing starts at 13.00 prompt.
For those with RG65s and DF65s, our friends at Fleetwood have announced a pop-up Open Event on Easter Monday starting at 09.45 Full details are available on the Fleetwood Website
Another great turnout saw 12 Dragonforces turn up for the day with 11 boats sailing 10 races and one brand new boat with a faulty winch!
The wind was forecast to be coming over the houses, but in the event it was straight down the lake with everyone opting to use “B” suit some excellent and close racing was held.
10 races sailed.
Next week sees the final race in the “Winter” series. John Brierley clearly has the series sewn up, but 2nd place is wide open.
All winter series racing has now come to a close and spring is in the air!
Well it did not feel like spring for the last race of the DF65 winter series at West Lancs SC, Southport last Sunday. Very cold but as in the previous races well attended by Birkenhead Club members. The series started in early January with barmy light winds and sunshine and finished in March in sub zero conditions and winds that blew dogs of the quay side.
Club members who attended all or parts of the series were Alan Watkinson, Dave Williams, Andrew Peter, Dave Pickup, Roger Lincoln and John Brierley. All agreed an excellent series which ran on alternate weekends along with our IOM Winter series at Gautby Rd.
Overall John Brierley won the event and Alan Watkinson was 4th
Attention now turns to the IOM ranking event at Lincoln this weekend with a good turn out of club members already on the entry list.
John Brierley
Unfortunately the wind blew more from the East than the South East, that gave the 10 skippers quite a challenge ahead of them, it did blow about 12mph though with some 90degree gusts up to 18mph and some snow flurries to add to the fun.
With 6 RG65s and 4 DF65s taking to the start it was a good fleet although more was hoped for. Maybe a mixture of the rugby, the freezing weather or Malta had kept a few away but still, we had fun in the snow.
Everybody chose their middle rig to start and this seemed to be the correct choice with big holes in the wind. A long course was set with a nice gate at the leeward end and a finish in the middle.
Early pace setters were, Taylor from Scotland, Elliott and Baldwin sailing RGs and Lincoln sailing his DF. The wind was at best an enigma to all and made the most experienced skippers looked stupid at times, good old Birkenhead pox as Paul Jones would call it.
Race winners were John Taylor, Dave Williams and Graham Elliott with Roger Lincoln winning the DF race and Graham Elliott winning the RG race overall. 14 completed long races and no on water incidents all day, just cold fingers.
Thanks to our resident double act of Jack and Bernie for running the entire race and making tea in the freezing conditions.
14 races sailed
‘C’ suit weather with the wind straight along the lake. Sally had boat electrical problems (Eds. note Again?) so acted as Race Officer and 10 races were sailed.
This coming weekend sees the final race in our highly successful Winter IOM Series with the final result still very finely in the balance. 26 different competitors have taken part and any of the top 6 look to be possible winners.
On 17th March the main season starts with the first day of the DF65/RG65 series (See Calendar for full details). Sailing starts at 11.00 and last race will start before 16.45
A reminder that this is an Open Series, so competitors from other clubs are welcome (entry £2 on the day). Four days in total with the best 3 to count towards the final result.
RG65s and DF65s will race together over the same course, but the DF65s will be scored separately, so it doesn’t matter if you have the latest RG65 design or a MK1 Dragonforce, you can win!
IOM and M series races start on 31st March and 12th May respectively and again these will be Open races with the M Class sailing at West Kirby Marine Lake.
We are also delighted to be hosting the DF65 Northern District Championships on Saturday September 15th and holding an RG65 Traveller Series Open the following week.
