Category: dragonforce

DF95’s

There was very little  wind as the DF95 sailors arrived with the only ripples created by the geese and seagulls.  As the first boats went on the water and Peter donned the waders to set a course for the morning, there was a light WSW breeze coming fitfully down the lake.

There was a good turnout of 14 boats for this inaugural “first of the month” DF95 morning session which included one visitor from Gresford whose lake foreshore and clubhouse are currently surrounded by water.

Racing was close from the very start with a number of boats vying for line honours during the nine races sailed with one lap over the full length of the lake.  Paul Plested had a great start winning the first two races before Peter Baldwin picked up the  first of his two wins.  Mike de st Paer then took the next race followed by a win for Alan Watkinson in Race 5.  Getting the right shifts and pressure was key, although there was an element of luck in it as well at times, with pressure coming from unexpected locations and no visula indication on the water to give any of us a clue.

Clive Warren then got the bit bbetween his teeth and won the next three races he sailed in missing one due to an RO duty as these were shared out over the fleet with us picking up average points when on duty.

The overal lwin went to Peter with Paul a close second and Clive only a  little adrift in third.  There were some other notable results with Dave Wiliams and Paul Little both picking up a third, but both struggling witth consistency.  Thanks to Paul P and Dave W for the photos and Malcolm for processing the results.

DF65’s

DF65’s

A crisp sunny day for the DF65s today with – at last – a nice A+ breeze blowing straight down the lake from the far end to welcome the excellent turnout of 15 skippers.

Commodore Dave got the racing away promptly using the usual windward / leeward course with top spreader and leeward gate, with RO duties then shared for the days racing.

Although somewhat short for the fleet size the start line seemed to work very well, with good starts possible from various positions along the line. There was the usual preference for the starboard end which looked as if it might be favoured, but positions up the first beat suggested otherwise.

John Brierley was very clearly class of the field with five wins over the mornings ten races. He did have to work hard on one or two occasions to climb up out of the pack but consistently good sailing and a slight speed edge proved decisive.

Behind John, racing was very keen, with some really excellent starts which looked like an open and with only the odd OCS. John Carlin was clearly the best of the rest with three wins and a string of consistently good results, and was followed by Mikedsp with no wins, some reasonable steady sailing, one OCS and a number of close encounters of the DF kind.

Clive and Alan were also race winners, Paul was unlucky to have a rig failure after a good string of results, Dave beat Charles on countback, and it was great to see Dave White and Phyl Fanning starting to get into the mix.

The standard of racing overall was very good, with almost everyone having at least one good result. The top end of the beat proved particularly tricky with some quick shifts and also some bends which were not consistent and tricky to spot resulting in some crowded top mark roundings and a fair bit of inadvertent minor contact.

All in all an excellent days racing with thanks as always to Dave Williams and Malcolm for the results which are shown below and thanks to Dave for the photos.

1. John Brierley                  11 pts        5 wins
2. John Carlin                     20 pts        3 wins
3. Mike de St Paer            26.5 pts
4. Clive Warren                 33 pts          1 win
5. Alan Watkinson           39.6 pts
6. Neil Westbrook            41.8 pts       1 win
7. Paul Little                      44 pts
8. Dave Williams              46.2 pts     (ahead on countback)
9. Charles Legg                 46.2pts
10. Frans King                     53 pts
11. Sally Collings                60.5 pts
12. Don McKinnon             64.9 pts
13. Dave White                     80 pts
14. Malcolm Harvey         101 pts
15. Phyl Fanning               103 pts

DF95’s

1. Alan Watkinson     9pts      2 wins
2. John Carlin             10pts      2 wins
3. Clive Warren          11pts       1 win
4. Phyl Fanning

The forecast didn’t look to promising for wind once again this week and combined with thick fog early on, it seems to have kept a few at home with only 7 takers for racing.  As it turned out, we had a light ENE to SE breeze (and a bit of mist) which built slightly around 12:00 befor dropping back by the end of sailing.  A total of 8 races were completed with about five of these using a shortened course using only half the lake with the remainder using the whole lake when the breeze picked up.

With the low turnout we self policed the start line and finishing, although Dave did keep a watch on the start line to ensure no major premature pre-starters.  We did have two general recalls, but that was simply because twice (the same!) two boats forgot which pair of marks we were using for the start line as there had been a few changes during the morning. At least this way nobody got caught out by the premature starters returning to start correctly.

We had four different race winners during the morning, although Peter did pick up the bulk of four wins such that one bright spark quipped “will you be getting writers cramp soon?” when writing down the fourth set of results.  All good fun with some close racing on a day when picking the right way to go was not always obvious.  Dave Williams had a great first leg in race 8 having tacked early off the line, picking up a line of breeze and although Peter was catching up by the finish he held onto his lead through to the end.  The time was getting on by the end of Race 8 and as it was raining steadily by now, we decided to call it a day. Full results below, with thanks to Malcolm for plugging them in after finishing.

A gentle A rig breeze from the Clubhouse end greeted todays fleet of DF95 sailors.  We had hoped for 12 boats on the start line, but unfortunately some last minute technical issues precluded two sailors from starting and so they very kindly ran the racing and scoring instead.  In addition, a dropped turn on the boat of Dave Williams led to both himself and his helper Alan missing the first race with RO Neil Westbrook starting on time at 12:00.

Race 1 and 2 had the first three boats in the same finishing positions with Peter taking two wins and John Brierley second place.  John B then won Race 3 after Peter was called OCS, although he did recover to third behind John Carlin in second.  John C then went one better to win Race 4 swapping places with John B (Peter picked up another OCS call and had to return once again losing vital time!).  Martin, meanwhile had a technical issue and missed these two races.  He made up for it in Race 5 with a second to Peters win and then John B won Race 6, this being the last race before a break for an early lunch as Neil had decided to run races as just a single lap as the fleet was often well separated even after one lap.

At the break, the top 3 was Peter first on countback from John Brierley and John Carlin in third.

The second session after lunch saw the breeze drop for a few races, before picking up again for the final couple of races.  There were however some big wind shifts and holes that could easily  catch you out and result in a lead change before the windward mark.

The afternoon session belonged to Martin and Peter, who shared the wins between them. with John B seemingly off the pace with both his discards in this second session.  The results probably don’t show it, but the fleet was often closely contested up the first beat with at least half the fleet often rounding in close contention, with Alan and John C well in the mix. Also, after some boat adjustments from Martin earlier in the afternoon amd from Peter at the break, saw Phyl keeping up with the fleet and picking up a good result in Race 11.

When Malcom had worked out the final scores, Peter ran out the clear winner, with Martin powering through into second place after the second session results, with John B having to settle for third.  Many thanks to Neil and Malcom for running the racing and getting the scores ready soon after we finished.

A lovely day at Gautby road for the first DF65 social racing day of 2025 – blue sky and sun but alas almost no wind – and an excellent turnout of twelve racers. All the ice from last week had disappeared leaving a large armchair in the lake just below the start area.

Armchair? Why was it there we might ask…..armchair ice curling practice? / it seemed a good idea at the time? / why?  – answers on a postcard please.

Having decided not to sail all the races John Carlin very kindly went paddling and retrieved it, assisted by Paul Little (who very sensibly stayed on the bank to supervise) but John reported that there is more debris in that area which will need to be removed as soon as practicable.

Back to the sailing which looked unlikely when we all arrived as there was hardly a breath of wind. A very, very light S.Easterly breeze did come in, but all of the mornings sailing was a real dead slow and stop drifting match.

Dave set a short course using the start line which was good for the wind direction, the finish buoy as a windward mark, the outer start mark as a leeward mark and then back to the usual finish line. Races were taking more than 15 minutes on this course giving an indication of just how light conditions were.

Having said all this the racing was really very good with four different winners for the four races completed, with the first three boats covered by one point as shown below. Neil sailed very well having missed the first race and his 1,2,2 results were good enough to win from Paul P who in turn beat Mikedsp on countback.

After four races the general consensus was that enough was enough, and a finish was called. Thanks to Dave for ROing (and being chief photographer) and, as always, for doing the results, and finally thanks again to John and Paul L for removing the lake debris.

1. Neil Westbrook                5 pts       1 win
2. Paul Plested                      6 pts       1 win   (ahead on countback)
3. Mike de St Paer               6 pts        1 win
4. Clive Warren                  10 pts        1 win
5. Charles Legg                  14 pts
6. Alan Watkinson            16 pts
7. Richard Walker             16  pts                   (ahead on countback)
8. Frans King                     21 pts
9. David White                  23 pts
10. Malcolm Harvey         30 pts                  (ahead on countback)
11. John Carlin                    30 pts                  (rtd after R1)
12. Paul Little                      39 pts