Category: dragonforce

Neil Westbrook volunteered to be our RO for the morning and set a standard course of, windward mark, spreader, gate and a finish line half way up the lake and got us underway on time. Unfortunately before racing started Martin Whittington Jones had a winch servo problem which prevented him sailing for the day.

The wind, although looking virtually straight down the lake was in true Gautby road tradition was anything but, Although there weren’t many holes in the wind, there were plenty of shifts to catch the unsuspecting helm out,  pick a wrong one and you could be headed for 20sec or more.  The shifts were also not consistent, meaning there were plenty of opportunities to gain or lose places.

Clive was fast out of the blocks taking the first 3 races, although the pack were getting closer with each race. It was John Carlin who stopped Clive’s winning street in race 4 with the improving John Beech 2^nd which started a consistent run of 2nds and 3rds for him over the next4 races. Meanwhile Clive was lucky to win race 5 when John C and Richard got tangled whilst leading nearing the windward mark. The inconsistent Dave W finally got a win in race 6. Race 8 and it was Richard who had finally got his boat moving who took the win, chased closely by Dave W and Clive. By this time the wind had gone up a notch and in the gusts the boats started to nosedive on the run .In the last 4 races line honours were split amongst the helms with John C taking 2 wins, John B 1 win and Dave W 1 win with him also having to retire in the last race with rudder servo issues

1. Clive Warren        18pts        5 x wins
2. John Carlin           26pts        3 x wins
3. John Beech            26pts       1 x win
4. Dave Williams     30pts        2 x wins
5. Richard Walker   33pts        1  win
6. Malcolm Harvey 58pts
7. Martin Whittington Jones  DNS

DF65’s

An early 10.30 start to allow time for some lake clean-up work between the DF65 and DF95 racing didn’t catch anybody out this week and all 10 sailors were ready for the first race. A+ rigs proved the right choice in a NW breeze blowing down the lake towards the clubhouse that averaged around 7knts with up to 12knt gusts. Last weeks lake cleanup had done a good job with the weed which didn’t appear to cause any problems this week. The standard course was used with a windward mark to port followed by the spreader mark, down through a leeward gate and back up to the finish

Pre-race impressions of the course suggested racing would be quite straight forward and it would be largely a boat speed day but the first beat of the first race gave a taste of the rest of the session with 20 degree wind shifts mixed in with puffs of wind that were quite localised …. so typical Gautby Rd. Nothing on the race course proved consistent …. sometimes it paid to tack on the shifts, at other times it was best to ignore them and hit a corner ….. sometimes the left side paid, sometimes the middle and sometimes the right …. starting at the starboard end of the line sometimes paid, but so did starting in the middle or port end of the line. Surprisingly, based on the puffy conditions, the downwind leg proved the most consistent part of the course with relatively few place changes taking place. What the conditions did mean, was that, particularly on the first beat, you were never out of the race, but that you could also lose a bunch of places by just being slightly in the wrong part of the lake.

Over the 10 races, Peter proved the most consistent to come 1st, winning 5 of them and never being out of the top 3 despite looking dead and buried halfway up the first beat in several races. John was reasonably consistent with 3 wins and able to discard 2 x 6th places to come second while James plodded around with a bunch of 2nds and only 1 result out of the top 5 to come third. Andrew was shockingly inconsistent winning 2 races but also having a load of mid fleet results  to come 4th beating Alan into 5th on race win countback.  Thanks to Dave Williams once again for remembering to take a few photos.

1. Peter Baldwin         63  9pts  5 wins
2. John Carlin               11  13pts  3 wins
3. James Douglas        73  22pts
4. Andrew Potter      194  24pts  2 wins
5. Alan Watkinson   373  24pts
6. Dave Williams         33  33pts
7. Neil Westbrook       03  37pts
8. David White             94  45pts
9. Clive Warren            53  49pts
10. Richard walker       39  57pts

DF95’s

After another minor lake clear up ahead of the Jack Turner Trophy race on Saturday, there should have been 4 sailors out with their 95’s this afternoon. Unfortunately Martin had a faulty winch when he switched on having checked it was working yesterday evening.  That took us down to just three for a great afternoon of close to champagne sailing, with a mid to top A suit breeze straight down the lake with plenty of sunshine.

Alan went well in the first race and took the first win of the afternoon (beginners luck according to Alan!).  Race 2 was deemed a tie between Peter and Clive by impartial observer Martin standing on the line.  Peter then put together a strings of 5 wins, before Clive took the final race 8.  A great afternoon for sailing – where was everyone?

1. Peter Baldwin       172  6pts
2. Clive Warren           93  11pts
3. Alan Watkinson     23  14pts

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 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th 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

 

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

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.

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 2^nd
7. Dave Williams                               37 pts
8. Malcolm Harvey                           59 pts

DF65