A light breeze from the Clubhouse end greeted the eight DF65 sailors for this stand alone Open event. Unfortunately a combination of club skippers taking holidays and involvement in other sailing activities curtailed the number of club skippers and we only had one visitor in the form of Tony Broad from Great Orme MBC.
Peter moved a few marks around the lake to try and make a decent (some may differ on that description with the wind shifts we had!) windward/leeward course, starting at the far end of the lake. After a short briefing from Paul Plested we started promptly at 10:00 under the watchful eye of Sharon Plested (Our combined RO and scorer for the day).
The wind was light, patchy and very shifty with some shifts making boats change tack without the helm moving his thumb. Racing was slower than we had hoped and a short drinks break was taken after 65 minutes with only 3 races completed. Peter Baldwin set the early pace with two wins, but Paul was close behind with a single win plus a second and Clive had a consistent 2,2,3 score. Neil Westbrook was going well and managed a third in Race 2.
After the break we sailed another 4 races before stopping for lunch, with Peter picking up 3 of the wins, Clive taking the other win and a clutch of seconds. Paul was still consistent with thirds and a second. Tony Broad picked up a second in Race 5 after a slow start to the day getting used to the conditions.
Prior to starting the afternoon session, Peter and Paul assessed whether the course should be switched, but decided to leave it as it was, however after another single race, Peter donned the waders and shifted everything around, so that we started at the clubhouse and had a starboard hand windward mark close to the shore. For the first couple of races this was okay, but the wind finally began to blow down the lake by Race 10 and we rattled through the final seven races in good time before the 16:30 cutoff time.
Other than a slight hiccup in Race 11 when Peter picked up some debris, he continued to dominate the front of the fleet, with only Paul managing to take three wins from him in the nine races after lunch. Clive was still doing well, but couldn’t quite match Paul for boat speed, especially later in the afternoon. As the breeze picked up, both Duncan Neale and Tony had some better results, picking up seconds and thirds in a number of races. Dave Williams was also finding the increase in breeze to his liking and picked up a third in Race 9.
Sadly, Neil Westbrook had a couple of issues on his boat. After sorting the first problem, he started the next race only to have a power failure during that race and so decided to have an early bath.
So after 16 races, Peter was first overall, with Paul pulling away from Clive by the end in second place and Clive in third. Duncan sailed well in the later breeze and managed to put a point between himself in fourth and Tony in fifth.
Thanks go to Sharon for being our “do it all” RO and taking photos of the racing, Chris Westbrook for looking after the galley and Dave Williams for photos of the prizewinners. A good if at times frustrating day. Our next open is for the DF95 on Saturday 1st November followed by the Strebor IOM Open on the 8th.
Seven DF95 skippers turned up for the second extra Saturday morning social racing sessions that had been added to the sailing calendar and it would be fair to say, that most if not all, probably wished they’d found something else to do with their time. The forecast was for a stiff breeze from the SW moving to the West with boats on B rigs. Martin Wittingham-Jones even came ready to sail with his B rig with 10 minutes to the start, only to have to quickly swap up to A rig just in time to race in what was a very shifting lightish breeze coming from over the houses. This combined with the ever present algae, made it a challenge for all.
Races one and two saw Paul Plested and Peter Baldwin pull away from the pack early on, and both took the option of de-weeding on the run/reach from the the starboard rounded windward mark and spreader mark. Paul managed to hang on for two firsts, with Peter close behind in 2nd. Steve Miller, who had a good day, managed a 3rd in the first race and a 4th in the second.
As with earlier races, both Paul and Peter got away with Paul taking the win. Steve Miller bagged another 3rd just pipping Alan to the line. In race five both Phyl Fanning, who had finally got his boat going in the conditions, and Martin, who suffered with electrical problems all morning, had a good first beat and were both in contention as they approached the leeward mark, with Peter just ahead and Paul just behind. Peter took the win and Paul managed to get through to 2nd, with Martin taking 3rd.
In the first five races Paul Plested was fastest out of the blocks on four occasions. In race three Dave Williams got the shifts right and led until the leeward gate when he sailed into rather than around the right-hand buoy. This gifted 1st place to Paul making it five bullets out of five races with Charles Legg also getting promoted to 2nd. James Douglas was close throughout the opening five races scoring four 2nds and Phyl Fanning picked up a 3rd in race five.
In both races six and seven Dave got great starts and led to the finish. Paul, having been OCS is race six, pulled back up to 2nd on the last beat to the line and James picked up another 2nd in race seven.
By race eight the wind had picked up considerably and the fleet would have been much better on A or even B rigs, but as the session was close to ending the skippers agreed to carry on. With hindsight, they might have been better calling it a day then as all were getting wiped out on the run. Towards the leeward gate all five boats were broached and virtually uncontrollable. James was the first to zig-zag through the gate and then beat back up to finish, followed by Paul and then Dave.
Despite the breeze, the skippers decided to try one more race as the wind had abated slightly, for the start at least. Again, possibly not the best decision, as the race became a struggle against the conditions. James again won this battle and posted his second 1st of the day.
In summary, it was a very enjoyable morning of racing helped by negligible impact from the algae, which looks to be dissipating. Thanks go to Dave and Malcolm for the few DF65 photo’s
The DF95 open scheduled for today had been cancelled due to algae in the lake. However, club sailing was still on the cards and 8 skippers turned up from noon for a 1pm start and some DF95 racing, albeit with the added challenge of the sailing through green gloop for the afternoon.
The wind was A rig from the top of the lake for the duration of the 12 races sailed, with some reasonably regular shifts and the odd gust and softer patches to keep everyone on their toes. The standard windward mark, spreader and leeward gate with 2 laps was used throughout. As for RO, Neil Westbrook was on hand to run the show assisted by others during the afternoon such as Dave Williams, Steve Miller and Alan Watkinson.
Given the algae the trick, if you could pull it off, was to keep your boat powered up and driving, even if it meant sailing through some headers. Trying to point and looking to tack on every shift just slowed you down too much. It was clear from the 6 races before the tea-break that Paul Plested and Peter Baldwin had sussed out how to sail in the conditions, both scoring 3 firsts each. Phyl Fanning also had his boat going well with three 3rds in the first session. Martin Whittingham-Jones was also quick off the start line in several races and managed two 3rds before the break. Dave Williams scored a 2nd in race two only to have rudder servo problems again, which put paid to his day, although he did get to race later as a few skippers lent their boats out for a race or two. In race five Steve Miller kept a cool head with a cracking start hitting the line on port, crossing the whole fleet approaching on starboard. Great to see the improvement in his sailing given how new it is to him and to have him back sailing after a time away due to injury.
After a short stop for refreshments and a natter, it was more of the same with Paul and Peter hogging most of the top two spots. However, Paul had clearly had some Red Bull at the break as he bagged five of the six firsts on offer, with Peter scoring one 1st and four 2nds. Alan Watkinson, who had been mixing it at the front of the fleet in most races, scored two 3rds in this session. Phyl continued where he left off and scored another three 3rds in the post tea break slot, which gave him a very worthy 3rd overall on the day. Both Dave and Neil had a sail of Steve’s boat for a race each, both managing to finish 2nd.
Never the less, the course was set, windward mark to port straight back down to a gate and then to the finish half way back up the beat. It was decided to have a dedicated RO for each race with the skippers taking it in turn. Dave W took first duty and got us off on time.
Race 2 and James took the RO role, but it was Clive again who got a port end flyer crossing the fleet, and would remain ahead until the finish with Charles holding off Dave W to finish second. At this stage Alan who had struggled with boat setup decided enough was enough as the frustration got the better of him. As the number of skippers was diminishing it was decided to ditch the dedicated RO and the starts would be self monitored and first to finish would record the results. To make things fairer the 2 helms who had RO’d (Dave W and James) would have an average score used to complete the missing scores
Race 4 and this time James who had a bit of advice from Clive on his set up, joined Clive in crossing, what was left of the fleet. on port tack from the start. The pair had a good battle to the finish with James taking line honours. There was also a good battle going on behind with Charles getting his revenge over Dave W for third
It was decided that enough really did mean enough and we decided to retreat to the clubhouse, although the sun did start to come through the clouds. Thanks to Dave for a few photos from Race 1.