Category: iom

Another fantastic turn out for round 4 of the Birkenhead Winter Series. A number of guests joined us today, including Mick Cooper from the Lincoln club sailing his TNT, Gary Benson from Fleetwood sailing his Arrival and Chris Chatfield  sailing his flat deck Widget to a high standard, definitely one to be watched when he takes possession of his new Fraktel. Once again, Martin, Graham and Mike chose to sail their Widgets on the day.

The wind was extremely challenging for most of the day with the first 4 races resulting in big gains and even bigger loses to be had, indeed, Dave Potter, Graham Elliott and Mike Allen all fell foul of this early on but it was Martin Roberts and Paul Allen sailing the most consistently to take the lead into the break.

After tea, the wind straightened significantly and we had a first race win by returning skipper and dinghy expert Mike Allen sailing grey 9 BritPOP! There was also some consistent sailing from John Brierley and the unlucky Emilio who was quite cruelly taken out by most of the fleet whilst rounding the final mark in 2nd position in one race.

The day belonged to Paul and Martin who both sailed extremely well in tricky conditions.

Yet again, thanks to Bernie and Jack for running the race and also John for wearing the waders to set the buoys, much appreciated.

1. Paul Allen 13 Pts (Countback to 4th places)
2. Martin Roberts 13
3. Graham Elliott 23 (One 1st)
4. John Brierley 23
5. Derek Priestley 24
6. Dave Potter 29
7. Mike Allen 35
8. Mike Parkington 46
9. Bill Culshaw 54
10. Dave Williams 56
11. Peter Baldwin 58
12. Neil Westbrook 61
13. Emilio Gonzalez 66
14. Roger Lincoln 71
15. Andrew Peter 75
16. Alan Watkinson 78
17. Gary Benson 89 (One 9th)
18. Mick Cooper 89
19. Chris Chatfield 92
20. Sally Collings 94
21. Colin Deakin 105
22. Sue Parkington 106

No racing at Birkenhead next weekend, but IOM sailors can venture to an open meeting at Doncaster on 4th February and the Dragonflite/Dragonforce TT is at West Lancs for Saturday and Sunday.

Another great turn out for the 3rd race in the Winter series. Obviously a few skippers getting some early practice in for the upcoming European Championships being held in Croatia in April.

The wind was a medium to heavy top suit strength straight down the lake from the club house end.

The first race was a two boat match race at the front between  Rob Walsh and Paul Allen with Rob just getting his nose ahead by the finish, this was the first of many wins for Rob who took all but one race.

The day saw quite a few skippers tasting the front of the fleet at some time, Bill sailing his newly launched boat eventually ironed out some problems with his trim and put some solid results in. Martin, Graham and Mike all chose to sail their Widgets and all sailed well to register some very good scores. There were also impressive races by Alan and Sally who threatened the top 3 in a few races. Dave’s very impressive looking new boat from the Dave Creed workshop showed good speed in quite a few races.

Many thanks to Jack and Bernie on the start and finish line and also Joyce for the welcome cup of hot tea at the break.

1. Rob Walsh 7 Pts
2. Graham Elliott 17
3. Paul Allen 22
4. Martin Roberts 30
5. Dave Potter 33
6. John Brierley 36
7. Emilio Gonzalez 43
8. Bill Culshaw 49
9. Mike Parkington 56
10. Alan Watkinson 57
11. Sue Parkington 76
12. Gary Benson 81
13. Andrew Peter 86
14. Neil Westbrook 87
15. Colin Deakin 92
16. Chris Chatfield 93
17. Dave Williams 105
18. Sally Collings 115

9 races sailed.