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Category: Fleets

IOM Summer 2024 #8 – 12/10/24

9 skippers entered for the clubs final IOM Summer Series race, a decent entry considering there was quite a few regulars away at Fleetwood.
The wind was light and patchy for the first 3 races but we all knew there was a storm brewing that could mean a change in wind direction and strength at any time, the wind did straighten a little for races 4 to 6 and finally by race 7 it arrived and we all changed down to B rig.
Up another notch and all change again for race 8, down to C rig but the time we came out we found ourselves in the eye of the storm and bobbed around for 5 minutes in hardly anything, then finally it happened, claps of thunder, lightening and biblical hail, run for the clubhouse.
The racing was closely fought in all quarters with George deserving special mention, sailing his Father’s old BritPOP! to a commendable 6th position overall.
Race wins went to Brad and Graham with 4 apiece which would of been 5 to Brad if we had completed the final windward leg of the doomed race 9.
  1. Graham Elliott         Britpop!       8pts  (4 wins)
  2. Brad Gibson              Post Punk    8pts (4 wins)
  3. Martin Roberts        Britpop!       15pts
  4. Alan Bennett            Britpop!        23pts
  5. Bill Culshaw             Britpop!        29pts
  6. George Bennett       Britpop!        33pts
  7. John Berry                 Viper              36pts
  8. Guy Cowper              Lintel MMX 45pts
  9. Stan Metcalfe           Widget          49pts

Thanks to Dave Williams for these photos of the lst race and the ground conditions after the hail storm.

DF65 Social Racing 2024 – 9/10/24

Flying towards the finish

With a Northerly forecast for today, the racing was never going to be great, but we did manage to complete eight races befiore stopping ready for the pre-AGM scheduled for 13:00.

Peter donned the waders to tweak the course, moving the start line and gate to the near bank and we used the outer start line mark as the windward mark and we ready to start at 11:00 in some light rain and a light breeze from a generally Northerly direction with plenty of shifts back and forth such that keeping the boat moving was the key skill today.

Peter had a good lead in race one, but had misunderstood the course as set out by Dave, missed out the spreader and thus scored an NSC instead of a win.  This gifted Paul Plested the win, although for a long while it looked very much like Alan’s race.  Andrew Potter then aced races two and three, before Peter won four of the next 5 races, with Andrew picking up another win whilst Peter was RO.  Although not picking up wins, there were good performances across the fleet with some very close finishes, with Paul P, Alan, Paul L, John and Dave all being well placed in at least one race.

The day was characterised by some very wierd wind conditions with boats occasionally seeing the wind going around in circles, before steadying again 5 seconds later to its original direction.  The wind was also cruel to some leaders as the fleet caught up or even overtook them downwind.  We had more than one race with 5 or 6 boats all trying to fit through the gate at the same time; no contacts were made but it was a close run thing.

Thanks go to Dave Williams and Paul Plested for the photos.

  1. Peter Baldwin              63  7pts  4 wins
  2. Andrew Potter           194  8pts  3 wins
  3. Paul Plested                154 15pts  1 win
  4. Alan Watkinson        373  15pts
  5. Paul Little                      45  25pts
  6. Dave Williams              33  31pts
  7. John Carlin                     11  32pts
  8. Frans King                     95  36pts
  9. Richard Walker            39  37pts
  10. Simon Bates                  69  43pts
  11. David White                   94  48pts

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2024 – 2/10/24

DF65

North East wind at Gautby road to greet the excellent turnout of 14 DF65 sailors today. Initially the wind seemed very light, and A+ rigs were an obvious choice, but a succession of small fronts coming over – happily without any rain – also bought some punchy gusts and big shifts to add to the general disturbance caused by the trees. However, the wind stayed in, with enough force to cause the occasional nosedive later, and also some flat spots which caught nearly everyone out at some stage.

The usual course was used, with the windward and spreader mark in a very shifty area right up at the top in the corner opposite the clubhouse, and in fact the spreader was in the flat area under the trees meaning that getting clear on the run needed a touch of luck.

The line was surprisingly good, and good starts were made from just about anywhere during the morning’s racing. It initially looked better to start at the outer end either on port, or getting onto port a.s.a.p. and then trying to hold the port lifts as far as possible, but later it seemed to pay to keep over to the starboard side of the course perhaps in slightly cleaner air and more pressure.

Overall the racing was very close across the fleet, with much place changing and a few turns for various things. Mike, Clive, John and Paul all finished within six points, with other fleet positions also very close.

It was also a pleasure to welcome Phil, a Half Rater sailor from Wallasea YC who had come to take a look and tried both a 65 and 95 during the day.

Overall results as shown below with thanks as always to Dave for sorting them out.

  1.  Mike de St Paer            16pts  4wins
  2.  Clive Warren.                18pts. 2wins
  3.  John Carlin                    21pts
  4.  Paul Plested                  22pts. 3wins
  5.  Neil Westbrook           33pts
  6.  Don MacKinnon         36pts.  1win
  7.  Frans King                    49pts
  8.  Simon Bates                53pts   1x2nd
  9.  Dave Williams            53pts
  10. Sally Collings               58pts
  11. Richard Walker           59pts
  12. John Beech                    81pts
  13. John Lee                         89pts
  14. David White                  92pts

DF95

7 skippers took to the water for the start of the afternoons entertainment, which was a good turnout considering regulars Paul Little and Alan Watkinson were otherwise indisposed. It was good to see John Carlin with 95 in hand after a long absence from the afternoon sailing.

The same course as the morning 65’s was used, The wind being mainly easterly, (partially from the industrial estate) with some Northerly and Southerly thrown in for good measure depending where you were on the lake. This provided plenty of opportunity for losing places or if you were lucky, gaining a few. The breeze was reasonably steady with a few strong gusts to keep us on our toes but the 95s with A Rigs handled them with ease.
Mike very sportingly offered to share his boat with a potential new member Phil, and also had to leave before racing finished so his overall finishing result was not a true reflection. As there were only 7 boats, the normal self monitored start and first over the finishing line recording the race results. Single lap races and 7 races sailed in total after which the wind dropped off and we decided to call it a day.
Racing was very competitive with 6 of the 7 skippers finishing either first or second in at least one race, considering we only sailed 7 races, it shows how competitive the afternoon was!! In the end it was Clive who was most consistent in the tricky conditions, notching up a consistent set of results including 3 wins. He was pushed hard by Paul with 2 wins and Frans who had his best afternoon for some time finishing with 1 win and 2 seconds
In summary – A tricky afternoon with the sun shining, but very enjoyable as ever. Competitive fleet with an array of helms filling the podium places in each race.
Final Results
  1. Clive Warren         10pts         3 wins
  2. Paul Plested          14pts         2 wins
  3. Frans King             16pts         1 win
  4. John Carlin            22pts
  5. Richard Walker   28pts
  6. John Beech            31pts
  7. Mike DSP / Phil   34pts           1 win

DF/RG65 Summer Series 2024 #8 – 28/9/24

Our 1.00pm start was delayed due to a heavy downpour. Only five sailors were taking part due to the IOM ranking race at Chelmsford. The light wind from the top end of the lake varied from straight down to over the houses, sudden gusts and zero wind_ Typical Birkenhead.

Alan Bennett sailing his Ivy took all but one of the races with son George taking the other. Although Alan appeared to win easily he did have some very close competition from Alan W and Charles. George, sailing a new to him Uno, mastered the conditions with ease and put in some very good starts taking six second places. The rest of the fleet were having close racing with some of the finishes inches between the three boats, Alan losing places by stalling just before the finish allowing Charles and Dave to sneak in a couple of times.

Twelve one lap races were held.

Alan Bennett           Ivy     10pts 11wins
George Bennett      Uno   26pts 1win
Alan Watkinson     Uno   29pts
Dave Williams        Uno   34pts
Charles Legg           Uno   49pts

 

DF65 Social racing 2024 – 25/9/24

DF65

On the water, the usual windward/leeward course was used with a spreader at the windward mark and a gate at the leeward mark. 12 races were completed in surprisingly un-Gautby Rd like conditions with a pretty consistent wind in both direction and strength

The racing at the front was dominated by Paul P, Andrew and Clive with a few short-lived cameos by others. Don got a second in race 3 and then won race 4 and then drifted back to mid fleet, although these results were good enough to get him 4th overall on countback. Richard, Dave, Paul L and Sally all had fleeting appearances near the front in various races but apart from a couple of thirds by Paul L, nobody was able to stay in the podium positions by the finish of any race. Paul P won overall, helped by some aggressive starting tactics by Clive on Andrew in race 10 which luckily didn’t deny Andrew second place overall with Clive in third.

  1. Paul Plested          16pts (5 wins)
  2. Andrew Potter     18pts (4 wins)
  3. Clive Warren        20pts (2 wins)
  4. Don McKinnon   46pts (1 win)
  5. Richard Walker  46pts
  6. Sally Collings      47pts
  7. Paul Little            49pts
  8. Dave Williams    54pts
  9. Frans King           58pts
  10. John Beech           68pts
  11. John Lee                77pts
  12. David White        78pts

John Carlin … retired with his boat to see a Relate councillor

DF95

7 Skippers got ready for the afternoon sailing, the weather was supposed to deteriorate with rain in the forecast from 2pm, fortunately this didn’t materialise and a reasonably steady mainly easterly breeze made for a good afternoons sailing. It wasn’t without its Gautby road shifts and twists especially around the windward mark area.
A rig was the preferred choice for all 7 skippers, with self monitored starts, and first over the finishing line recording the results. With the rain forecast it was decided to get as many races in as possible so single lap races were agreed and 9 Races were sailed in total.
The first race set the tone for the afternoon when all the boats were rounding the gate marks, one of the skippers noticed a lone 95 at the windward end of the lake, wallowing, when the question “who’s boat is that at the other end of the lake” was asked; to which Frans replied “must be mine, I thought I was doing rather well”, having sailed the wrong boat for the whole of the downwind without realising!!! In the meantime at the front Paul was showing good boat speed to take the honours, Clive was second with Richard 3rd.
The same 3 filled the podium spots until in race 5 Frans had a 15m lead coming through the gate only to get the wrong side of a couple of shifts and then stuck in irons for 30 secs as he watched the whole fleet sail pass, you just know when its not your day. The race finally being won by Martin.
The top 2 positions on the remaining races were shared between Paul and Clive with John Beech picking up a second and third.
In summary –  A good afternoon enjoyment, (even Frans enjoyed it) conditions were challenging at times with wind shifts all over the lake providing with close racing at the front of the pack and also at the back
  1. Paul Plested                            154            9pts                 5 wins
  2. Clive Warren                            93           11pts                 3 wins
  3. Martin Wittingham-Jones 77          28pts                1 win
  4. John Beech                               288         28pts                1 second
  5. Richard Walker                         52         28pts
  6. Frans King                                  59         32pts
  7. Paul Little                                    14         38pts