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DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2024 – 21/2/24

DF65’s

A forecast 20+ knots of breeze didn’t really materialise at Gautby road. Initial thoughts of B rig were changed to A, and in fact A+ would probably have been sailable.

The wind was approximately southerly, and once again very shifty although there was a bit more pressure today. The standard course from Saturday’s racing looked to be just about right, and although the line appeared to be starboard biased it turned out to be a pretty good compromise. In fact, the wind went gradually right over the morning’s sailing but even so it was possible to make a useful start from well down the line for most of the day.

14 skippers turned up to race, but perhaps this should be 13 plus 1 as John Brierley was really in a class of his own, winning 6 of the 9 races, and should probably have won another but was tagged and stopped at a start.

Racing was once again very close for much of the morning, and conditions meant that no one could relax at any part of a race. There was a certain amount of frustration at the shifts and flat spots which caught everyone out at some point.

Final results finished as shown below, with thanks again to Dave Williams for doing them:

  1. John Brierley                7 pts            6 wins
  2. Mike de St Paer          20 pts
  3. John Carlin                   21 pts             2 wins
  4. Neil Westbrook           25 pts             3 x 2nds
  5. Paul Plested                  25 pts
  6. James Douglas             26 pts            1 win
  7. Simon Bates                  36 pts
  8. Clive Warren                 37 pts
  9. Frans King                     57 pts
  10. John Beech                    59 pts
  11. Dave Williams              61 pts
  12. Richard Walker            65 pts
  13. Dave Howard                67 pts
  14. Malcolm Harvey          75 pts

DF95’s

Gautby Road never ceases to amaze us, and today was no different. During the last morning race for the 65s the wind dropped off, became more fluky and it didn’t look good for the afternoon.
A quick look at the lake prior to starting and A rigs were selected by the 6 skippers participating in the 95’s. The wind had filled in and swung round frum a South Easterly to a South Westerly, so still  coming over the houses but not as shifty as the morning.  The result of the change of direction necessitated a change of course. The Start Line was set at the club house end and a single buoy rounding to port located close to the pathway on the housing estate side was used as the windward mark ensuring a beat was necessary for rounding, returning to the gate at the clubhouse end.
As has been adopted, starts were self monitored and first to finish recorded the results.
Racing got underway and as is normal in the 95 fleet it was very competitive, there were still enough shifts and holes to catch the helms out, which led to the lead changing more than once.
It didn’t take long for the wind to increase in strength and after 3 races, it was decided to change to B Rigs. In truth a C Rig was probably needed but as 3 of the 6 didn’t have Cs we gave it a go with the B.  Race 4 and it didn’t take long for our first DNF, with Frans suffering rigging failure.  The boats were nosediving downwind and difficult to tack and we also lost Malcolm.  After finishing and with the wind building further still, Neil decided that discretion was better than valour and called it a day. This left Clive , Dave and John B to change to the C rigs.  In Race 5, unfortunately Dave suffered rigging failure (his new C rig had failed its first test) before he could even get on the water, the wind had turned even more and was virtually straight down the lake. The B rig was the perfect choice, “tackable” and no nose diving but a brisk walk / jog to keep up downwind was needed. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and possibly the best wind Gautby has seen on a Wednesday in a while, but with only 2 functioning boats it was more fun time than serious racing.
The results from first 4 races (to try and make it fair)
1.   Neil Westbrook      8pts     2 x win,  1 x 2
2.   Clive Warren          9pts     1 x win,  1 x 2,  2 x 3
3.   Dave Howard        12pts    1 x win,  1 x 2,  1 x 3
4.   John Beech             13pts                     1 x 2,  1 x 3
5.   Frans King             22pts
6.   Malcolm Harvey  23pts

DF/RG65 Winter Series 2023 #4 – 27/1/24

There were 6 RG65 sailors today for Round 4 of the Winter Series, with a few regulars missing for a variety of reasons.  The breeze was forecast to be an 8-10mph Southerly which would have been an unpleasant and shifty wind over the top of the houses.  However, we were fortunate to have something that was more like ESE or SE, although lighter at around 3 to 6 mph with occasional 8mph gusts and so mostly down the lake from the clubhouse.

We got away a little late after Peter had moved quite a few marks around to produce a reasonable course in the conditions and with young George Bennett acting as our Race Officer.  The first race looked to be safe for Alan Bennett, until Alan Watkinson picked up a good lifting shift around the left hand final gate mark and powered across the line ahead of Alan.  Alanbennett got his revenge by winning the next 4 races before the break, giving him a commanding lead at the halfway stage, ahead of Bill Culshaw who had picked up a number of seconds.

In the second half, Bill had three wins and Alan picked up another two, with John Brierley and Peter Baldwin also taking the occasional second from the two front runners.  After 10 races, Alan was a clear winner on 10 points, five ahead of Bill, with John Brierley picking up third place.

Our thanks must go to George for acting as RO and scorer (with a bit of help from Dave Williams).

  1. Alan Bennett          Ivy  10pts  (6 x first)
  2. Bill Culshaw           Ivy  15pts  (3 x first)
  3. John Brierley        Uno  23pts
  4. Peter Baldwin       Uno  26pts
  5. Alan Watkinson   Uno  36pts  (1 x first)
  6. Dave Williams      Uno  39pts

IOM Winter Series 2023 #3 – 13/1/24

Round 3 of the Birkenhead Radio Sailing and Power Club IOM Winter Series got underway at 12pm sharp with PRO Dave Williams setting an excellent course for the lighter than expected WNW wind.

While numbers may have been lower than normally expected, the quality was high with a number of World, European and National Champions and podium finishers being tested as always by skippers lining up to take a scalp.

Graham Elliott started the day in impressive form with a string of wins through consistent sailing and calculated shift slection. Alan Bennett, John Brierley and Bill Culshaw were keeping Graham honest in the shifting light wind conditions.

Local legend Martin Roberts was warming into the day and enjoying crossing swords with a returning 42 of Brad Gibson, both steadying as the day went on, improving with each race as the wind strengthened a little.

Both Alan Watkinson and John Berry had glimpses of form but as the light faded after 12 quick fire races, it was Graham that took a convincing win with 8 wins out of 12 races from Brad, with John finishing strongly for his third place.

A big thank you to our PRO Dave who kept the pace going and to our visitors that made the treck to join us once again.

With a number of new boats, builds in progress and returning skippers, the season ahead at Birkenhead looks promising for the IOM class where some of the toughest close quarter racing in the UK can be had. Those that know, know that if you can win at Birkenhead, you can win anywhere in the World.

The next round is Saturday the 10th of February so why not come and join us with all visitors welcome.

You can enter here https://birkenheadrspc.co.uk/iom-winter-2023-4/

12 races with 2 discards

  1. Graham Eliiott   Britpop    13 pts
  2. Brad Gibson        BG              17 pts
  3. John Bryerley      Venti        31 pts
  4. Martin Roberts   Chimera 39 pts(Countback)
  5. Alan Bennett        Britpop   39 pts
  6. Bill Culshaw         Britpop   51 pts
  7. Alan Watkinson  Britpop   67 pts
  8. John Berry             Viper        72 pts

DF95 Winter Series 2023 #2 – 6/1/24

The forecast for today was sunny but light winds from the NNW or N.  Fortunately, although we did have a light breeze with holes in, it was more generally 1 to 5 knots WNW to NW with occasional shifts to the N.

There was an excellent turnout of 13 boats for this second Winter Series for the DF95 and we had some very close races with a good spread of 5 helms taking at least one win.  Occasionally one boat might get away from the fleet, but generally the finishes were closely contested through the fleet with positions and the lead often changing during the last leg from the gate through to the finish.

Peter Baldwin made the most of the conditions picking up 4 wins and overall first place, but John Brierley although having only one win was very consistent, discarding a third and fourth to take second place ahead of Martin Roberts who had two wins, but was not as consistent.  Special mention must go to John Carlin (2 wins) and Clive Warren (1 win) who both managed to pull away from the fleet for their race wins and leave the rest to fight for the remaining places.

During the afternoon, there was plenty of help being given towards sailors throughout the fleet on tactics and boat setup suggestions to help the fleet improve and in the later races the fleet was definitely less spread out at the finish and windward mark roundings were very close.

Thanks must go to Neil Westbrook for acting as our RO for the afternoon, keeping us all in line with several individual recalls and a few general recalls as well.  In addition, here are a full set of results thanks to Malcolm Harvey.

Don’t forget that the DF TT series Rounds 1 & 2 will take place at West Lancs YC (Sothport) on the 20th (DF65) and 21st (DF95) January. This event is one of the closest locations to Birkenhead (it can be done as a day trip) and where you can gain more experience racing in larger fleets.

Next week (13th Jan) is the IOM Winter series #3.