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Category: Fleets

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.

 

Strebor IOM Open 2023 – Final Results and Report

With the entry list including no less than 5 past World Champions in either the IOM or other Radio Sailing classes, competition was always going to be strong at this years Strebor Open combined with Round 2 of the Northern District IOM Winter Championships. Coupled with a superb pre-entry of 26 boats, it was going to be a tough days sailing.

The weather forecast for wind was not encouraging for the week prior to the event, a South Westerly forecast, with a possibility of WSW at some point during sailing.  At least the sun shone for most of the day, making it mild for this time of the year.

There was a short briefing by Martin Roberts to explain how we would race as one fleet, with typically 4 boats dropping out per race during the day.  Any dropouts would be scored with average points from their best counting races.  Racing then got underway promptly at 10:30 with a start at the clubhouse end, but unfortunately, the wind had swung more to the East just prior to the start and although the fleet got away cleanly, the course was swapped to a start from the far end for the remainder of races during the morning session.  Graham Elliott had the strongest start in the first seven races completed before lunch, taking 3 wins with Rob Walsh picking up two and Martin Roberts and Alan Bennett one each.  At the halfway stage, this left Graham Elliott on top, followed by Martin Roberts and Rob Walsh in that order.

After a short lunch break and a quick change around of the course (thanks Martin and Neil), once again starting at the clubhouse, a further seven races were completed.  Five were sailed using the same dropout system and then the final two with just the 22 boats that were still able to compete.  This session belonged to Rob Walsh, with three wins compared to two for Brad Gibson (sailing his “pimped” TS2) and one each to Martin Roberts and John Brierley.  The final scores gave first place to Rob Walsh who retained the Strebor Trophy, second to Graham Elliott and third was Martin Roberts.

It was a tricky days sailing at Birkenhead with the wind in a less than favourable direction, with what seemed at times like a “Bermuda Triangle” in the centre of the lake.  If you were unlucky to get stuck there you could find other boats sailing past to windward or leeward of you (or both at the same time!).Well done to everyone who sailed today (all 26 of you) – don’t feel too disheartened if you didn’t finish as high up as you thought you might, it was tricky for everyone including experienced club members, but there were some who always seemed to know the right way to go to find the wind.

Finally, thanks must go to the Race Team of Dave Williams, John Carlin, Neil Westbrook, George Bennett and Judith Baldwin for completing 14 races within less than 4 hours of racing.  Also, we were also very grateful to Jocelyn and Chris in the galley serving hot drinks and free homemade cake and biscuits.  All photos here are courtesy of John Beech.  There are a further 193 photos taken by Malcolm Harvey on our Flikr account here

First Rob Walsh

 

 

Second Graham Elliott

DF95 Social Racing 2023 – 13/12/23

9 helms stayed behind for a competitive afternoons racing and out of those 9 helms, 7 recorded a third place or better showing just how competitive it actually was. The wind was similar to the morning DF65 session so initially the same course was used. With a relatively small fleet albeit one of our best Wednesday afternoon turnouts, we managed the start between ourselves and the first over the finish line recorded the results allowing all helms maximum sailing time.

The wind remained tricky coming over from the factories making the starboard end of the start line very biased and in one race the leaders made the first windward mark in one without having to tack. Having said that it was shifting, picking the right one to tack on was paramount, it was very easy to be headed and being in the right place at the right time helped greatly.

After 2 races the leeward gate was changed to a spreader to give the port boats reaching into the mark less of a target for the starboard close hauled boats heading back up the lake. this proved much better with fewer collisions. The tricky area was the approach to the windward mark where the directional shifts were most pronounced. It was same for all and made for interesting racing with many a place won or lost. It was great to see Dave Williams putting in an appearance, showing that he hasn’t lost his touch of the bigger boat

After 7 races, the sun was getting low and the temperature dropping, so we called it a day. Final results with 1 discard

1  Clive Warren       13pts (2 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third)
2 Dave Williams   17pts (2 seconds, 3 thirds,)
3 Alan Watkinson  18pts (1 win, 2 seconds, 1 third)
4 John Carlin           26pts (2 wins, 1 second)
5 Richard Walker   27pts (1 win)
6 Neil Westbrook   29pts (2 seconds)
7 Dave Howard        37pts
8 Paul Little              38pts (1 win)
9 Malcolm Harvey 45pts

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 13/12/23

After a break of two weeks, the DF65 fleet were back racing this week.

A chilly Northerly breeze to start with at Gautby road for today’s DF social racing. There were some gusts in the breeze, and a large flat patch along the far side of the lake where a windward mark might have gone.

A+ rigs were agreed, and John went wading to try and get the start line a bit less biased. In the event the breeze went somewhat right at the clubhouse end making the start line very biased even after John’s adjustments, and the beat looked to be pretty much of a starboard tack fetch.

However….as always at Gautby road it wasn’t that simple.The breeze faded and went left further up the beat, and those who tried to sail high initially got caught by the edge of the flat area, but not every time, so it seemed to pay by toughing it out on Starboard and try to get across near the top of the beat.

The start line bias, and the conditions led to quite a bit of close quarters sailing with a few entanglements and the odd bit of contact.  Malcolm very kindly volunteered as RO after the mainsail tack eyelet failed on his rig – many thanks Malcolm.  Mike dsp edged ahead after all this, with the next 8 boats covered by 12 points, so racing was once again very close right across the fleet

1. Mike de St Paer  19 pts 4 wins
2. John Carlin          30 pts 2 wins
3. Andrew Potter    33 pts 1 win
4. Clive Warren       35 pts 2 wins
5. Alan Watkinson 35 pts
6. Neil Westbrook   41 pts
7. Dave Williams     42 pts
8. James Douglas    43 pts
9. Sally Collings      46 pts
10. Richard Walker 49 pts 1 win
11. Frans King           74pts
12. Paul Little            75 pts