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DF/RG65 Summer 2023 #5 (24/6/23)

Six RG65s took part in an enjoyable and often closely fought afternoon of racing across eight two lap races that started at the clubhouse end, saw a beat up to a mark at the far end of the pond to be rounded to port, a nearby spreader also taken to port, and a run down to a single red at the clubhouse end to be taken to port. Owing to the wind direction it was decided to dispense with a downwind gate. For the most part, the course worked as planned but there were a couple races late on in which we found ourselves reaching up to the ‘upwind mark’ and reaching back to the ‘downwind mark’, with some very fluky winds in between. For most of the afternoon the sun shone and the breeze was strong enough to get the boats with their A swing rigs up to a good turn of speed without serious nosediving on the downwind legs. In the end, John Brierley was the runaway winner with Dave Williams to be congratulated on a well earned second place. The results in full are:

  1. John Brierley                    84  Uno                 6 Pts
  2. Dave Williams                  33  Uno               13 Pts
  3. Alan Watkinson               23  Uno               20 Pts
  4. John Carlin                          11  Uno              22 Pts (1 x second)
  5. Charles Legg                     26  Uno              22 Pts
  6. Neil Westbrook                03  Uno              31 Pts

DF/RG65 Summer Series 2023 #4 – 10/6/23

Today turned out to be one of the warmest days of the year on the Wirral, with final temperatures reaching 30C, but at least the Easterly breeze was still with us, with an average of probably 6-8 knots, but holes (2knots) and gusts of 12+ knots causing a few nose dives and boats out of control, especially in the last race.

Peter donned the waders and made a few tweaks to Wednesdays course, but in the end the wind was a lot straighter by the time we started and this resulted in a bit too much port bias on the line.  Peter and Martin slugged it out for overall honours with 5 wins each. However, the consistent Martin took the day in the Pocket Rocket with his swing rig further forward and the boat living up to the “Rocket” name.

There were strong performances at times during the day from John, Bill (Ivy) and Clive once he changed to a conventionally rigged Pocket Rocket following electrical problems.  A number of boats had gear and electrical failures during the day causing one or more lost races for 6 of the 8 boats.  Was it the warm day or just bad luck?

Line watching and results recording was done by the fleet for half the races, until John Carlin paid a visit and helped out in the middle session; so thanks John.

  1. Martin Roberts           133  Pocket Rocket    11pts
  2. Peter Baldwin               63  Uno                         14pts
  3. Bill Culshaw                   21  Ivy                           30pts
  4. Clive Warren      184/163  Scuttle/Pocket    33pts
  5. Dave Williams               33  Uno                         39pts
  6. John Brierley                 84  3D print proto    42pts
  7. Alan Watkinson           23   Uno                         43pts
  8. Charles Legg                 26   Uno                         48pts

DF/RG65 Summers Series 2023 #3 – 27/5/23

A depleted turnout of only 6 sailors due to illness, Graham competing in France, Martin competing in Lincoln and some off on holidays.  A really good sunny afternoon with a decent wind from the top end of the lake with quite a few shifts to gamble on.

A bad first race for Bill with his battery failing straight after the start enabled John to take his first win closely followed by Alan in second. The next three races were Bills’ with John and Dave fighting over second place. John managed another two wins but the rest of the day went Bills way with another six wins from a closely followed John.

Further down the fleet, Neil and Clive were having their own private battle with Neil eventually coming out on top.

  1. Bill Culshaw          Ivy          11 pts 9wins
  2. John Brierley        Uno         17 pts 3 wins
  3. Alan Watkinson  Uno         29 pts
  4. Dave Williams      Uno         41 pts
  5. Neil Westbrook    Uno         45 pts
  6. Clive Warren         Scuttle   48 pts

DF/RG65 Summer Series 2023 #2

Competitors arrived to find the land breeze fighting the sea breeze but luckily all settled down by race 3 when we got a nice NW mid A rig wind plus wall to wall sunshine, hottest day of the year so far. A few members were missing today, Peter Baldwin PRO and John Brierley sailing at the Fleetwood DF Global race, good luck John.
Graham gave his Electronica one final outing for club racing and took the first two wins but Alan sailing his Uno and Bill sailing his Ivy were never too far behind. The next 4 races were all quite closely contested with Alan getting to the windward mark in first position in quite a few. Dave Williams very kindly shared helms with newcomer Clive Warren with whoever not sailing taking on the role of starter and finisher, many thanks for this, both of you.
In the end it was Graham Elliott with 9 wins from Bill Culshaw with 3 wins, ever so consistent  Martin Roberts, who actually scored a third in every race bar 2 races and then the consistently inconsistent Alan.
12 races sailed.
1st     Graham Elliott      Electronica            11 points
2nd    Bill Culshaw           IVY                            17 points
3rd     Martin Roberts     Pocket Rocket     30 points
4th     Alan Watkinson   Uno                          34 points
5th     Dave Williams       Uno                          49 points

RG65 Summer Series #1 – 8/4/23

A bright and warm Spring day with a shifty breeze from the Clubhouse greeted the large turnout of 9 boats for this first in the Summer Series for the RG65.  Bill Culshaw put his new Ivy hull on the water for the first time adding to the regular RG65 fleet at Birkenhead and even with Martin away, Chris Elliott joined us to help boost the turnout.

With National Champion Graham Elliott sailing the electronica, it was always going to be hard to gain a race win and so it proved.  In the first session, Graham took six out of seven wins, with only Peter Baldwin snatching one win after a fortunate leeward gate split.  John Brierley was usually in the podium group, but didn’t get any luck to pick up a win with Bill also getting some good results for a first time on the water.After a break, the wind was also having a rest and switched to being more over the houses at times along with some long term holes.  Chris had a great second session with three wins, although the Ivy in the hands of Brad was well up there for a potential (non-counting) win in 4 of the races.  John continued his consistent form, still no wins and Peter fell out of contention after his rudder servo failed soon after the start of race 9.  There was also close racing through the rest of the fleet with Alan and Neil tied for 5th and 6th place, split only on the basis of Neil’s two third places.  The final result was no surprise with Graham in first, followed by the consistent John in second and Chris taking third spot.A great day on the water thanks to the combined efforts of Bernie, Bill and Brad for running the racing, Bill and Brad for the photos and Bernie for manning the galley at “half-time”.

More photos from Bill and Brad via the Flikr Album here

Next week is the IOM Veterans Championship on Saturday and Sunday, with racing over the whole day.

1st    Graham Elliott               electronica              12 pts    8 wins
2nd   John Brierley                 Uno                             27 pts  
3rd    Chris Elliott                   Uno                             31 pts    3 wins
4th    Peter Baldwin               Uno                             39 pts    1 win
5th    Neil Westbrook            Uno                             53 pts    2 x 3rds
6th     Alan Watkinson           Uno                             53 pts
7th     Bill Culshaw                  Ivy                              56 pts
8th     Charles Legg                 Uno                            60 pts
9th     Dave Williams              Uno                            71 pts
 
after 12 races  

RG65 Winter Series 2022/3 #8 (25/3/23)

The forecast of 17mph from the West was pretty close, although I am guessing it may have been a little less with gusts in the low 20’s, proving tricky if you didn’t have a B rig to use.  Dave had to use his C rig for the first session as his B is in “the garage” but was underpowered and so later changed up to the A, but could then be over powered if we had a strong gust, but it was certainly quick downwind in the lighter patches.  John C in his borrowed Pocket Rocket was in a B swing and everyone else had B conventional of varying sizes and setup. We were a little depleted today with only 5 entries, with people away at Ranking events and on holiday

John had a masthead rigged pocket luff sail that certainly had the edge upwind on everyone at the start of the day, not losing out enough downwind to take the first three wins, with Alan picking up a couple of seconds.  Peter then found a bit of a groove and took the next two wins, before an early lunch break as with the wind dropping slightly a few wanted to change up.  John B had a slightly larger B rig which didn’t perform as well, allowing Peter another win and after one race John changed back to the pocket luff.  This initially seemed to pay off and he took another couple of wins, albeit with some close racing with Peter and Alan around the course.  Unfortunately, John B then had some bad luck being dropped in the odd hole which could appear around you without warning and this allowed Peter to take the last 4 wins, albeit with some close finishes.

After 12 races were completed, Peter took the day with 7 wins, with John B second on 5 wins, followed by Alan in third.  John Carlin had a good day for only his second outing in an RG65 with swing rig finishing a few points behind Alan, even after losing one race due to a rig issue.

  1. Peter Baldwin         63     Uno                     13pts
  2. John Brierley           84     Uno                    15pts
  3. Alan Watkinson      23     Uno                    32pts
  4. John Carlin             163  Pocket Rocket   37pts
  5. Dave Williams        33      Uno                     44pts

Thanks as usual to Bernie for running the racing again today and making a brew at lunchtime. Next week is the last week of the IOM Winter series (12:00 start), before we move onto the start of the Summer series for the DF/RG65 on 8th April with a 13:00 start.