Five RG65’s turned out for Round 6 of the Summer Series, with two brave souls carrying on from the DF95 Social Racing in the morning. Conditions were not dissimilar to the morning session and the forecsat Westerly breeze never materialised in either strength or direction. Combined with the ever present algae it was a tricky afternoon trying to cope with the shifting wind and significant impact of the algae. Three sported Swing Rigs and two in full size conventional, with not a lot to choose between them in performance terms.
Garry Benson from Fleetwood joined us as a visitor to try out his Ivy recently purchased from John Brierley and wanted to see how it went sailing with a few other RG’s.
Our initial course was a single beat and run over the whole length of the lake, but as the race took so long, from race two onwards our RO of the day Neil Westbrook shortened it down to two laps using the finish mark halfway up the lake.
Garry Benson took the lions share of wins with five from the eight races. Peter managed a win in race two and Alan Watkinson took the win in Race 4, with Dave Williams picking up the win in the final Race after Garry suffered a rudder servo failure towards the end of the race. Many of the races were very close and finishes could go to anyone in the fleet, with the fickle wind suddenly bringing a back marker up to the front on a run whilst the leaders sat stationary close to the line.
Charles had a great day with four 2nds, narrowly missing out on a win in one race and ended up only one point behind Peter at the end and place a very satisfying third overall. Alan was unable to build on his win in Race 4 and even though he asissted Garry to the shore in Race 8, still picked up a third place as Peter had an intermittent electrical problem and so sat out Race 8.
After eight races the fleet had suffered enough and so called it a day earlier than usual. Thanks go to Neil for acting as RO for the afternoon and to Dave williams for the few photos.
- Garry Benson Ivy 68 7pts
- Peter Baldwin Uno 63 14pts
- Charles Legg Uno 26 15pts
- Dave Williams Uno 33 18pts
- Alan Watkisnon Uno 23 19pts
Sadly, the weather gods were against us this week with a wind from the SW pretty well straight across the lake. Peter replaced the mising gate mark at the clubhouse end and setup for a course starting at the clubhouse end as it was forecast to swing around to be from the W sometime after 14:00. Most people opted for an A swing rig, with Alan on a conventional A.
The first race got started soon after 13:00 (with a leg that was anything from a run to a fetch) to a first mark near the bank with a starboard rounding and back down to the gate. Unfortunately the lake was rather like a pea soup and most boats were getting fin and rudder coated up after a single leg, which could be difficult to shake off. Boat handling was tricky and if the breeze dropped, tacking was not at all easy catching a few out. Alan Bennett led the first race, but decided to take his boat out after one lap as his battery was being quickly depleted and ended his day there. Alan W took the first race after a very close finish with George just second.
In race two it was Dave’s turn for a win with George second once again after leading for a good part of the race. Peter then took wins in the next two races, with George second in both with Alan and Dave sharing the third places. We then an early break and re-fuelled hoping that the wind might improve in the second half.
The direction had gone more westerly (to WSW) and at times the gusts would knock the boats over on the run, but they were short-lived and we would often be waiting for the next gust to get moving again. Charles had to finish at this point due to mobility problems leaving just four sailors to see out the afternoon.
This second session belonged to George though with three wins from the four races, with Peter picking up an additional win. Racing was very close most of the time though with the final result not clear until five metres from the finish line.
After eight races, everyone agreed to save their sanity and call a halt. George (one of our youngest skipper by a long way) ended up the well deserved winner this afternoon, with Peter second and Alan third. Thanks go to our finishers, Martin Whittingham Jones (first half) and Alan Bennett and chief photographer Dave Williams.
It all started at rigging up before the race when Alan had a bit of mishap with his batteries, plenty of smoke and burnt out cables but miraculously after this the radio gear fired up with a new set of batteries and off we went to sail.
The wind was constant with large gusts so we all chose our ‘B’ rigs but this wind direction then decided to sort of turn around and come from the houses aswell as other places at times. The first 6 races before tea break belonged to Alan for sure.
Tea break and we all changed up to our bigger rigs as the wind dropped a little and the gusts did die down a little, we also came out to a nice Everton blue flare that someone had left lakeside, obviously testing the colour before the Liverpool celebrations on Monday. First race after tea and we all fell over on the downwind leg so back to the club and change down for the next 5 races. Graham did make a better effort in the second half but the day belonged to Alan for sure. A returning Gary Benson to the club and RG racing had a great afternoon and deserved his podium finish, George got caught out a few times with his rig choice but did manage a trio of third places in races 5 through to seven. A good battle all through the fleet was great to see.
Many thanks must go to Neil Westbrook for starting and finishing us all afternoon and Dave Williams for the photos. After 12 races the final results were as follows:
