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.
- Martin Roberts 133 Pocket Rocket 11pts
- Peter Baldwin 63 Uno 14pts
- Bill Culshaw 21 Ivy 30pts
- Clive Warren 184/163 Scuttle/Pocket 33pts
- Dave Williams 33 Uno 39pts
- John Brierley 84 3D print proto 42pts
- Alan Watkinson 23 Uno 43pts
- Charles Legg 26 Uno 48pts
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”.
Cold, Cold and Cold, all with a capital C, probably one of the coldest days racing we have ever had, and all in mid March, the good points were that we had 8 RG’s and a lovely East South East wind of around 10mph gusting to 15mph. It was great to see Vernon who had made the journey up North to try his new boat out before the TT series starts in April, still some work to do on her but I am sure he will get it there soon.
