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Category: rg65

RG/DF65 Club Racing 2021 #2 25/4/21

A beautiful sunny day with the wind blowing from the SE with some serious shifts and gusts to keep you on your toes.
Peter Baldwin once again got the waders on and set a great course with quite some bias on both the start line and the leeward gate, the DF65’s started with the fleet but went to there own windward mark and if this is set correctly the leading RG’s and DF’s will finish together, as they did today.
We had 8 RG65’s that included 5 Pocket Rockets (Dave Creed) 1 Uno (Ceccarelli), 1 Argon (Graham Bantock) and an Electronica (Brad Gibson) plus 2 DF65’s, a mixture of rigs were used for the first few races with some in a lower aspect ‘A’ rig and some in there full height rig, the 2 DF’s both choosing the A+ rig.
It was Graham Elliott reunited with his Electronica that showed the early pace, winning the first 5 races, John Brierley taking the 6th race. The DF’s sharing wins in the first 4 races but Mike then taking the final 2 races before we called a lunch break. After the break, all RG’s now had there tallest rigs on with the edge going out of the gusts and another 6 races sailed to wrap up the day.
It was great to see a rare appearance from Andrea Roberts sailing an RG for the first time and I am sure she will now be hooked after todays decent set of results even if she does now have to do the washing up for the week after losing a side bet with Martin. Many thanks to Bernie for once again starting and finishing us.
  1. Graham Elliot            9       electronica            9pts   8 wins
  2. John Brierley           84       uno                        24pts   3wins
  3. Martin Roberts      184      pocket rocket    24pts   1 wins
  4. Peter Baldwin          63       pocket rocket    39pts
  5. Andrea Roberts       55       argon                    42pts
  6. Neil Westbrook       03       pocket rocket    52pts
  7. Matt Stephenson   08       pocket rocket    72pts
  8. Dave Williams         33        pocket rocket    73pts
DF65’s
Mike De St Paer      35       10pts        10 wins
John Carlin               11         18pts         2 wins
after 12 races

RG/DF65 Winter Series #1 report

The first of the RG65/DF65 today at Birkenhead, unfortunately the wind was from the South which for anyone that wants to know is the houses wind, not ideal, and difficult to lay a course but Peter once again donned the waders and did his best. All the RG’s were in there top swing rigs except for Martin that had borrowed Johns Pocket Rocket for the event but John chose to supply Martin with a slightly lower aspect top suit that did disadvantage him on the day but he’s still a tough nut to crack. The DF’s all chose the A plus rig.
The DF’s and RG’s all start on the same gun but the DF’s had a slightly shortened course, this option of racing does seem to work when sailing a mixed fleet, giving plenty of practice on a loaded start line.
The wind started off with quite a few vicious gusts but as the day went on these gusts vanished and the wind swung around about 20 degrees making more of a reaching course unfortunately, still plenty of skill required though looking for those pockets of wind and shifts.
The racing proved to be very close on the day with only 16 points separating 3rd-8th in the RG fleet, Graham and John sharing all 8 wins between them took 1st and 2nd, unfortunately we lost Peter after race 5 with a split tyre on his car and this needed to be changed before his journey home. The DF fleet was dominated by Mike who took all 8 races, well done.
Well done also to Bernie who started and finished us, having to walk round to the top bank to accurately get our finishing scores kept his steps up.
The club has gone from strength to strength in these lockdown periods that have stopped us travelling further afield, lets keep this level of entries and quality up in 2021 and hopefully we will see the fruits of this when travelling is open again.

RG65s

  1. Graham Elliott            55   Argon                       6pts    6 wins
  2. John Brierley                84    Uno                        10pts    2 wins
  3. Martin Roberts            22   Pocket Rocket    20pts
  4. Peter Baldwin              63   Pocket Rocket    24pts
  5. David Potter                 20   Pocket Rocket   27pts
  6. Matt Stephenson        08   Pocket Rocket  33pts
  7. Dave Williams              33   Pocket Rocket  34pts
  8. Neil Westbrook            03   Pocket Rocket 36pts

DF65s

  1. Mike de St Paer       35     6pts  6 wins
  2. Colin Deakin             93      18pts
  3. Derek Mathews       57      18pts

IOM and RG/DF65 Winter Series

In the hope that racing at the club can re-start on Saturday 5th December, Graham Elliott has planned two Winter Series to take place between 5th December and 3rd April.  There will be separate series for IOM’s and RG65 plus DF65 boats (who will sail together on a similar course).  There are 8 events in each series and overall results will be based upon a boats best 5 races.  Please be aware that if the MYA is unable to confirm that Radio Sailing can restart by the 5th December, IOM Winter Series #1 will have to be cancelled.

Each of the events will start at 12:00 and racing will continue until the light fails or 15:45, whichever occurs first.  Booking will be via the Calendar or the home page links and limited at this stage to 13 boats, but increased if the MYA guidance allows it.  Please cancel any booking you make, should you be unable to make it, so that someone is able to take your place as we anticipate all places to be filled each week.

RG65 Social Racing #5 19/9/20

Another sunny and windy day (from the E or ENE) at Birkenhead for our latest social RG65 club race. All 7 boats opted to use there ‘B’ rigs with some big gusts arriving from some very strange directions at times. It was Brad Gibson that made the best start to the day, registering 3 wins in the first 3 races, unfortunately Graham Elliott had some early winch line problems so had to miss a few races to re-string.
After 6 races we had a quick break, this saw a slight drop in the wind and a few skippers opting to change rigs but the results did not change much with Brad Gibson dominating with 8 wins and 4 seconds.
A great days sailing with 12 races completed and all before 4.15pm and great to see John Brierley back on the water.  Many thanks to Bernie yet again for starting, finishing and scoring on the day.
  1. Brad Gibson            9    Electronica         12pts    8 wins
  2. Graham Elliott     55   Argon                    25pts    4wins
  3. John Brierley         84  Uno                        29pts
  4. Peter Baldwin       63  Pocket Rocket    36pts
  5. Alan Watkinson    23  Scurry                   46pts
  6. Neil Westbrook     03  Pocket Rocket   49pts
  7. Dave Williams       33  Pocket Rocket    58pts

After 12 races

RG65 Social Racing #4 29/8/20

Another ‘Marathon’ Session, starting at 11.00am, with 16 races completed by the 4.00pm finish.  5 x RG65 and 2 x DF 65’s competed, in a moderate but shifty Northerly force 3- 4 breeze, with some tricky gusts and swirls firing down through the gaps in the buildings. ( Bring back the trees ?! )

Derek Matthews had to leave early, and Brad Gibson arrived late, so the results may be slightly skewed, but Graham Elliott took the overall win for the day, with 9 x 1sts, Brad with 7 x 1st’s took 2nd overall, with Peter Baldwin definitely ‘off-form’ , taking 3rd overall with no wins but 6 x 2nd’s.

The RG’s won the day on pure speed, but the DF65’s, sailing a slightly shorter course, were not far behind, with Andrew Peter taking 4 x 3rds and 5th overall, proving that DF’s can compete successfully on these mixed RG / DF Race days (with the help of a slightly shorter course).

Very enjoyable sailing, with cakes very kindly provided at break times by Alan Watkinsons’ wife Jocelyn , and thanks once again to RO Bernie doing us proud, as ever.

  1. Graham Elliott    55     Argon                     17pts      9 wins
  2. Brad Gibson           9     Electronica          31pts       7 wins
  3. Peter Baldwin      63    Pocket Rocket    35pts
  4. Alan Watkinson   23    Scurry                   43pts
  5. Andrew Peter      919   DF65                      52pts
  6. Dave Williams      33    Pocket Rocket    63pts
  7. Derek Mathews    57   DF65                       88pts

Start times will now revert to the normal 13.00hrs for all future Saturday racing with room for plenty more sailors to compete.  A booking system will be created to allow online booking.  More details will be published soon.

We return to IOM racing for the next two weeks.  If you wish to join us and have a go, boats are available to loan for anyone wanting to sail. – contact Andrew Peter (see contacts pages)

RG65 Social Racing #3 22/8/20

With a forecast breeze of nearly 20mph from the SW, everyone was surprised to see very little evidence of any breeze on the lake when they arrived for the 11:00 start. By the time for the first race had arrived, a gusty wind over the houses had appeared and a short course was set from a corner of the lake to the normal finish mark halfway up the lake and a 3 beat course sailed in trying conditions. Key to success was finding the breeze and tacking on the shifts rather than simple pressure changes.

Neil Westbrook took the win in races 1 and 3, with Peter Baldwin picking up the remaining wins during the morning session when 7 races were sailed before a break for lunch. Richard Robinson in the lone DF65 sailed the same course in his DF65 with an A+ rig and took some mid fleet places in the early races, but struggled to keep up with the RG65’s sporting their A swing rigs.

The fleet was joined by Brad Gibson for the afternoon session, who took the first 4 race wins before having to retire after transmitter power problems in race 12. This left Neil and Peter to fight over the remaining race wins, although Alan Watkinson picked up a win in Race 16 after Peter tried finishing early, taking Dave Williams the wrong side of the windward mark and with it a potential race win for him.

An enjoyable days sailing, mostly in A rig, but B rig for the last few races when the wind and gust strength picked up, finally finishing at 16:00 after 17 races were sailed. Peter took the day, Neil second and Alan third, although the end result may well have been different if Brad had sailed all 10 races in the afternoon.

  1. Peter Baldwin           63  Pocket Rocket    19 pts  9 wins
  2. Neil Westbrook        03  Pocket Rocket    28 pts  3 wins
  3. Dave Williams          33  Pocket Rocket     48 pts
  4. Alan Watkinson       23  Scurry                    49 pts  1 win
  5. Brad Gibson                9   Electronica          74 pts  4 wins
  6. Richard Robinson   01   DF65                      77 pts

Thanks once again to Bernie for the running the racing and keeping scores.  There is another DF/RG65 day of racing (for up to 13) next Saturday 29th August starting at 11:00.  If you are interested in sailing please contact Graham Elliott or Peter Baldwin.