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Category: news

DF95 Summer Series 2024 #1 – 20/4/24

A nice spring day welcomed the 12 skippers who entered the first DF95 summer season, which considering at least 5 regulars were unable to attend for various reasons. A very warm welcome to our new member Ian Davies who showed a good turn of speed throughout the afternoon.
The wind was a light breeze from the north west which swung randomly to be a northerly or westerly at random intervals, providing opportunity for all to gain or loose places all over the course.  As the far end of the lake was in calmness for most of the afternoon, a windward mark ¾ of the way up was used, taken to port with no spreader, so straight back down the lake to a gate before the finishing line half way up the lake. Our RO for the afternoon was Paul Ps better half Sharon who kept us under control. 14 races were sailed mainly single laps but with a couple of 2 lappers thrown in the mix towards the end of the day.  The racing was as always super competitive with 6 different winners and 8 helms finishing in the top 3 at some stage
The first half saw 4 different winners, first race was our new member Ian Davies, taking the honours, and showing that this was no fluke, followed this up with another in race 4. Alan took races 2 and 7, and Paul P races 3 and 5 with Frans race 6. On the heels of the leaders there were some consistent performances by John C, Neil and Clive. S o it was all to play for after the Coffee break.
The second half  saw 2 new names on the score sheet, Clive came out of the blocks with wins in race 8, 10 and 14,  and Neil in 9 and 11 with Alan adding another 2 to his collection from earlier in the day. Paul P and John C again sailing consistently behind the race leaders.
At the end of the session the results were very close as the complete results below show very clearly.


DF/RG65 Summer Series 2024 #1 – 13/4/24

8 skippers all sailing RG65’s turned up for a 1pm start, we all sailed the first race in swing A rigs but with some really vicious gusts appearing everyone decided to go down a rig for race 2. The direction the wind was coming from was from all points of the compass or as we like to say at Birkenhead, Tescos, clubhouse, factories and houses winds.
We sailed another 4 races until calling a tea break in the hope the wind direction would settle, it didnt.
Another 2 races after tea and we were all sent back to the clubhouse to change down yet again.
The racing was close in most races and resembled a piece of elastic as the leaders fell into holes allowing the chasing pack to catch up.
Graham sailing his Electronica had the lions share of the wins (7) with John sailing his Ivy winning the other 3, Bill who normally challenges for the lead was unfortunately not getting used to his new radio gear and had a bit of a miserable day for his standards, Alan suffered in the final 5 races with rig size but George sailing an Uno really turned it round in the final 5 races with a 6,4,2,2,5 finish, well done George in very trying conditions, George is only 9years old by the way.
  1. Graham Elliott       ELECTRONICA   9POINTS
  2. John Brierley           IVY                         15
  3. Alan Bennet             IVY                         20
  4. Bill Culshaw             IVY                         37
  5. Alan Watkinson      UNO                      38
  6. George Bennet        UNO                       43
  7. Dave Williams         UNO                       50
  8. Charles Legg            UNO                       55

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2024 – 10/4/24

DF65’s

Spring has (allegedly) sprung, but there wasn’t much evidence of it at Gautby road this morning, where arriving sailors were greeted by a rising S.Easterly breeze, persistent rain and a temperature of around 7deg C. Not a great Spring day.

On the up side there was a bit of breeze, and early launchers returned to say that A+ should actually be A, and even then there were some chunky gusts at the top end of A rig. The resident fishermen started to pack up straight away and were no problem at all.

The usual course was used, other than that one of the gate marks was missing and it was agreed simply to do a port hand leeward mark rounding. Strangely no one seemed keen to go for a paddle and replace the mark.

There were 11 skippers to start – a good turnout given the unpromising conditions – and after a small delay while everyone changed rigs Dave Williams got the racing started.

The first three races had three different winners, and the final beat up from the bottom mark proved tricky to get right. The starting line looked port end biased from the lake edge but proved to be a good compromise. Mike and John then shared the remaining 5 races between them with Mike just running out the winner.

Sally had boat trouble after only two races but very kindly stayed on to RO the rest of the morning. Thank you!

Clive managed three races, but then after sorting out what looked like a rudder servo problem returned to race; unfortunately with the hatch not completely sealed. His boat partially sank, but was fortunately close to the bank and nudged ashore safely, which ended his day. Dave Howard arrived late and only completed one race before having to fix a rigging issue. All in all an eventful mornings racing.

Racing was closer than the results might suggest, with places being swapped right up to the line. Final results as shown below with thanks to Dave and Malcolm for sorting them out, and thanks again to Sally.

  1. Mike de St Paer          7.2pts      4 wins
  2. John Carlin                 10 pts        3 wins
  3. Neil Westbrook         17 pts
  4. Paul Plested               22 pts
  5. Dave Williams          30 pts         1 win
  6. Frans King                 30 pts
  7. Richard Walker        32 pts
  8. Malcolm Harvey     46 pts
  9. Clive Warren             50 pts         3 races
  10. Sally Collings            63 pts         2 races
  11. Dave Howard            64 pts         1 race

DF95’s

Following a morning of wetness with a chilly wind only 4 brave skippers got their boats rigged for the afternoon, the weather forecast and Easter holidays putting a lot of people off. As it turned out, the afternoon weather forecast didn’t materialise and the rain stayed away. The wind eased slightly from the morning making the A rig a perfect choice, the generally South Easterly direction remained similar to the morning, with the normal shifts and holes associated with Gautby Rd to keep the helms on their toes, it was very easy to pick a bad shift and end up head to wind, loosing meters.
Paul martialled the start line and the first home recorded the scores.
8 races were sailed, a mixture of one and two lap, Paul started as he meant to go on taking the first 2 races, before Clive stepped up to take the 3rd. Meanwhile after taking a second in the first race Dave managed to tune his boat to a standstill and took time out to make some rigging adjustments in the clubhouse. Race 4 and Paul was on top again before Mike got in on the act taking race 5. Once again Paul took line honours in races 6 and seven before Mike won the final race. All races were very close between the boats with the lead changing hands regularly in most races but it was Pauls day who had his boat set up just right and mastered the conditions with 5 wins.
1,   Paul Plessed      –    5 wins
2.   Mike de St Paer  –  2 wins
3.   Clive Warren       –   1 win
4.   Dave Howard

Club Successes at the Marblehead Ranking Races 2 & 3

Over the weekend of 6th & 7th April, Marblehead Ranking Events 2 & 3 took place at Fleetwood MYPBC.  Both days supplied gusty breezes that started diagonally across the lake and straightened as the day progressed.

On Saturday the club had entries from two club members; Brad Gibson sailing his own and latest design a Grunge, with Martin Roberts sailing Andrea’s Starkers Squared – a design that is 31 years old and a boat that is 22 years old competing on equal terms.  They filled the top two positions with Brad first and Martin second.

On Sunday unfortunately only Brad was representing the club, but once again he took the overall win.

This coming weekend has the first two IOM Ranking events being held at Eastbourne with Brad and Peter Baldwin competing.

Winter Series are Complete – Summer Series Start on 13th April

All of the 2023/4 Winter Series are now complete and the overall results for each class are currently shown on the Current Standings page.  When at least a couple of events for each class are completed in the Summer series for 2024, these results will be moved to a dedicated page and link for 2023 in the Results Tab.  The podium positions for each class and the attendance numbers are as follows:

IOM Winter 2023/4

  1. Brad Gibson        Post Punk    300    pts
  2. Graham Elliott   Britpop!       270.3 pts
  3. Alan Bennett       Britpop!       210.9 pts

RG65 Winter 2023/4

  1. Alan Bennett        Ivy          300    pts
  2. John Brierley       Uno        283.9 pts
  3. Bill Culshaw         Ivy         230.7  pts

DF65 Winter 2023/4

  1. Clive Warren      101     pts
  2. Jon Whitehead  100    pts
  3. Tony Sedgwick   50.5 pts

DF95 Winter 2023/4

  1. John Brierley    282.8  pts
  2. Peter Baldwin   282     pts
  3. Martin Roberts 265.5 pts

Vane 36 Nationals – Additional Photos

A few additional photos taken by Peter Stollery and a short video taken by Clive Warren of a downwind start between Sam and Peter Whiteside have been added to the Album for the recent MYA Vane 36 Nationals 2024 at Birkenhead.  See:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/156223785@N07/sets/72177720315938567

They include this great one of Zak Roberts catching the fast and slippery boat of Chris Harris at the end of a fast 3 sail run down the length of Birkenhead Lake.