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DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2025 – 21/5/25

DF65’s

Another lovely day at Gautby road with sunshine, blue sky, and a quite penetrating NWest or WNWesterly breeze blowing straight down the lake. Sailing Sec. PaulP had asked for an early start today to allow some time for a clean up after the 65’s, and another excellent turnout of 10 skippers were there with James and Phyl a tad late, missing the first few races

Neil “I like a good discard” very kindly agreed to RO the morning’s sailing, and got started promptly using the usual course. Gate and line worked well during the morning, with the line perhaps pin end biased but the gate paying off at different ends at different times.

Four different winners for the first four races showed that the beat and the gate had some big gains (and losses) to offer but as the morning’s racing progressed Peter’s consistency and speed moved him comfortably ahead of the pack despite winning only three of the ten races.

PaulP, Mike and Clive were 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively, and James would definitely have been in the mix but had to include a DNS in his score.

Frustratingly the morning’s sailing was also affected by some weed and other hidden debris which snagged a number of boats on a completely random basis, and almost everyone suffered at some stage during the morning. The clean-up exercise after the 65’s seemed to help for the 95 racing though.

Another day of excellent racing, with five different winners, and some excellent boatspeed from Paul and Commodore Dave. Very nice to see Graham Elliot win a race with Dave’s boat as well. Many thanks to Neil for RO ing, and DaveW for doing the results which follow in detail below:

  1. Peter Baldwin                63  14pts  3x1st
  2. Paul Plested                  154  23pts  2x1st
  3. Mike De St Paer             35  25pts  1x1st
  4. Clive Warren                   53  28pts 1x1st
  5. James Douglas               73  34pts  3x1st
  6. Paul Little                        45  38pts
  7. Dave Williams                33  42pts
  8. Don MacKinnon          933  58pts
  9. David White                    94  66pts
  10. Phyl Fanning                550  68pts

Photo’s courtesy of Dave Williams

DF95’s

If anything, the wind was better for the 95’s and the 5 skippers who raced than it was for the 65’s in the morning, with a mid to top end A rig breeze straight down the lake and the sun was shining.  The standard course was used with windward mark to port, spreader and a leeward gate.  Neil Westbrook kindly offered to be RO for the afternoon (as well!) and, with quick turnarounds, managed to get 10 races in.
The first race was won by Clive Warren, who went on to have a good afternoon, with Peter Baldwin 2nd and Paul Plested 3rd.  These three also bagged the top 3 places in race 2, with Paul crossing the line first, followed by Clive then Peter.  Race 3 and Martin Whittingham-Jones, who had a good afternoon of racing with good starts, scored a 2nd to Clive.  Martin did the same again in race 4, finishing 2nd to Paul.   In race 5, the signs that Paul’s day was about to go downhill were there when, closing in on Clive at the line, he inexplicably luffed the wrong side of the finishing buoy, when a first place was likely.  He still managed to gybe round and just cross before a fast finishing Peter.
Race 6 and Paul led from the first mark until the final beat, when another misjudgement left him and Phyl Fanning locked together, with Phyl’s bow across Paul’s foredeck.  Phyl had been running on starboard at the time, with Paul on port!  Clive, who had got stuck on a mark on the first beat and was the length of the lake behind, realised that he could still bag 3rd if Paul and Phyl couldn’t untangle themselves quickly, which is exactly what he did.
In race 7 Paul managed to stay out of trouble finishing 2nd to Peter with Clive in third.  However, in race 8 Paul, on port, was clearly in two minds as to whether to lee bow or duck Peter on starboard.  He left it too late to do either and ended up tangled with bow and backstay snagged.  This gifted Clive a 1st and Martin a 2nd.  At this point Paul thought it wise to call it a day.

 

Oops!
Races 9 and 10 were carbon copy results, with Peter first, Clive 2nd and Martin 3rd.
As an afternoon goes, it was good racing with plenty of boat speed and close racing from all 5 skippers…just a little too close on a couple of occasions!  Clive came out top dog, closely followed by Peter and then Martin.
Thanks go to Neil for running the racing.

DF95 Summer 2025 #2 – 17/5/25

Only a few light zephyrs of breeze were apparent whilst boats were practising leading up to the 13:00 start.  Unfortunately this included winds from the general direction of both East and West.  Coming up to start time, the predominant wind was Easterly and so Peter and Dave agreed to start at the far end.

All was looking good during the countdown until 15 seconds before the start when….. the wind switched off and we started on a run.  This direction remained  for the whole race, making for an interesting time to sail the right course, with a windward gate and a leeward mark and spreader!  The race was taken by John Brierley aided in part by Peter thinking there was a run to go before finishing on a beat! Alan picked up third close behind Peter.

By the time of the next start a decent westerly breeze had set in which had some very odd short shifts as a gust rolled down the course, but produced a good A rig sailing day.  The sun was out but the breeze was cool leading to most sailors wearing two layers rather the expected single layer.

The day became mostly a shoot out between Peter and John Brierley, with Peter picking up five firsts and John taking four.  They did not have it all their own way however with Paul Little taking two wins and a second place with Neil Westbrook a win and second.  Although Alan didn’t pick up a race win during the afternoon, he did sail consistently with a second and a number of third places to take third overall.  Neil’s win helped lower his overall score and place him in fourth ahead of John Carlin, who had a number of third places, but wasn’t as consistent as Neil and Alan, dropping him into fifth.  Unfortunately after winning a couple of races, Paul Little didn’t finish two races and so had to count some lower places, narrowly dropping him down the overall positions.  Ian Davies had placed well in the first session of six races, but missed the second session and dropped him out of the overall running.

Overall a great afternoon for sailing and a good turnout of eleven sailors, who in the main took it in turns to act as RO for eleven races, with the final race start watched over by Peter and kindly finished by Paul.  Photos from Dave Williams (Race 1) and Peter (Race 3).

  1. Peter Baldwin                          172  13pts
  2. John Brierley                             84  16pts
  3. Alan Watkinson                        23  36pts
  4. Neil Westbrook                         03  39pts
  5. John Carlin                                  50  41pts
  6. Paul Little                                     14  44pts
  7. Dave Williams                             33  51pts
  8. John Beech                                 288  60pts
  9. Martin Whittingham-Jones  77  68pts  2x4th
  10. Phyl Fanning                             657  68pts  1x4th
  11. Neil Davies                                  133  73pts

DF65 Social Racing 2025 – 14/5/25

A real Gautby road day today for the ten 65’s. Lovely sunshine, and a bit of breeze blowing gently from wherever you thought it wouldn’t be, but sort of from the top corner opposite the clubhouse. The usual course format was used starting from the far end with a line which, as so often, looked pin end biased but starters on a number of races from that end either found a flat spot or got headed as they came back out on port– but not all the time.

Peter proved master of the conditions despite being becalmed on at least one occasion, albeit in the right place, and ran out a clear winner with five firsts over ten races. Alan sailed consistently well counting three wins to finish second, three points clear of Paul with one win.

These front three were comfortably clear of the pack, although there was close racing further down the order as well. The course was slightly shortened after race seven to squeeze in the last three races in time but this didn’t seem to affect the front three as shown in the full results below.

Thanks to Dave for getting us away on time (and the photos showing conditions early on), and PaulP for doing the results as shown below.

 

IOM Summer 2025 #3 – 10/5/25

Another great day for IOM racing at Gautby Road with a light to moderate A rig breeze from the clubhouse end that was for most of the afternoon straight down the lake combined with warm sunshine.  We had 14 boats out  consisting of 12 home boats and two visitors, but this made for a very strong fleet made up of several past National and World/European champions.

The first session of seven races belonged to Brad, who took four of those races with the other winners being Rob Walsh and Robbie Mac. These three also figured highly in the other podium positions, with Peter Baldwin gaining a second and Martin Roberts and Paul Plested also picking up a third place.  Special mention must go to our youngest sailor (by a long way today) George Bennett, who held onto a well deserved fourth place in race 6 and then going one better for a third in race 7.

After the break, there were a number of new race winners, with Peter picking up two and one each for Paul, Graham Elliott, Alan Bennett and Martin Roberts.  The podium positions were also spread around a little more as well, with the race winners also joined by Brad, Rob W and Bill Culshaw with George also picked up a fifth in this session to add to his earler third and fourth.

At the end with 13 races sailed at a good pace, Brad took the afternoon with Rob Walsh second and Peter Baldwin third after a better second session.  In this fleet (and wind) it was hard to be consistent.  Getting off the start in clear wind was usually the key, but having a bit of luck with the shifts also came into it.

Many thanks to our RO’s for the afternoon, Dave Williams and Neil Westbrook.  A number of OCS calls (one number figuring several times!) and sevaral general recalls with everyone trying to get the extra edge at the start.  Photos courtesy Dave Williams.

Our next IOM racing is on Saturday 31st May which is the Jack Turner Trophy day combined with Summer series #4.  Club member Jack “you’re all good skippers” Turner who helped run our racing for a good number of years sadly passed away late last year.  This annual event is being held in his memory.  Entries and more information via the link below – racing start time is 10:00.

https://birkenheadrspc.co.uk/iom-open-summer-2025-4-2/

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2025 – 7/5/25

DF95

Skippers arriving at Gautby road today could be forgiven for thinking not just that they were in the wrong location, but possibly the wrong country. Blue sky, blue water, and a reasonable breeze blowing straight down the lake – it doesn’t get any better than that.

The usual course was used with the full length of the lake available. There was a bit of bias on the line but not enough to spoil the starts, but more importantly the leeward gate was definitely biased making for some very busy roundings and in Mdsp’s case a boat well and truly caught on the mark rope after cutting it too fine. After the first couple of races, Dave moved the finish up to the top of the course to give a second full beat which worked very well.

Clive aced the day with seven wins out of ten races, finishing comfortable ahead of Ian Davies who sailed consistently quickly, won two races and was unlucky not to win another when he was overtaken on the final beat. Martin also sailed very consistently to finish third ahead of Mikedsp who gradually got up to speed during the morning but also managed to hit most of the marks at one stage or another.

Richard was fifth, one point ahead of Dave and John who were tied on points with John finishing ahead on countback despite having to leave his boat caught on the windward mark in the last race.

A lovely day to race model yachts – full results as below.

  1. Clive Warren                                    9 pts           7 wins
  2. Ian Davies                                        21 pts           2 wins
  3. Martin Whittingham-Jones    28 pts
  4. Mike de St Paer                             29 pts           1 win
  5. Richard Walker                             36 pts
  6. John Beech                                      37 Pts           1x 2nd
  7. Dave Williams                               37 pts
  8. Malcolm Harvey                           59 pts

DF65

A disappointing turnout of only 4 skippers took to the water for some “extreme social sailing”  despite the blue sky and reasonable breeze. A+ rigs  were the order of the day.  We didn’t bother with a starter box, we didn’t even have a finishing post, just an imaginary line at 90 degrees to the finishing buoy.  The course was set, which was the same as the morning but with the finish halfway up the lake. Clive (our countdown clock for the afternoon) got the sailing underway with a countdown from 20secs.
After sailing 2 races we decided to swap boats and transmitters, the only exception being Charles who has his transmitter set up ‘left handed’ so it was decided this would be too much of a change for both Charles and the ‘swapee’. This proved to be an interesting exercise to see how different the boats were set up by different skippers. Two races were sailed in this format so the rotation went full circle.  A further 3 races with our own boats were sailed before we decided to call it a day.
Results
An Honourable draw all round, well what did you expect with extreme social sailing,
Thanks to David White, Andrew Potter, Charles Legg and Clive Warren for an enjoyable afternoon

DF/RG65 Summer 2025 #2

A poor turn out of only four RG65 sailors although it was an almost perfect sailing day. The wind was straight down the lake with very few shifts sunny but a chilling wind. B rig conventional seemed to be the suit of choice with Charles opting for B swing. Starting on time with self umpiring in force most starts went as planned although Dave was caught out twice in succession.

From the start Bill set out to show us how well his Ivy sailed and dominated the afternoon’s twelve races. Alan sailing his UNO was the only person to put up a challenge but faded by the start of the second lap on a few races. An early break was called for with Bill stepping in to sort out Charles and Dave’s boats. Returning to sailing and the same formation continued with only Dave and Charles having a race, while Bill and Alan disappeared way ahead. Although the finishing order had been predicted it was still a very pleasant race afternoon with twelve races completed. Three of the sailors did agree to pose for a photo before they could depart.

  1. Bill Culshaw         10pts 10wins
  2. Alan Watkinson 20pts
  3. Dave Williams    32 pts
  4. Charles Legg       36pts