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Category: news

DragonForce Winter Series #7 13/2/19

Very light wind and to make it worse it was coming from over the houses, beating one minute then on a run the next and then no wind. Sailing was very tricky with John’s experience enabling him  to master  the conditions. A close race for second between Neil and Alan. Richard had a good day as in  one race he was the length of the course behind, caught the wind then sailed through the fleet to win…
1st       John Brierley.       10 pts
2nd.     Neil Westbrook.   18 pts
3rd.      Alan Watkinson.   21 pts
4th.      Richard Walker.     30 pts
5th.      Dave Williams.       33pts
6th.       Colin Deakin.         36pts

IOM Winter Series 5 – Saturday 9th February

With the forecast strong winds in little evidence and good sun to warn things up when preparing their boats, competitors just had to decide was it a No1 or No2 rig day to start?  The first race proved that No1 was the right rig with 9 out of 10 competitors choosing this and surviving most of the occasional gusts.
Red Wine, Widget, TS 2 and Lintel designs were in evidence today at the latest Birkenhead winter series along with the usual sprinkling of Britpops and a V9. This spread of designs was to prove interesting in the shifty top suite conditions especially when the legendary “Mrs Jones” opened her back door and wind shifts became hard to judge at times. In fact the ten races had six different winners but Brad managed six wins with his Red Wine to again take the day.
Behind him Martin “I only deal in seconds” Roberts sailed a consistent day with his pink Widget to finish two points ahead of John Brierley in his BritPop. Lawrence and Andrew we’re having some good scores and Bill was always there or thereabouts.
Graham Elliott with a newly sourced TS 2 found a better battery to get his winch working well to win race 2 and then in race 7, Neil Westbrook with his Widget led from start to finish to have a well deserved win.
Radio problems gave Peter Baldwin some problems but in between those glitches had some strong results along with our two visitors Chris Chatfield and John Berry who both started in B rigs .
So a really great days racing , and a big thanks as always to Bernie McNulty as PRO and his assistants Jack and Dave Williams.
Next week (16th February) is round 6, start time 1300 as usual.
1st       Brad Gibson            2        10pts
2nd     Martin Roberts    55       22pts
3rd      John Brierley        84       24pts
4th      Graham Elliot       17        30pts ( 2 x 4 ths )
5th      Bill Culshaw          21         30pts ( 1 x 4th )
6th      Peter Baldwin      63         42pts
7th      Andrew Peter       66         50pts
8th      Neil Westbrook   03         54pts
9th      Lawrence Drennen 57    67pts
10th    Chris Chatfield      7          73pts
11th    John Berry              12          84pts
10 races sailed

DragonForce Winter Series #6 6/2/19

8 sailors turned up after a couple of weeks lay-off due to a frozen lake. Light winds meant A+. With Neil setting a long course a total of 8 races were sailed with a skipper dropping out to become starter and finisher, meant each person only sailed 7 races, so only one discard.

1st. John Brierley              6pts
2nd. Neil Westbrook      12pts
3rd. Alan Watkinson      18pts
4th. Colin Deakin            23 pts
5th. Richard Walker       24 pts. 2 x 2 nd
6th. Dave Williams         24 pts. 1 x 2nd
7th. Sally Collings           33pts
8th. Bob Davies                39 pts

Birkenhead members at the Marblehead Ranking #1 and DFTT #1&#2

Last weekend Birkenhead club members were competing at opposite ends of the country with the Marblehead ranking race in Poole and the DF TT series in Southport. The Poole event was the start of the qualifying for the World Championship in 2020 at West Kirby, and two members Bill Culshaw and Dave Potter made the long journey south. Bill had an excellent day finishing 6th including a race win and a 2nd and Dave’s new Starkers showed potential with a 2nd in one of the races. At Southport the DF club members of Alan Watkinson, Andrew Peters, Peter Baldwin and John Brierley arrived to find the lake frozen but after a delay of one hour the 35 competitors managed a good days sailing in A+ rig conditions. At the end of day one, John benefited from winning the last race to finish 3rd, with Peter in 7th and Alan and Andrew getting to grips with the A+ rigs as the day progressed.

On the Sunday there was again another delay for thicker ice and as only seven races could be achieved, the fact of only one discard was to make the racing tight across the fleet of 35 boats.  John was level on points with “Uncle Derek” but on count back had to settle for 2nd overall.  Peter had a late charge to finish 5th and Andrew and Alan had close competition all day .
Next weekend it is back to Gautby Rd for the next round of our Winter Series in IOM, Start time 1300. Come and join us at this Open Series.

DragonForce Winter Series#3 16/1/19

On arrival in heavy rain, there appeared to be a good 8-10 knots with strong gusts coming generally down the lake and so everyone decided to opt for A Rig.  By the time that the course was being set, the rain had stopped and taken a lot of the wind with it.  All 8 sailors decided to stay with A Rig as the wind was likely to pick up again before racing finished.  After a few heavy showers, the rain stopped and the wind increased a little, but came from numerous directions but mostly from a WSW direction.  In the end 9 races were completed before everyone decided that a warm drink was required.

Some social racing was undertaken after lunch in a good 10 knots straight down the lake in nearly full sun with 5 boats taking part.

1st.        Peter Baldwin       9pts
2nd.      Neil Westbrook   12pts
3rd.       John Brierley        15pts (gear failure for last two races)
4th       Andrew Peter        20pts
5th       Sally Collings        24pts (1x1st)
6th.       Alan Watkinson  24pts (2x2nd)
5th.      Dave Williams         24pts (1x2nd)
6th.       Richard Walker      33pts

9 races sailed, 2 discards