DF65’s
An excellent turnout of eleven 65s on a mild, overcast, and quite gusty day. Initial “tuners up” went out on A+, but it quickly became clear that A would be needed. This was the start of an interesting day of three halves, as more or less as soon as racing started some hefty gusts came through suggesting a further change to B rig.
To avoid loss of time the first three races were sailed in conditions which were really over the top for A rig, and a consensus was to stop again and go for B rig. The wind direction was South to South East as forecast which meant the top clubhouse corner was its usual tricky self, but the deciding factor as usual was the gust strength which made downwind sailing a complete lottery.
A quick change to B rig, and somewhat in the running order. Mikedsp had been on the pace on A rig, but successfully found the slow buttons on B rig, while PaulP, John C, James, Clive and PaulL all showed excellent boatspeed resulting in some very close racing. Unfortunately, this had eliminated Andy Mearns as he had only brought A+ but he very kindly agreed to stay and RO for the morning.
Earlier on it had seemed to pay to get the bow down and hit the corner opposite the Clubhouse then come back on a long port tack, but as the morning progressed this didn’t pay and working the shifts further towards the more windward clubhouse side of the lake seemed better.
Racing remained close with quite a few minor boat to boat brushes and some nosediving changing the order. Mikedsp just emerged the winner on countback from PaulP, with JohnC only two points behind, and then Clive and James a further three points back with Clive taking 4th on countback. Really close racing.
JohnC was very unlucky to be tagged while leading a race comfortably, and quite a few turns were made in the very gusty conditions changing positions.
Full results as shown below, with thanks to Dave for keeping us organised and taking the photos (as usual), Dave and PaulP for doing the results and Andy for staying to RO. 
DF95’s
The gusty nominally southerly breeze remained from the clubhouse end, which swung easterly at times meant the difficulties from the morning continued into the afternoon for the DF95 racing. Unfortunately, only 5 skippers showed up/remained, perhaps a hangover from the DF95 open held at the weekend. The choice of rig was B, and after a bit of re-rigging of Steves boat, first time the B rig had been used, we were ready to go, 5 minutes later than normal. The same standard course as the morning was used, and as normal with a small fleet the starts were self monitored and the first to finish recorded the race result.
Racing was generally dominated by Paul and Clive showing good boat speed from the outset, but having said that there were a couple of very close races with 4 boats rounding the gate mark together.
Further back Martin was best of the rest picking up a second place in race 7, in a tight finish, just getting the better of Paul. Steve showed he was picking up the skills to move him up the fleet and was only beaten by Malcolm on count back with Malcolms third place in the last race edging him ahead.
Towards the end of racing the wind dropped of slightly and we could have probably dropped to A rig, but there were still a few strong gusts that kept B as a safe option. All in all a great afternoons social sailing inpartial sun and warm temperatures for the time of year and a decent breeze. What better way to spend an afternoon with good friends
- Paul Plested 7pts 5 wins
- Clive Warren 9pts 3 wins
- Martin Whittingham Jones 17pts
- Malcolm Harvey 25pts 1 x third
- Steve Miller 25pts
School half-term week attracted just 7 DF65 sailors …. which is strange since I can’t think of any regular sailors who are young enough to have school age children …. unless everybody was on grand parents duty instead … although nobody took the option to bring the grand children to Gautby Rd which might have provided some unplanned entertainment!
Those that did attend had an enjoyable morning with A+ rigs, 10 races and a (mostly) NW wind with regular puffs from a more westerly direction ensuring that the usual Gautby Rd jeopardy was in play in every race. The course comprised of a beat to the windward mark, around a spreader, back down the lake to a single leeward mark and up to the finish. There was no set pattern to the beats …. sometimes it paid to take a single port tack to the far bank while at other times it paid to take a hitch on starboard and hope to pick up one of the port lifting puffs. Downwind was just a case of being in the wind.
Charles lodged his complaint that racing was going to be dominated by James and Andrew while we were still rigging …. and then made himself look foolish by winning 2 out of the first 4 races. James decided to use his 2 discards when his main sheet came off the winch in race 2 but returned in time for race 4
After the first 4 races, Charles’s prophesy did come true with James and Andrew fighting for the top places while everybody else battled behind. James came out on top winning the last 4 races helped by Richard taking out Andrew in race 7, and some incompetent mark rounding by Andrew while leading in race 8.
Many thanks to Dave for being RO for most races and getting some photos in as well.
The wind was up and a chill in the air as arriving skippers readied themselves for the final round of this year’s IOM Summer series.
The predicted gusty WNW wind direction straight down the lake had the fleet split between managing the strongest gusts in B rig to capitalise in the lighter patches as opposed to driving hard with C rig and hanging on in the soft stuff.
As racing got underway, it was the B rigs of Rob McIntosh and Martin Roberts that showed the way with a 1-2 in an exhibition of top end sailing on the limits of control. Of the C rigs hurting a little in the confused chop were Bill Culshaw, Alan Bennett and Brad Gibson fighting to keep touch with the front two.
A total of 6 races were sailed up until a break for a warm cuppa with Martin winding back the clock to remind all that while form can be occasional, class is permanent with 4 firsts and a couple of 2nds back in his familiar Orange GBR 22 livery. Brad was the pick of the rest, a distance off the leader with one score outside of the top 3 with Alan, Rob and Bill finding it difficult to hit consistent scores.
After the break and with all skippers now on B rigs, it was Brad who took the challenge to Martin with 4 firsts over 6 races. Both Alan and Martin took a win apiece with Rob and Bill taking top 3 placings.
With 12 races complete and with his worst score being a third over the day, it was a thoroughly deserved win on 16 points to Martin by a point over Brad in second and Alan Bennett in third.
All agreed it was a testing but thoroughly enjoyable days racing and we thank our PRO (and photographer) Dave Williams for taking us through it seamlessly.
This was the last of this years Summer Series for the DF and RG65 fleets, although in common with just about every other week, there were only six RG65’s out and no DF65’s. The wind continued where it left off after the morning session with the DF95’s. The direction remained pretty well down the lake on average with some big shifts to exploit along with some holes to find. Expecting the breeze to build rather than die, most people sailed the first session with B rigs, although some were on low aspect A, with amix of both swing and conventional rigs.
The afternoon belonged to Alan’s Ivy with twelve straight wins. Peter worked hard to try and keep up and occasionally did hold the lead for a while, but Alan soon seemed to overhaul him. This was especially so in the first session of six races when Peter had a smaller/lower B rig compared to the other boats. The wind failed to build leaving him struggling for speed at times.
George and Dave were closely matched in this first session, so much so that after six races they were tied on points for the third/fourth places. Duncan sailing a new to him Goth, was struggling for boat speed as the B swing rig was definitely underpowered. The A rig was thought to be too big for the conditions in the first session, but did trade up for the second one, but was then over pressed in the gusts!
There were seven Df95 sailors out for this additional morning of Social Racing in a decent A rig breeze from the clubhouse end which was at times quite gusty, making it a little cool.
Peter took the lions share of the wins with one of them a tie with John Carlin as we couldn’t separate them. That’s the problem with trying to spot finishers whilst sailing. John C, buoyed by this shared win went one better with a deserved win in the next race as well. It was generally very close at the front of the fleet, with only a rare occasion when Peter pulled away to finish by a clear margin. So Peter took the win and John C was clear ahead in second.
Phyl started off the day with a couple of poor results, but then Peter tweaked his setup to make the best of the rig sheeting positions and transformed his boat speed with a number of 3rd and 4th’s and even a 2nd in race 9. He was having a great tussle with John Beech and they ended the morning after 11 races tied, with Phyl just edging out John B with more 4th’s
Martin had some great starts and was often well placed at the first mark, but dropped back during the one lap races to end up fifth overall. Duncan Neale had a good start and was up with the leaders for a few races until his transmitter battery had enough and ended his day. Fortunately, he then took over RO duties and took the photos for this session, so thanks for that Doncan.
