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Category: news

DF/RG65 Summer 2024 – 29/6/24

Five entrants for the RG65/Df65 race with the DF65 of John Pritchard co-opted into the RG class even though sailing with his A+ rig With a very light wind from the Clubhouse end the usual course was sailed but only one lap.

John B, was soon into his stride, easily taking the first two races. Then the wind swung around 180 degrees. This seemed to favour Alan who had a few good starts and was usually up to the windward mark first but then the experience of John B came through especially downwind. Due to the holes in the wind at times the other four boats ended up together on the last leg creating a few photo finishes.

John P unfortunately ran out of battery power for the final races after scoring a well deserved win after John B caught a submerged bag. With the rain settling in, still little wind and with eight races completed, it was decided enough was enough. Thanks to Dave H for his stint as RO for the races after dinner.

  1. John Brierley        84    6pts 7 wins
  2. Alan Watkinson  23    12pts
  3. Charles Legg         26   18pts
  4. Dave Williams      33    21pts
  5. John Pritchard      94   23pts 1 win

DF65 Social Racing 2024 – 19/6/24

Just 8 boats turned out and completed two races in very light winds before the breeze turned off completely and racing was abandoned.  This allowed the lake clearance working party to commence early.  A variety of debris was removed from the lake including 2 small pedal bikes, 2 small scooters, 6ft x 3ft insulation slab,, golf 3 wood , bottom of a traffic cone.Nothing was found that could be considered a fixed obstruction towards the top end of the lake.

After lunch the team also did a litter pick around the lake and a netting of all the bottles, feathers cans and bags at the lakeside.  Some of the grass and weed overgrow was also removed in the time available.

Many thanks to all those who attended.

DF95 Summer 2024 #3 – 15/6/24

The forecast for the day suggested that the 6 sailors who turned out would probably get soaked, with the added risk of possibly being struck by lightning, but whilst the surrounding areas seems to suffer deluges of rain, Gautby Road escaped with a very light shower early on, with increasingly bluer skies as the afternoon wore on. Winds were light from the NW with some big shifts, so A rigs were the order of the day.
Paul got off to a good start winning race 1 followed by Clive and then Peter. After that the first session went more to form, with Peter notching up 4 wins on the bounce followed by a third. Paul continued to post some good results, all being in the top 3. Clive and John were also pushing for the front, with Clive posting 2 seconds and John securing a 1st and a 2nd. In race 4 John decided to moor up on the leeward gate mark for a rest, which ultimately required a spell in the club waders to recover his boat. Both Dave and Martin were getting good starts. Dave was struggling with upwind speed having only just finished rigging his new A set minutes before going afloat.
The big talking point of the first session, was what were we all hitting below the water? All strikes were in the same broad area, but not in one spot. Clive seem to have more than his fair share. All we could conclude was that we were hitting fish, or that they were attacking us!
After the tea break, normal service was resumed at the front with Peter scoring another 5 firsts and a third, although he was having to work hard for some of those. John thought he’d won one, only to realise he still had another lap to go, but he was consistent in the second session posting 4 seconds. Paul did manage another 1st, but was not as quick around the course in this session with only one other podium result. Clive was getting some great starts and was in the mix for the front in most races. Dave was far more competitive after a bit of rig tweaking by Peter over coffee. Martin was also quicker in the second session. The fish were still causing problems, but they were less fussy, with everyone being impacted at some point.
As it turned out, it was a very enjoyable afternoon’s racing.
  1. Peter Baldwin                            172 12pts 9 wins
  2. John Carlin                                   50 23pts 1 win
  3. Paul Plested                               154 25pts 2 wins
  4. Clive Warren                                93 31pts
  5. Dave Williams                             33 46pts
  6. Martin Whittingham-Jones  77 59pts

DF/RG65 Summer Series 2024 #3 – 1/6/24

A sunny afternoon but a cold wind greeted the four Club sailors sailing RG’s and John our visitor from Gresford sailing his DF65. Top suit swing rigs for the RG’s and A+ for the DF65. The wind was more or less straight down the lake with the start line set at the Clubhouse end. A shorter handicap course was set for the DF.

Bill sailing his Ivy took an early lead in the first race with Dave Charles and Alan in close contention for the lesser places. This was the pattern for all the races.

Bill was in a class of his own today clearly winning all nine races, the race for second place was extremely close with the other boats producing very very close finish positions. The handicap course for John was lengthened after the first two races and then for the final race he sailed the full course and still finished in front of the RG’s.

After the nine races it was decided to call a halt due to a weed problem slowing the boats.

RG65

  1. Bill Culshaw          Ivy       7pts 9wins
  2. Dave Williams      Uno   16pts
  3. Alan Watkinson  Uno   20pts
  4. Charles Legg        Uno   22pts

DF65

  1. John Pritchard   7pts 9wins

DF65 Social Racing 2024 – 29/5/24

As this was a Wednesday in Bank Holiday and half-term week, entries were limited to only 7 sailors who enjoyed a good A suit breeze straight down the lake with occasional gusts later that were overpowering everyone both upwind and down. Early in the session though, we were wondering if A+ would have been a better choice as the breeze was a little light at times for a couple of races, with boats struggling to power through the chop that was being setup.

Racing got underway after Peter had moved a few marks around to give a decent windward/leeward course, although the start line was mostly port biased as the wind swung more to W after being WNW during setup.

Peter took today seemingly easily with eight wins from the ten races sailed, although that doesn’t really tell the whole tale as is often the case at Gautby Road.  Windward mark roundings were often very tight with four boats in close contention going down onto the run.  If you managed to get in a gust which others missed out on, then you could easily lose several places.  For example Andrew led race one only to miss out on the downwind breeze and nearly ended up third.  Paul was leading race 2, but then didn’t cover Peter on the way into the finish and got on the wrong side of a shift which dropped him into second place.  Paul was however nearly always up there in the lead group and his persistence finally paid off in Race 6 when he achieved a race win.  It was close between him and John C, who was  consistent but never managed that elusive win.  Charles had a storming first beat in race 9 to lead around the top mark and held onto this to the finish for the win, although he was chased hard by Richard all the way.

A great mornings racing which we self policed and recorded finishes apart from the final two races when Neil steps in to watch the line and record the finish – thanks Neil.

  1. Peter Baldwin             63  8pts  8 wins
  2. Paul Plested                 54 21pts  1 win
  3. John Carlin                   11  24pts
  4. Andrew Potter         194  25pts
  5. Charles Legg               21  34pts  1 win
  6. Sally Collings          829  40pts
  7. Richard Walker         39  44pts