DF65’s
All the signs were there for a good morning of A rig racing for the 14 helms, with the breeze straight down the lake from the clubhouse as we arrived and even as most boats went on the water a few minutes before the start. Then, a heavy rain squall flattened the boats and soaked the competitors for a couple of minutes before the clock went on. The rain thankfully stopped, but took most of the wind with it and made it veer through at least 45 degrees, so that by the time we started, the key skill (or was it luck?) was to work out where the most breeze might be on the course to take you to the windward mark the quickest (and it was often not the shortest route).
The conditions were not to the liking of Mike dsp and John C and they both dropped out after a few races along with Paul Little who had things to attend to. This was a pity for them, as the breeze during the later races was probably the best of the morning. During the seven races completed, the wins were shared between 4 helms. The winner sometimes being decided on the final beat into the finish when the leader at the gate could be becalmed in the middle of the lake heading nicely for the finish, whilst a later boat in the fleet sailed up the far bank and got a very nice breeze into the finish.
Peter Baldwin gained 3 wins, James Douglas two, with Neil Westbrook and Andrew Potter taking one each. The morning however went to James with a very consistent set of results, just one point ahead of Peter, with Neil eight points adrift in third place.
- James Douglas 73 12pts
- Peter Baldwin 63 13pts
- Neil Westbrook 03 21pts
- Andrew Potter 194 22pts
- Clive Warren 53 27pts
- Paul Plested 54 28pts
- Alan Watkinson 373 33pts
- Simon Bates 69 37pts
- Dave Williams 33 46pts
- Frans King 95 51pts
- John Carlin 11 58pts
- John Beech 80 62pts
- Mike De St Paer 35 67pts
- Paul Little 45 76pts
DF95’s
After the frustrations of racing the DF65 in the morning, unfortunately only 4 skippers turned out for the afternoon, partly due to the morning experience but other commitments also took their toll on the normal fleet.
For those that did stay there was a very pleasant surprise in store for them. The very fluky southerly wind from the morning, was replaced with SE which was just enough of a shift to straighten the direction to not quite down the middle of the lake but took out a lot of the dead spots that were seen in the morning. Added to this it was strengthening throughout the afternoon and with some added sun it was a very enjoyable sail.
It was a good A rig wind at the start of the afternoon with a few shifts but no real holes to fall into. As is normal with Gautby Rd picking the right shift to tack on was imperative to stay in contention, and if you picked a wrong one and got headed you were suddenly tail end Charlie. The same course as the morning was used, with one lap sprints to maximise the number of races. With only 4 boats although racing was very light hearted, and more social than racing, but most enjoyable. Unfortunately Alan had to leave after 5 races for a prior commitment after taking 4 wins and a 3rd.. The remainder continued to enjoy themselves in the freshening wind that would have been good for a B rig in the later stages but we all stayed on A’s. After 11 races grey clouds started to threaten so we call it a day.
Final results didnt really matter but Alan had the bragging rights with 4 wins, John B 3 wins, with Clive and Dave both on 2.