An “all persons bulletin” was distributed among the WhatsApp group of DF sailors polling for an early 09:30 Saturday session prior to the DF/RG 65 racing in the afternoon.
Five Skippers braved the rather dank and blustery morning at Gautby Road, with a fresh south easterly looking promising for some exciting sailing.Although it was gusting 19 knots at nearby Speke Airport, it was ideal on the lake for A rigs all round.
Starts were self monitored and to a good standard. Guy had to bail a few starts at the last minute, as Clive hounded him until his nerve cracked!It was great to see Steve Miller doing so well and looking swanky with his new black livery on the aptly named “Black Pearl“. Steve has really come on these last few weeks and thanks to members such as Clive and Paul and others who have taken time out to coach and help him tweak his rig. New member Stuart Trunkfield showed great potential in a number of races and will no doubt be a force to reckon with once he gets a bit more time on the water.
On a day with some huge shifts near the weather mark throughout the eleven races sailed, it was a masterclass by Clive drawing no less than seven “bullets” from his holster to win the day on 11 points. In second place was Neil Westbrook, sailing consistently well and only 6 points behind Clive. Guy seemed to fade a little mid morning but enjoyed some good tussles with the top three. Phyll Fanning finished the day with a well earned fourth having finally had a bit more luck with some wicked wind shifts.All in all a cracking session with laughter and dockside banter aplenty.
Thanks to Clive for the photos and Paul for working the results out.
Nine skippers were greeted to blue skies and a lightish, but promising, breeze blowing from the clubhouse end of the lake. Racing got underway with A+ rigs a little after 11:00 using the standard one lap windward/leeward course with a beat to finish, with skippers self policing the start line and first finisher logging the results.
The early pace setter was Paul Plested who scored a 1,2,2 in the first three races. Clive Warren and Alan Watkinson also took a top spot in each in this spell. Peter Baldwin, who was quick all day, had a relatively slow start recording his two discards in this session to go with a 2nd place. Guy Cowper, who took a bronze medal spot in race two, was competitive all morning with plenty of boat speed, especially upwind.
In the next three races the wind continued to switch back and forth and getting into the rhythm of the shifts was key. Paul and Peter had very close racing to the line in all three, with Paul just edging out Peter with two 1sts and a 2nd, with Peter notching up two 2nds and a 1st. Alan picked up another 3rd as did Guy. Clive was a little off the pace for a spell, but did pick up a third. Dave Williams also picked up a 4th, his best of the day.
In race seven Paul picked up his fourth 1st of the day followed by Peter and then Clive not far behind. The final race of the day proved to be the most tightly fought with places continually changing on the last beat. Alan took line honours very closely followed by Peter, Clive and Paul, with Guy just a few boat lengths behind them.
Paul, with four wins and discarding a 2nd was the overall winner on the day, followed by Peter. Alan finished off the podium positions, followed by Clive in 4th. Also worth noting that David White was much closer to the fleet especially as the morning progressed, he would have scored higher in at least two races if it wasn’t for misjudged tacks boat lengths from the finish line.
The sun was shining and a light breeze was blowing down the lake from the clubhouse end for an afternoon of social sailing with the 95. The same course as the morning was used which meant the approach to the windward mark would be very tricky being in the lee of the clubhouse. The starts were self monitored and first to finish recorded the results. Seven skippers including new member to the club and DF95 racing, Stuart Trunkfield, took to the water to contest the first 2 races and there were 2 different winners in Andy and Guy, with Alan and Stuart M sharing the other podium slots. The seven were then joined by Clive, Paul and Dave to bolster the fleet to 10, a good turnout considering a couple of regulars were unavailable.
The racing was keenly contested as ever, with the pack roughly split into 2 groups, Guy, Alan, Clive and Paul all setting the pace upfront, but there was no exclusivity and both Stuart M, Andy and New member Stuart T all posting top 3 places at some stage. Unfortunately, Commodore Dave suffered winch problems in race 5 and had to sit the rest of the afternoon out, but he kept busy looking after the starts and finishing and taking the days photos. Meanwhile further down the fleet John B and Steve M had a couple of fourth places each but were also a bit inconsistent. Stuart T started slowly but climbed steadily through the session managing to take top spot in the final race. A great achievement in his first outing.
After 10 races (2 discards) the sun was below the neighbouring houses and it started to get chilly so we called it a day.
There are a good number of photos from Saturday’s IOM Racing (IOM Winter #3 24/1/26) taken by Stuart Mearns and available to view in the Gallery 
The wind was a lovely shifting, gusting 2nd suit from Gautby Road, no rain and a pleasant 8 degrees. The course was perfect, especially the positioning of the leeward gate. Nothing could be taken for granted and there were big gains and losses to be had from start to finish.
Alan Bennett made the early running winning 3 out of the first 7 races before lunch but the following pack of Graham Elliott, Brad Gibson and Peter Baldwin were not too far behind.
After a short break another 9 races were completed, the wind increased a small amount and centred ever so slightly, plenty of nose diving and you had to choose the correct time to tack.
A good finish in the final 3 races gave Graham Elliott the win from Brad Gibson with Alan Bennett rounding off the podium. Other notables today were Alan Watkinson with great speed and managing a 2nd in race 11, also Graham Birkett returning from a break with a very strong final 5 races, Tracey Ballington getting 5 single digit scores in the final 6 races.
Race wins went to Graham Elliott (4), Brad Gibson (4), Alan Bennett (4), Peter Baldwin (2), Martin Roberts (1) and Darin Ballington reunited with his BritPOP! also with one.
A rather unpromising forecast for today didn’t deter the 65 fleet, although the conditions on arrival had everyone looking for some extra layers of warm clothing. The promised rain arrived before racing was due to start and really hammered down for a few minutes, but then cleared up enough to make the sailing if not pleasant, then certainly not bad for winter sailing.
The forecast had got the punchy S. Easterly breeze about right and there were some hefty gusts which were right at the top of A rig conditions. There was a bit of debate about whether to stop for a change to B rig, but after a couple of races everyone decided to stick with the A.
Existing mark positions allowed for a good line, and it seemed to pay to start at the pin and then get the bow down on Starboard and sail right across until the breeze started to get affected by the trees on the far side and then make a fairly long port tack board back until the last bit of the beat where the clubhouse shifts came into play. During the morning this changed a bit, and it started to pay to come across on port early and pick up a starboard tack lift along the clubhouse side.
A number of boats had really good boat speed so the racing was interesting, with six of the eight skippers recording a second or first during the morning. Mike was lucky to get his boat dialled in early and the slight speed advantage allowed wins in the first six races. By race seven Richard had closed the gap to win, and Guy finished on a high with a race eight win.
A cold but competitive day’s racing with thanks to Malcolm for the results, and to Commodore Dave for keeping everything moving and taking pictures (at the expense of a race).
A strange wind today carried over from the morning, nominally easterly but with some brutal swirling shifts especially around the approach to the windward mark. The same course as the morning was used and the starts were self monitored.
A good turnout of 8 skippers opted for a safe B rig set up, A rig would probably have been ok with hindsight with only the odd stronger gust posing a problem.
As seems to be the case recently, the racing was generally very competitive with 6 of the 8 helms recording at least 1 top three position. Paul was the pick of the bunch posting 7 wins out of the 9 races sailed. He only lost out to Clive in the first race and Alan in the 5th and sailed very consistently throughout the afternoon.
Clive and Alan had a close dual for the other podium spots, with Alan posting a 3rd place against Clives 4th separating their scores in the end.
The rest of the group had a battle royal to determine the final positions, unfortunately Dave had gear problems with the mainsheet jumping off the winch spool which cost him dearly and after a couple of repeat disappointments, called it a day and became RO and cameraman for the rest of the afternoon. Meanwhile Andy was winning the battle for 4th and pushing his brother Stuart into 5th securing the bragging rights for another week!! The final positions were also close with only 2 points separating Steve and Malcolm with the latter taking the 6th spot.
A good afternoon in a healthy breeze with a few nasty shifts in wind direction to keep the helms on their toes. Good competition throughout the fleet and sailed in a social manner. What more can you ask for?
There was a good turnout of 12 boats for round 3 of the DF95 Winter Series 2025/6. The fleet was made up of nine home boats and three visitors.We also had two visitors from Budworth SC who are in the process of setting up a Radio Sailing section with DF95’s and came to learn about racing at Birkenhead and also managed to get some racing in as well.
There was a light SE breeze from the Clubhouse which varied in strength from close to zero through to around 8 knots in the short lived gusts. The front of the fleet saw some very close competitive racing with all of the top seven helms placing in the top 3 first time around the windward mark, at some point during the day. Holding onto that lead through to the end could prove difficult though, as the breeze was patchy and shifty with significant pressure differences at boats even just 2m away from each other. Finding the breeze (or being lucky enough for it to find you!), would prove to be the winning formula.
Race wins were taken by Peter Baldwin, Paul Plested and Martin Roberts (sailing for team “Sid Various”). Ian Davies had a strong and consistent day and was unfortunate to miss out on a race win several times.
Places fourth to seventh finished very close with only two points separating these four boats, giving an indication of how close racing was for the whole afternoon. Sid Various was mostly Martin Roberts (who unfortunately missed the first two races) plus our two visitors from Budworth who put in some decent results to gain the fourth place on countback over Alan Watkinson. Clive and Guy were well matched with Clive only gaining the upper hand on the basis of three fourths beating Guy’s two and after both counting a second and third.
Overall a good afternoon of racing, with Peter coming out a clear winner with seven wins, Paul second with three wins and Ian third. Things may have been different if Martin had managed to sail all twelve races, but an unfortunate late arrival and some rigging work for Brian scuppered his chances of a better place.
Thanks go to Neil and Dave for runing the racing with help from our visitors and to Dave for the photos and making tea at half time. The next round of the DF95 Winter Series is on Saturday 14th February, enter via this 
