Birkenhead Radio Sailing & Power Club
Having sought opinions from the RG65 fleet, I will not be changing the planned sailing for this saturday 25th May and so it will remain as a VMYG/Social Sailing day and of course both days (25 May and 1st June) are open as events for booking as usual.
Peter Baldwin – Sailing Sec
I am looking at changing the sailing for next Saturday 25th May to be DF/RG65 Summer #3 and swapping the VMYG & Social sailing day to the 1st June. Please do not book the VMYG/Social Sailing event at this stage. The swap of event will take place by Tuesday 21st. The change is being considered as there is an RG65 TT at Keighley on the 1st June which will reduce the turnout for club racing.
Peter Baldwin – Sailing Sec
The first of May, Hurrah. Sun, blue sky, a breeze blowing straight down the lake – the DF65 fleet arriving at Gautby Road could have been forgiven for thinking that they had all magically emigrated to somewhere a long way south of Birkenhead. As always with sailing however the devil was in the detail, and although the SE breeze seemed reasonably steady and held in all morning, there were big shifts and lulls.
Racing was very close, with some very crowded mark roundings at both the windward and gate ends of the course, and various skippers had to take turns during the morning. Don and Richard both experienced boat problems during the morning and did well to keep going, with Don attempting to drain the lake using his boat – amazingly with no major damage – and Richard having to replace a rudder servo.
The start line proved a good compromise, with shifts meaning that both ends were favoured during the morning, and the beat also proved true, with roughly even times on both tacks, but with big variations which were difficult to spot ahead of time.
James, John and Mike were evenly matched for the first 5 races, but then James aced the next 5 with three wins and a second to run out the winner one point ahead of Mike with John third.
Another excellent days 65 racing, with thanks as always to Dave for doing the results which are shown below:
Only six skippers made it for the afternoon session with the other contenders away on holiday or preparing for a race evening in big boats. The wind and sun were the same as the morning so the same course was ideal. The self regulated start worked well with no obvious clock beaters.
Neil had a brilliant session winning all six races but was pushed by Alan in the first two races. Unfortunately Alan then had to depart and it was now Richard Walker who then took over the challenge, taking three seconds with Frans taking the other. After six races it was decided to call it a day.
I’ve now had the time to add a report to the results from Saturday. Apologies for the delay. To read it go to:
https://birkenheadrspc.co.uk/2024/04/28/iom-summer-series-2024-1-27-4-24/
The first IOM Summer Series had a great turnout which included a few vistors getting some pre-Nationals practice in. A light ENE breeze with some good shifts (and holes) leading to numerous place changes in many of the races.
Neil donned the waders and set a course with a bit of help from Peter on-shore, involved moving most of the marks around, although working out well for most of the day. This always provided some challenges as to where to start and which side of the course was favoured up the beat.
Darin started the day with a win in Race 1, before Graham showed great form by takng the next three races, with Brad, Alan Bennett, John Berry and Andrea all picking up top three places in these races. As some of these races were rather long due to very light breezes at times we then had a break, before continuing to complete another 6 races.
After the break and a few boat tweaks, Brad had a good second session, with 3 wins in the six races (plus a couple of seconds). The other three race wins went to Darin, Alan and Graham, with the podium places split between, Alan, Andrea, Brad, Graham, Peter and Simon. Finishing positions were however very close throughout the fleet with Alan Watkinson, Simon and Graham Birkett always in with a chance of gaining a good result. Sometimes, it came down to the final positions being determined by who managed to get the best breeze on the final leg into the finish. Occasionally the finish line tested the line judge with 4 or 5 boats all crossing within a few seconds.
A close tussle then between the top three boats for overall honours, with Brad coming out on top after the 10 races completed. Thanks to our joint RO’s for the afternoon Dave Williams and Neil Westbrook who ran a tight ship all afternoon. We also have Dave to thank for the photogtaphs below.
