Following the Prime Ministers announcement tonight (Monday 4th January) at 8pm, the club will now be closed until we once again emerge from Lockdown 3.
We’ll update all members when there is further news.
Category: news
Member Guidance with Club in Tier 3
As you may well have seen, the Club is now in a Tier 3 area.
This has little, if any effect on organised sailing at Birkenhead. Anyone in the local (Wirral) district area can travel to the club as before when it was in Tier 2. The guidance (and clarified for sporting events by Sport England) is that for anyone in a different area at a Tier 3 level (Liverpool, Halton etc or even further afield) is requested to stay in their local area and not travel into another area. The official guidance for Tier 3 is here.
If a member lives in a Tier 4 area they should definitely stay local to their home (the name for the Tier is “Stay at Home”) and not travel to the club. Should Wirral (and therefore the club) move into Tier 4, then the club will need to cease organised events again.
The above was summarised in the most recent MYA guidance here.
Rules for socialising before racing, between races and after racing, remains as the rule of 6 (as the club is based at a public park) and so is as per Tier 2. As a reminder, the groups of 6 should not mix on any day and should always remain socially distanced. If there are up to 13 racing on any day, be careful not to congregate in what could be considered to be groups larger than 6 or even one large group.
The clubhouse will be opened so that the toilets are available whilst members are on site. Face coverings should be worn whilst inside. Boat preparation or repair should all be undertaken outside.
The club therefore requests that anyone in a different (to Wirral) Tier 3 or 4 area, does not travel to the club at this time.
Stay Safe and let’s hope that 2021 ends better than it starts.
DF65 Social Racing #14 30/12/20
The last Race of 2020 saw 8 DF65 sailors arrive for a chilly windless start to the morning. R.O. Neil decided on a single lap course on the far side, to make the most of a very light westerly breeze.
John took a First and a Fourth in the first two races before deciding he had better things to do than drift around the lake. That left the rest of us to share in achieving line honours, and first places were then spread across the fleet. Then later, as the wind filled, in the sailing became – well – proper sailing !
John, Sally and Neil had one win each, Charles and Richard
two wins apiece and Andrew had three wins, taking first place overall.
Thanks again to Neil Westbrook for acting as R.O.
Results as follows after 10 races:
- Andrew Peter 919 18 pts
- Neil Westbrook 03 21 pts
- Sally Collings 829 22 pts
- Richard Walker 39 29 pts
- Charles Legg 21 35 pts
- Paul Little 45 41 pts 1 x 2, 1 x 4, 4 x 5
- Don Mackinnon 933 41 pts 1 x 2, 1 x 4, 2 x 5
- John Brierley 84 53 pts (only 2 races sailed)
Seasonal Greetings from the Commodore
I would like to wish all our members and sailing friends a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy and especially a Healthy New Year in these difficult times we are experiencing.
I thank you for your support over the past year and look forward to seeing old and new friends at Birkenhead in 2021.
John Brierley
RG/DF65 Winter Series #1 report
The first of the RG65/DF65 today at Birkenhead, unfortunately the wind was from the South which for anyone that wants to know is the houses wind, not ideal, and difficult to lay a course but Peter once again donned the waders and did his best. All the RG’s were in there top swing rigs except for Martin that had borrowed Johns Pocket Rocket for the event but John chose to supply Martin with a slightly lower aspect top suit that did disadvantage him on the day but he’s still a tough nut to crack. The DF’s all chose the A plus rig.
The DF’s and RG’s all start on the same gun but the DF’s had a slightly shortened course, this option of racing does seem to work when sailing a mixed fleet, giving plenty of practice on a loaded start line.
The wind started off with quite a few vicious gusts but as the day went on these gusts vanished and the wind swung around about 20 degrees making more of a reaching course unfortunately, still plenty of skill required though looking for those pockets of wind and shifts.
The racing proved to be very close on the day with only 16 points separating 3rd-8th in the RG fleet, Graham and John sharing all 8 wins between them took 1st and 2nd, unfortunately we lost Peter after race 5 with a split tyre on his car and this needed to be changed before his journey home. The DF fleet was dominated by Mike who took all 8 races, well done.
Well done also to Bernie who started and finished us, having to walk round to the top bank to accurately get our finishing scores kept his steps up.
The club has gone from strength to strength in these lockdown periods that have stopped us travelling further afield, lets keep this level of entries and quality up in 2021 and hopefully we will see the fruits of this when travelling is open again.
RG65s
- Graham Elliott 55 Argon 6pts 6 wins
- John Brierley 84 Uno 10pts 2 wins
- Martin Roberts 22 Pocket Rocket 20pts
- Peter Baldwin 63 Pocket Rocket 24pts
- David Potter 20 Pocket Rocket 27pts
- Matt Stephenson 08 Pocket Rocket 33pts
- Dave Williams 33 Pocket Rocket 34pts
- Neil Westbrook 03 Pocket Rocket 36pts
DF65s
- Mike de St Paer 35 6pts 6 wins
- Colin Deakin 93 18pts
- Derek Mathews 57 18pts
DF65 Social Racing #13 16/12/20
A course was set up by Neil Westbrook to run from the far bank to maximise the use of what limited breeze existed. The attached results do reflect the actual performances on the day, although it was an organisational nightmare (aptly as this was #13 in the series?) for Neil as the OD and responsible person for the day. It proved to be a difficult day to score as the Race Sheet had a number of people arriving late and others leaving early, some of which had not registered their intention to participate. It was relatively easy though to determine the top 3 places, with Richard Robinson taking a good win from Neil Westbrook in second and Mike de St Paer in third.
We must remind ALL members that Pre-registration for each event and signing in with the responsible person is ESSENTIAL to ensure that we continue to comply with our Covid-19 requirements. Similarly, if you are unable to attend, please cancel you booking using the same event entry page, but using the second form and “Cancel Booking” button. Please do not simply turn up in the hope of sailing, if you have not pre-booked a place.
Overall Results after 10 races
- Richard Robinson 1 9pts
- Neil Westbrook 3 19pts
- Mike de St Paer 35 32pts
- Richard Walker 39 35pts 1 win
- Paul Little 45 35pts 0 wins
- John Carlin 11 41pts
- Matthew Stephenson 28 49pts
- Charles Legg 21 59pts
- Don MacKinnon 933 65pts
- Sally Collings 829 69pts
- Zoe Matthews 60 70pts
- Stan Metcalf 46 74pts
- Chris Weston 194 104pts
