Sadly, the weather gods were against us this week with a wind from the SW pretty well straight across the lake. Peter replaced the mising gate mark at the clubhouse end and setup for a course starting at the clubhouse end as it was forecast to swing around to be from the W sometime after 14:00. Most people opted for an A swing rig, with Alan on a conventional A.
The first race got started soon after 13:00 (with a leg that was anything from a run to a fetch) to a first mark near the bank with a starboard rounding and back down to the gate. Unfortunately the lake was rather like a pea soup and most boats were getting fin and rudder coated up after a single leg, which could be difficult to shake off. Boat handling was tricky and if the breeze dropped, tacking was not at all easy catching a few out. Alan Bennett led the first race, but decided to take his boat out after one lap as his battery was being quickly depleted and ended his day there. Alan W took the first race after a very close finish with George just second.
In race two it was Dave’s turn for a win with George second once again after leading for a good part of the race. Peter then took wins in the next two races, with George second in both with Alan and Dave sharing the third places. We then an early break and re-fuelled hoping that the wind might improve in the second half.
The direction had gone more westerly (to WSW) and at times the gusts would knock the boats over on the run, but they were short-lived and we would often be waiting for the next gust to get moving again. Charles had to finish at this point due to mobility problems leaving just four sailors to see out the afternoon.
This second session belonged to George though with three wins from the four races, with Peter picking up an additional win. Racing was very close most of the time though with the final result not clear until five metres from the finish line.
After eight races, everyone agreed to save their sanity and call a halt. George (one of our youngest skipper by a long way) ended up the well deserved winner this afternoon, with Peter second and Alan third. Thanks go to our finishers, Martin Whittingham Jones (first half) and Alan Bennett and chief photographer Dave Williams.
- George Bennett 71 Uno 9pts 3 wins
- Peter Baldwin 63 Uno 10pts 3 wins
- Alan Watkinson 23 Uno 16pts 1 win
- Dave Williams 33 Uno 17pts 1 win
- Charles Legg 26 Uno 30pts
Seven Df65 sailors were greeted with a gentle breeze down the lake from the clubhouse in what seemed tropical conditions compared to recent days.
The wind was a reasonable direction with all the usual shifts and flat patches to ensure it was never boring, resulting in places won and lost around the course.
Mike won the first and last race followed by John, Neil & Dave all taking it in turn to win. Paul & Richard also had good results with seconds & thirds.
The beats were challenging with holes and huge shifts near the windward mark so a good position was easily lost and last could easily come through the fleet. In other words Birkenhead at its best!!😄
The last beat from the leeward gate was not a procession with the far side often paying if you caught the shifts right. As the morning continued the winds increased with some spectacular nose drives near the gate resulting in further place changes that all added to the fun. Mike prevailed to win the mroning over John, who finished narrowly ahead of Neil in third. Thanks to Dave W for the photos once again and Malcolm for doing the results using A Fleet.
There were insufficient takers for a DF95 session after lunch once again.
A good afternoon?
A reduced roster of only seven sailors turned out for what was a decent afternoons sailing after checking out and clearing the pipework and weirs for the lake feeds (it was noted that there is a slow feed coming in when it rains).
It was a mid A Rig breeze with some occasional gusts to the top end of the rig, but also some light patches when the rain came through which necessitated the odd race or two being only one lap to keep race duration to a reasonable length. Fortunately some of the heaviest rain came whilst on our break, which was extended whilst we waited for the worst to pass over. The second session was the most pleasant with sunshine for most of the time.
The afternoon belonged to Peter with eight wins from the twelve races and nothing less than a second. We also had three other winners in John Carlin, Martin Whittingham-Jones and Clive Warren. John Carlin took overall second place with a consistent number of second and third places, whilst Alan lost oout to Clive on countback for fourth place, due to Clive’s win. John Beech had good boat speed and led a couple of races for a while, only losing out after getting the shifts wrong coming into the finish. Dave Williams struggled for boat speed for most of the day and then sadly had a brand new rudder servo fail after ten races, firmly rooting him in last place.
For ten races we self monitored the starts and had the leader record the finish, with Peter seemingly getting wriers cramp or something similar recording one boat twice and missing another one out completely in one race, so a bit of creative editing had to be undertaken!
An updated set of images from Dave – several missed when checking emails yesterday.
Neil Westbrook volunteered to be our RO for the morning and set a standard course of, windward mark, spreader, gate and a finish line half way up the lake and got us underway on time. Unfortunately before racing started Martin Whittington Jones had a winch servo problem which prevented him sailing for the day.
The wind, although looking virtually straight down the lake was in true Gautby road tradition was anything but, Although there weren’t many holes in the wind, there were plenty of shifts to catch the unsuspecting helm out, pick a wrong one and you could be headed for 20sec or more. The shifts were also not consistent, meaning there were plenty of opportunities to gain or lose places.
Clive was fast out of the blocks taking the first 3 races, although the pack were getting closer with each race. It was John Carlin who stopped Clive’s winning street in race 4 with the improving John Beech 2nd which started a consistent run of 2nds and 3rds for him over the next4 races. Meanwhile Clive was lucky to win race 5 when John C and Richard got tangled whilst leading nearing the windward mark. The inconsistent Dave W finally got a win in race 6. Race 8 and it was Richard who had finally got his boat moving who took the win, chased closely by Dave W and Clive. By this time the wind had gone up a notch and in the gusts the boats started to nosedive on the run .In the last 4 races line honours were split amongst the helms with John C taking 2 wins, John B 1 win and Dave W 1 win with him also having to retire in the last race with rudder servo issues
