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Category: news

Further Social Racing dates

Following on from our trial social racing, the committee have agreed to a further 6 events, keeping the number of participating skippers to a maximum of 6 (unless the guidelines change during the period covered).
All participation will be by pre-entry to Graham Elliott – email is on the Contacts page.
JULY 11th              RG65
JULY 18th             IOM
JULY 25th             IOM
AUG 1st                  RG65
AUG 8th                 IOM
AUG 15th                IOM              ALL 2pm START
Please email Graham with your order of preferred dates, he will then sort out the fleet for each date which will then be posted on the website giving everyone a fair chance of sailing. Please do not just turn up and expect to sail as you will be turned away if 6 skippers are already present.

DF65 Social Race #1 Wed 1/7/20

The 6 sailors for the first DF65 Social racing event are:

Alan Watkinson
Richard Robinson
John Carlin
Mike de St Paer
Don Mackinnon
Derek Matthews
Neil Westbrook will open up as keyholder.
There will be additional events on Wednesday 8th and 15th July.  Please email Andrew Peter if you wish to sail on either of these days.

IOM Social racing #2 27/6/20

This second social racing day continued on the same lines as week one two weeks earlier.  Only 6 helms turned up to rig their boats outside the clubhouse ready for a 2pm start.  Marks were set out for a beat diagonally across the lake, with a last minute change to place the start line at the clubhouse rather than the far end as the wind seemed to be favouring more West of South than East.

Unfortunately, by the time racing started, the wind was almost straight over the houses, leading to a breeze that was both changeable in direction and gusty, but everyone started easily in a No1 rig.  Lawrence was struggling with his transmitter and so the first race started without him.  John set out his stall for the day and won that race although everyone was  within 20m of each other at the end of the race.  Lawrence was unable to fix his transmitter problem and so kindly offered to run the racing for everyone for the rest of the afternoon. A further four races were sailed before a short break for a drink and catch up outside and John won a further 2 of these races, with wins for Bill and Peter, just to mix things up.  By the break it was looking as if we may need to change down as some large gusts (accompanied by a few spots of rain) were causing a loss of control on the downwind legs, but after the break the wind had steadied again and so everyone remained in No 1 rigs.

A further four races were sailed after the break with Bill winning the first one and then John taking the remaining three.  Overall a reasonable afternoons sailing considering the wind direction, with close racing a lot of the time and very little rain, compared with the forecast.  John easily won the afternoon, with Peter second and Bill third.

  1. John Brierley                84      8pts
  2. Peter Baldwin               63      14pts
  3. Bill Culshaw                  21       20pts
  4. Graham Birkett          133      24pts
  5. Andrew Peter                66     26pts

9 races sailed.  Many thanks to Lawrence Drennan for running the afternoons racing.

The next Social racing is on Saturday 4th July starting at 2pm.  This event has reached the 6 sailor capacity, but additional dates for future weeks will be announced soon.

IOM Social Racing #2 (27/6/20) and #3 (4/7/20) – Updated list for 4/7/20

There will be two more “Social Racing” afternoons for a maximum of 6 sailors at Birkenhead on Saturday 27th June and Saturday 4th July.  The start time for both days will be 2pm and finish by 4:30.  The clubhouse will only be available to access the toilets and all racing will have to conform with applicable social distancing rules.

The updated (as of 2/7/20) lists of sailors for each afternoon are:

27th June. 2pm
Graham Birkett
Bill Culshaw
Peter Baldwin
Andrew Peter
Lawrence Drennan
John Brierley
4th July. 2pm
Martin Roberts
Bill Culshaw
Peter Baldwin
Brad Gibson
Graham Elliott
Lawrence Drennan
Reserves for 4th July are ……   Neil Westbrook
If you wish to take part in future events or go on the reserve lists, please contact Graham Elliott.  The club will continue to monitor the situation and will expand the numbers racing if the government guidelines change to allow this.

First IOM Sail after lockdown – Sat 13/6/20

A fantastic day for weather and sailing, the wind blew from the ESE (down the lake from Gautby Road) with a strength of 5-10 knots. This was the first club race  with this wind direction since full tree removal and it was very different sailing than we had all got used to when the trees would deflect the wind. The shifts were still predictably unpredictable though and a challenge to all.
To stay within the Covid 19 guidelines the clubhouse was only open for the toilet and only 6 skippers allowed to sail. We did agree to allow skippers to walk the bank for racing as long as social distancing was observed by all, and it was.
We had a 2.30pm start, which will be changed to 2pm for the next race and we managed 8 races with a quick 10 minute break in the middle. The racing was extremely competitive, as always at Birkenhead, and walking the bank did help to make it competitive. It was Martin Roberts sailing his Widget who led the field at tea break, with no actual race win but a  very consistent set of  results. After the break it was Bill Culshaw (Britpop), Brad Gibson (Red Wine) and Graham Elliott (Widget) who began the slow process of overhauling Martin, although as usual no easy task here. Mention must also go to Andrew Peter (Vickers) who sailed extremely well and led the fleet to the windward mark in several races and gaining a 2nd place in the last race.
Race winners for the day were, Peter Baldwin (Lintel MMX), Brad Gibson and Graham Elliott.
Any club sailors that wish to sail their IOM over the next 2 weekends, please drop an email to Graham (elliottyachts@hotmail.co.uk).
This was an afternoon of informal racing, but we did keep the scores and the final results ended up as follows after 8 races and two discards:
  1. Graham Elliott       27   10pts
  2. Brad Gibson               2   13pts
  3. Martin Roberts       55   16pts
  4. Bill Culshaw             21    17pts
  5. Peter Baldwin          63   21pts
  6. Andrew Peter           66   27pts

 

Covid-19 Update 1 June 2020

Birkenhead BRS&PC will still unfortunately remain closed for the purpose of  organised radio sailing and power activities in accordance with the latest government advice.

However, up to six members of the public including club members are allowed to use the lake facilities as long as current social distancing rules are followed. The club house will remain closed.

We will change the club position as and when the government advice is updated.

Stay alert