DF65’s
Plenty of layers were required today and caution on the icy footpath. An A+ rig was selected for the light wind conditions.
Starting looked quite straight forward with a strong port end bias on the start line however this didn’t always prove successful with the dying wind on the far side of the course and slowly moving round as the morning progressed. There were a few start line collisions and the usual merry quips exchanged!! Gaining a good start however, wasn’t necessarily a guarantee to be in the leading pack at the windward mark.
There was plenty of potential for errors to be made up the beat as shifts were missed or the wind didn’t behave as it should (or expected)! The port side paid off for the first few races but gains would be made to starboard as the wind slowly moved round to the South.
The downwind leg seemed easier to stay ahead with few place changes and little congestion at the leeward gate with the near mark paying consistently. However, places continued to change on the final approach to the finish line. Competition was tight throughout the fleet with Mike and John tussling for 1st place with a tight following pack of Alan, James & Clive.
- john Carlin 11 10pts 3 wins
- Mike De St Paer 35 11pts 2 wins
- Alan Watkinson 373 16pts 2 wins
- James Douglas 73 17pts 1 win
- Clive Warren 53 21pts 1 win
- Charles Legg 21 29pts
- Richard Walker 39 30pts
- Dave Williams 33 37pts
- David White 74 40pts
DF95’s
6 skippers turned out in the afternoon for the 95 social sailing. The afternoon was much like the morning with what felt like a bitterly cold Sourtherly blowing from the club house corner of the lake. A similar course to the morning was used with the usual windward mark, spreader and gate, and finishing half way up the lake. The breeze was perfect for ‘A Rigs’. With only 6 boats the starts were self monitored, and first to finish recorded the results. 10 races were sailed providing 2 discards.
From the start the skippers were almost split into 2 groups with Alan, Paul, Guy, and Clive in the leading pack with Steve, Stuart and Andy in the second pack. Conditions by Gautby Rd standards weren’t too tricky, however there were places to be gained especially when approaching the windward mark and on the final beat from the gate to the finish line. This lead to some very tight racing within the 2 groups with some close finishes and private duals and the skippers had to keep concentrating.
The first 3 races saw 3 different winners with Clive, Alan and Guy taking 1 each and in the second group it was just as competitive with each of the 3 skippers also sharing the remaining position.
Race 4 and Clive picked up the pace with his 2nd win which turned out to be the start of an impressive run of 5 bullets. Clive had also been busy tweaking Andy’s boat which seemed to pay dividends with him taking the second place in race 5 and would move him up to battle it out with the front pack for the rest of the day.
Races 6, 7 and 8 and Alan was finding consistency and a bit more boat speed taking 3 seconds behind Clive, with Guy and Andy duelling it out for the other podium spot. Further down the fleet Steve and Stuart were having their own private battle and it was all to play for.
Races 9 and 10, and with the predicted rain starting to fall it was Alans turn to fire 2 straight bullets, with Andy and Clive sharing the other podium spoils. The at the bottom of the fleet could not have been closer with both Stuart and Steve tied on the same points with the final race to sail!!
In summary, a cold, but very enjoyable afternoon with extremely close racing throughout the small fleet, with very some good individual battles.
- 93 Clive Warren 10pts 6 wins
- 23 Alan Watkinson 15pts 3 wins
- 38 Guy Cowper 20pts 1 win
- 04 Andy Mearns 25pts
- 805 Stuart Mearns 40pts
- 637 Steve Miller 41pts
With ice covering the lake Friday, there was some trepidation from travelling skippers as to whether racing would go ahead for Round 1 of this seasons IOM Winter series.
Old heads, long schooled in the ways of the ‘Paradise Peninsula’s Micro Climate’ were spot on with skippers arriving to no sign of Ice, the odd spot of liquid sunshine but little to no sign of the predicted Westerly winds.
Racing got underway from the far end beating towards the clubhouse in a faint SE wind with Brad Gibson, Graham Elliott and Martin Roberts fighting a close 3 way battle in race one. Brad kept the momentum going to take races 2 and 3 before an early halt was called with the land breeze all but dissapearing.
Racing resumed after snacks and warm tea and it was Graham Elliott streaking to an all the way win in race 4. Both Alan Bennett and John Brierley were finding form with the former taking race 5 and the latter being pipped at the post in race 6 by Brad.
As the light slowly faded, sails becoming increasingly more difficult to set in what was left of the wind, time was called following race 7 taken by Graham Elliott.
Final placings after 7 races with one discard had Brad winning on 8 points, Graham second on 12 and Alan pipping John on counback for third with both on 19 points.
Commodore Dave chased everyone for a prompt – or even early – start on a standard course. The existing start mark positions offered a choice between a very starboard – or a very port – biased start line. It was so light and fluky that no one reckoned it was worth paddling to do a reset so the starboard biased line was chosen as the “least worst” option. This full course was used for race one, but as the race duration was close to 20 minutes overall it was then agreed to run a shortened Port hand course using the finish mark as the windward mark, and the leeward gate as a leeward mark and spreader. This worked well and enabled the fleet to get in six races until on the seventh, as noted below, the wind went to nothing although Alan had sailed a perfect race and was the only boat to get across the line although Richard got very close before all the other competitors were finished on the water
The wind was really very light and patchy, but it seemed initially to pay to get right down to the pin and then try and get away on starboard. This seemed to pay to start with but in later races it began to pay to start nearer the clubhouse side and then make a short port tack to stay in the middle of the course and keep the options open.
What breeze there was came – as forecast – from the South East, and stayed in until a bit of drizzle brought in a slow reduction in pressure until in race 7 it went absolutely flat, and it was agreed to finish the morning session by giving places on the water.
Various boats showed good speed at different times, including Andy Mearns who was suddenly right on the pace after some mid-session tweaking. There were four different race winners over the morning’s racing, and despite the conditions racing was very keen. With a couple of extra race wins Mike dsp was able to stay clear of the pack on a day where luck was definitely a factor.
Full results as shown below with the usual thanks to Commodore Dave for moving things along, and to Malcom who kindly ROd for us and did the results as well.
In both races one and two Derek Priestley got away sharply at the pin end and was able to tack on to port to lead the fleet up the lake to sail away and bag two bullets. Whilst this would suggest that starting at the port end was the way to go for the morning, as the racing progressed and with considerable shifts developing those getting away cleanly at the starboard end of the line, with potentially more breeze further out on the lake, also started to feature high on the scoreboard. In races three and four the local lads Graham Elliott and Martin Roberts, perhaps not happy about being shown the way around ‘their lake’ by Derek took a 1st each, although Derek was still in the mix scoring two thirds and then a first again in race five. Darin Ballington also featured highly in several races in this first session, with two seconds and a third.
Whilst getting a clean start was a priority, the challenge for the whole fleet was getting in and out of the leeward gate unscathed. With a 20 strong fleet it was always busy at this end of the lake. Tacking through the middle on the shifts rather than opting for a safer but potentially slower option to sail around the fleet wasn’t for the faint hearted, with several well placed skippers sadly finding this out the hard way.
After a short drinks break another five races got underway and it was the same three sailors in Derek, Graham and Martin hogging the top spots, but with other helms not far behind. Peter Baldwin, who was finally getting into gear, Darin Ballington and Robbie McIntosh all picked up some low counting scores. John Brierley also had a good albeit not consistent morning with several low scoring races, although his day would eventually be cut short due to technical issues with his boat. In race nine, Gary Parkin sailed a great race and was a shoe in for the win until he misjudged and hit a leeward gate mark on the last rounding. The chasing pack pounced and he dropped down to 7th.
At the break for lunch, with three hours before the cut-off time and ten races completed, all seemed good for sixteen plus races. However, as the afternoon session began the signs were there that it might be more of a challenge as the breeze was beginning to fade. In the lighter breeze both Graham continued as he’d left off scoring 1, 2, 1 in the first three races. Martin and Derek were also up there picking up podium positions, but others were coming to the fore. Peter took a 1st and 2nd in these three and Roger Crates picked up his second 3rd of the day.
By race fourteen, as the breeze leaked away, it was clear that getting to the extra discard at race sixteen was going to be difficult, but it could be done. In the fickle winds now seen, keeping the boat moving even if not in exactly the direction you wanted was key. Martin made the best of what wind there was scoring a 3, 1, 2 with Peter also taking another 1st and 2nd to add to his scorecard. Conversely Graham didn’t feature in the top three in these last races, which made it very tight for the overall. Roger picked up a 1st, Derek another 2nd and Paul Plested popped up to take take two thirds.
By 3:30pm the wind had gone completely, and with sixteen races done Graham Elliott came out on top with 30pts to take home the Strebor Trophy. Martin Roberts, in a closely fought competition, was just one point behind Graham in 2nd place on on 31 points. Derek Priestley finished 3rd overall and Peter Baldwin was 4th. Whilst others may not feature in the top spots overall, there was clearly some great racing throughout the fleet. Rod Radbourne put together a good series of races with all counting results being single digit scores and several others had some low scoring placings, if not the consistency they might have wanted. Great also to see the both Clive Warren and John Tideswell, both newcomers to the IOM class, getting involved and no doubt learning a lot from the experience.
To avoid loss of time the first three races were sailed in conditions which were really over the top for A rig, and a consensus was to stop again and go for B rig. The wind direction was South to South East as forecast which meant the top clubhouse corner was its usual tricky self, but the deciding factor as usual was the gust strength which made downwind sailing a complete lottery.
A quick change to B rig, and somewhat in the running order. Mikedsp had been on the pace on A rig, but successfully found the slow buttons on B rig, while PaulP, John C, James, Clive and PaulL all showed excellent boatspeed resulting in some very close racing. Unfortunately, this had eliminated Andy Mearns as he had only brought A+ but he very kindly agreed to stay and RO for the morning.
Earlier on it had seemed to pay to get the bow down and hit the corner opposite the Clubhouse then come back on a long port tack, but as the morning progressed this didn’t pay and working the shifts further towards the more windward clubhouse side of the lake seemed better.
Racing remained close with quite a few minor boat to boat brushes and some nosediving changing the order. Mikedsp just emerged the winner on countback from PaulP, with JohnC only two points behind, and then Clive and James a further three points back with Clive taking 4th on countback. Really close racing.
JohnC was very unlucky to be tagged while leading a race comfortably, and quite a few turns were made in the very gusty conditions changing positions.
The gusty nominally southerly breeze remained from the clubhouse end, which swung easterly at times meant the difficulties from the morning continued into the afternoon for the DF95 racing. Unfortunately, only 5 skippers showed up/remained, perhaps a hangover from the DF95 open held at the weekend. The choice of rig was B, and after a bit of re-rigging of Steves boat, first time the B rig had been used, we were ready to go, 5 minutes later than normal. The same standard course as the morning was used, and as normal with a small fleet the starts were self monitored and the first to finish recorded the race result.
Racing was generally dominated by Paul and Clive showing good boat speed from the outset, but having said that there were a couple of very close races with 4 boats rounding the gate mark together.
Further back Martin was best of the rest picking up a second place in race 7, in a tight finish, just getting the better of Paul. Steve showed he was picking up the skills to move him up the fleet and was only beaten by Malcolm on count back with Malcolms third place in the last race edging him ahead.
Towards the end of racing the wind dropped of slightly and we could have probably dropped to A rig, but there were still a few strong gusts that kept B as a safe option. All in all a great afternoons social sailing inpartial sun and warm temperatures for the time of year and a decent breeze. What better way to spend an afternoon with good friends