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IOM Winter Series 2024/5 #2 – 8/2/25

Saturday saw a rescheduled IOM Winter Series Round 2 with a faint Easterly wind over a glassy lake greeting 11 skippers.  From the outset it was clear that reading the faintest puffs and keeping momentum would be the key to good results over boat design or setup.

After Race 1 where Alan Bennett took a close win from Graham Birkett, PRO Dave Williams made the smart call in switching the format to ‘sprint’ style one lap racing for compact racing.

With 5 races completed and wins for Alan, Martin Roberts, Graham and Brad a break was called to warm hands in the clubhouse with a hot drink and a bite to eat.

Back to the water minus Charles Legg who suffered winch issues, the wind had not strengthened as predicted it was decided to stick with the one lap ‘sprint’ racing.

As always on any race day there are races within a race where friendly rivalries take place, but this week we witnessed one that had everyone smiling. This was the first meeting of our IOM junior skippers with both George Bennett and Noah Mcintosh negotiating the tricky winds and potholes as though they were years into their craft. What wasn’t missed among keen observers was their ability to apply a simple approach to racing that is so often overlooked through overthinking and over complicating what is, a simple sport.

I mean why would you start low on the line on starboard, heading straight across the lake when you could be on port aiming at where you need to go? Don’t you just have to get around the course quicker than the rest?

While the finer points of rules will come with age and experience, it was refreshing to see how quickly the bigger picture was taken on board with both leading the fleet at certain stages and seperated by a single point at days end. With some boat swapping to help sort setups and encouragement from all skippers we look forward to following the progress of the new Birkenhead RSC breed.

Fresh from recent strong showings at discrict open races, Robert Mcintosh found the go button to record a strong win and a number of second places to chase the focussed Martin Roberts who was purring like a well tuned engine, linking shifts for fun to take out the win. Brad took the final podium place holding off the fast Graham B with his timeless Widget.  Thanks go to Dave Williams as our RO for the afternoon (and took the exciting photos) assisted by Malcolm who did the scoring.

Our next race in the Winter Series is Saturday the 22nd of February where another strong turnout is expected with returning DF skippers who were absent in Southport and a number of guests looking to sharpen themselves for upcoming ranking events.

Enter here to join us

IOM Winter 2024/5 #4 – Birkenhead RS&PC

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2025 – 5/2/25

DF95’s

There was very little  wind as the DF95 sailors arrived with the only ripples created by the geese and seagulls.  As the first boats went on the water and Peter donned the waders to set a course for the morning, there was a light WSW breeze coming fitfully down the lake.

There was a good turnout of 14 boats for this inaugural “first of the month” DF95 morning session which included one visitor from Gresford whose lake foreshore and clubhouse are currently surrounded by water.

Racing was close from the very start with a number of boats vying for line honours during the nine races sailed with one lap over the full length of the lake.  Paul Plested had a great start winning the first two races before Peter Baldwin picked up the  first of his two wins.  Mike de st Paer then took the next race followed by a win for Alan Watkinson in Race 5.  Getting the right shifts and pressure was key, although there was an element of luck in it as well at times, with pressure coming from unexpected locations and no visula indication on the water to give any of us a clue.

Clive Warren then got the bit bbetween his teeth and won the next three races he sailed in missing one due to an RO duty as these were shared out over the fleet with us picking up average points when on duty.

The overal lwin went to Peter with Paul a close second and Clive only a  little adrift in third.  There were some other notable results with Dave Wiliams and Paul Little both picking up a third, but both struggling witth consistency.  Thanks to Paul P and Dave W for the photos and Malcolm for processing the results.

DF65’s

8 skippers hit the water after the morning with the DF95s and they had the best of the day’s breeze, which was perfect for A+ rigs.  Some big shifts, but almost straight down the lake with very few holes to catch anyone out.  After the first few races it was clear that both Peter and Paul had the edge on boat speed, or were just a tad quicker spotting the shifts, as between them they took the top two spots in all bar one race, where Alan managed a 2nd.  After 6 races they’d each won 3, but then Peter, with the tactical edge, managed to take advantage of the port leeward rounding on two occasions to sail home for two final wins.
Clive, after a great sail with the 95s in the morning was a little off the pace, but still having some good races, with the exception of being caught head to wind course side of the start line with 10 seconds to go.  Alan missed 4 of the 8 races, which was unfortunate and he was going well, with 3 podiums in the 4 races he sailed.  Charles was also going well today, with a 3rd and four fourths, which might have been even better if Paul hadn’t failed miserably when trying to duck his transom, snagging a rigging line, which required a quick lakeside fix.   Malcolm had his moments as well, with a well deserved 4 as did Dave, visiting from Gresford.  Also great to see Phyl getting to grips with the 65.  It won’t be long before he’s moving up the fleet.
All in all a great afternoon of racing.

 

 

IOM Winter 2024/5 #3 – 1/2/25

We had a great turnout of 20 boats for the third in this years Winter Series for the IOM, including 5 visitors and a new Junior member in his first time out competing with a Widget.

Busy Starts!

The sun was out and although the breeze was forecast to be SSE, it was generally SE or even ESE at times, with a strength that was mid to top end A rig.  Although it did die back later in the afternoon, it was still sufficient to give close racing throughout the fleet. Racing got underway at 12:00 after Robbie Mac had donned the waders and moved the marks slightly to align with the breeze and cope with the fleet size.

Everyone seemed to be keen, in fact too keen to get started and so we began the day with two general recalls before we got away on the third attenpt with just 3 boats recalled.  Brad Gibson set out his stall for the day by winning race 1 with Peter Baldwin in second and Rob Walsh in third.  Graham Elliott was awarded Redress having been taken out by a running boat on his final approach to the finish.  This fired him up for race 2, which he won, with Rob second this time and Brad third.  Come Race 3, Brad resumed his winning ways, with Simon Fairman in his new Alioth V3 taking second and Brian Summers in his self designed Buzz 6.

Race 4 was another win for Brad, with Graham second and John Brierley getting his setup sorted to take third. Race 5 was time for Rob to pick up his first win over Brad in second and then John B third again. Brad reversed the results with Rob in Race 6 with Paul Plested taking a well deserved third.  So the end of the first session and a break for some lunch and refreshments.  It was also useful for the finish team to have a break as the finishers were coming in thick and fast at times as racing was so close for the majority of the fleet.

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After the welcome break, Rob picked up another win from Brad in second and Graham in third.  Martin Roberts then seemed to pick up a gear and won race 8, with Brad in second again and Rob third.  Brad then managed another win in Race 9 with Martin second and Rob third.  Graham was quietly plugging away near the top bunch and picking up a couple of fourths before finishing on the podium for the final 3 races.  These final race wins were shared between Rob (2) and Brad (1)  with Graham or Martin usually filling the podium spots. This however still left Brad as the clear winner, followed by Rob in second and then Graham quite a few points adrift of Rob and Martin snapping at his heels in fourth after a great second session.

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There were some notable performances throughout the fleet with Paul Plested picking up fifth with some excellent results having only had an IOM for a few months and Simon Fairman going well in his V3 Alioth on it first outing having been measured earlier in the day. Grahm Birkett picked up some good results in his Widget with a fourth and fifth. Visitors Colin McGinnis and Brian Summers both had some decent results with Colin just getting the upper hand placing ahead of Brian on countback. Finally, a great first day of competitive IOM sailing for Noah Mcintosh including a fifteenth in the final race with four boats behind him.

Thanks go to the race team of David Williams, Neil Westbrook and scorer Judith.  Photos above from Phyl Fanning,  a good number of other ones are available in our Gallery here.

Also a reminder that there will be another IOM Winter Series event next week (8/2/25) when event #2 which was called off due to ice on the lake will be re-run.

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2025 – 29/1/25

DF65’s

A crisp sunny day for the DF65s today with – at last – a nice A+ breeze blowing straight down the lake from the far end to welcome the excellent turnout of 15 skippers.

Commodore Dave got the racing away promptly using the usual windward / leeward course with top spreader and leeward gate, with RO duties then shared for the days racing.

Although somewhat short for the fleet size the start line seemed to work very well, with good starts possible from various positions along the line. There was the usual preference for the starboard end which looked as if it might be favoured, but positions up the first beat suggested otherwise.

John Brierley was very clearly class of the field with five wins over the mornings ten races. He did have to work hard on one or two occasions to climb up out of the pack but consistently good sailing and a slight speed edge proved decisive.

Behind John, racing was very keen, with some really excellent starts which looked like an open and with only the odd OCS. John Carlin was clearly the best of the rest with three wins and a string of consistently good results, and was followed by Mikedsp with no wins, some reasonable steady sailing, one OCS and a number of close encounters of the DF kind.

Clive and Alan were also race winners, Paul was unlucky to have a rig failure after a good string of results, Dave beat Charles on countback, and it was great to see Dave White and Phyl Fanning starting to get into the mix.

The standard of racing overall was very good, with almost everyone having at least one good result. The top end of the beat proved particularly tricky with some quick shifts and also some bends which were not consistent and tricky to spot resulting in some crowded top mark roundings and a fair bit of inadvertent minor contact.

All in all an excellent days racing with thanks as always to Dave Williams and Malcolm for the results which are shown below and thanks to Dave for the photos.

  1. John Brierley                  11 pts        5 wins
  2. John Carlin                     20 pts        3 wins
  3. Mike de St Paer            26.5 pts
  4. Clive Warren                 33 pts          1 win
  5. Alan Watkinson           39.6 pts
  6. Neil Westbrook            41.8 pts       1 win
  7. Paul Little                      44 pts
  8. Dave Williams              46.2 pts     (ahead on countback)
  9. Charles Legg                 46.2pts
  10. Frans King                     53 pts
  11. Sally Collings                60.5 pts
  12. Don McKinnon             64.9 pts
  13. Dave White                     80 pts
  14. Malcolm Harvey         101 pts
  15. Phyl Fanning               103 pts

DF95’s

The morning conditions continued for the afternoon session. With the wind coming from the North / North east there was plenty of holes to drop into and plenty of shifts to make gains. Five skippers took to the water after a slightly delayed start whilst John and Clive helped our new member Steve Miller set his new 95 up.
Steve decided just to get some sailing practice and didn’t join in with the racing, leaving just 4 to participate. The same course as the morning used the full length of the lake with a standard windward mark, spreader and through the gate to the finish. Being a small fleet we self monitored the start and the first to finish recorded the results.
Despite the small turn out the racing was very competitive at the front of the fleet, with the lead changing hands in every race and more often than not the first 3 boats would be covered by less than 10sec at the finish. Five races were completed before the sun started to dip behind the houses, the temperature dropped and the competitors called it a day.
  1. Alan Watkinson     9pts      2 wins
  2. John Carlin             10pts      2 wins
  3. Clive Warren          11pts       1 win
  4. Phyl Fanning
In summary
Good afternoons sailing with some extremely close racing, fun time.
DO NOTE:  To all DF65 and DF95 sailors, please remember that as next Wednesday is the first Wednesday in the month, it sees the first trial day of the 95’s starting in the morning @ 11:00 with the DF65’s starting at 13:30.  This will revert back to 65’s in the morning for the remainder of the month.  To be repeated each month for now as a trial.

DF/RG65 Winter 2024 #4 – 25/1/25

After the recent spell of cold weather and strong winds, today was just the opposite, a pleasant sunny afternoon but unfortunately with a light wind blowing from the top of the lake. One of the start marks had to be moved before the start at 12.00, with the usual course of windward, then spreader and down through the gate and finish half way for the RG’s, with a shorter course for the DFs.

Unfortunately only two 65’s entered so this was a very useful training session for Phyl who has recently joined us radio sailing after many years of big boat sailing. Five RG’s had entered, numbers down due in part to the IOM Northern District Winter series race at Ripon.

Today was always going to be between the two Ivys of John and Bill and so it was with John taking 5 wins to Bill’s four. Alan, Charles and Dave sailing UNO’s were having their own very close racing up to the lunch break with very little between them. During the break Alan decided to change his rig for one he had not used even though it was several years old.

Also, during the break the light wind had started to disappear so we only managed three more races. This was when Alan shocked every one with taking a win a second and third. Thanks to Clive for his tuning tips to Phyl, John Carlin for officiating after lunch break and to Dave Williams for donning the waders, being line judge, scoring and managing to take a few photos. A pleasant afternoons sailing only spoilt by the dying wind, but 10 races held.

RG65’s

  1. John Brierley        11pts 5wins Ivy
  2. Bill Culshaw          14pts 4wins Ivy
  3. Alan Watkinson  23pts 1win Uno
  4. Dave Williams     28pts Uno
  5. Charles Legg        33pts Uno

DF65’s

  1. Clive Warren         8pts
  2. Phyl Fanning      16pts

DF65 Social Racing 2025 – 22/1/25

The forecast didn’t look to promising for wind once again this week and combined with thick fog early on, it seems to have kept a few at home with only 7 takers for racing.  As it turned out, we had a light ENE to SE breeze (and a bit of mist) which built slightly around 12:00 befor dropping back by the end of sailing.  A total of 8 races were completed with about five of these using a shortened course using only half the lake with the remainder using the whole lake when the breeze picked up.

With the low turnout we self policed the start line and finishing, although Dave did keep a watch on the start line to ensure no major premature pre-starters.  We did have two general recalls, but that was simply because twice (the same!) two boats forgot which pair of marks we were using for the start line as there had been a few changes during the morning. At least this way nobody got caught out by the premature starters returning to start correctly.

We had four different race winners during the morning, although Peter did pick up the bulk of four wins such that one bright spark quipped “will you be getting writers cramp soon?” when writing down the fourth set of results.  All good fun with some close racing on a day when picking the right way to go was not always obvious.  Dave Williams had a great first leg in race 8 having tacked early off the line, picking up a line of breeze and although Peter was catching up by the finish he held onto his lead through to the end.  The time was getting on by the end of Race 8 and as it was raining steadily by now, we decided to call it a day. Full results below, with thanks to Malcolm for plugging them in after finishing.