DF65’s

North West breeze today blowing straight down the lake, or as near as, resulting in quite a popple on the water at the club end where the gate marks were situated. Quite cold on arrival and no one seemed keen to go for a wade, but the start line and the beat looked very fair, with a single windward mark but no spreader. This clearly meant that the leading pack had to navigate their way through the boats still on the beat, but this seemed to work well. In fact there were more boat to boat incidents elsewhere on the course as the some of the heavier gusts affected boat handling.

Initial thoughts of A rig changed quickly to B rig which proved to be the right choice over the morning. As always there were some flat spots and lulls, and the heavier gusts were just at the top end of B rig conditions but quite manageable.

Malcolm Harvey very kindly offered to RO the morning’s racing – thank you Malcolm – and Dave Williams stormed away to win the first race, followed by Mike who won the next two and Simon who won race 4.

Once again racing was much closer than the end results might suggest, with some big gains to be made – or lost – coming up from the gate to the finish depending on which gate mark was taken. Despite the strength of the breeze there were some significant shifts all through the mornings sailing making it a day to keep your competitors covered.

Mike was able to win 4 of the next 5 races to win overall, with Clive and Sally also winning races in another very competitive 10 races for the 65 fleet.

Thanks again to Malcolm for ROing, and to Malcolm and Dave for sorting out the results which were as follows:

1. Mike de St Paer    10 pts         6 wins
2. Simon Bates          37 pts         1 win
3. Clive Warren         38 pts         1 win
4. Andrew Potter      38.5 pts
5. Dave Williams      45 pts         1 win
6. Neil Westbrook    47 pts
7. Alan Watkinson   48 pts
8. John Beech             50 pts
9. Dave Howard         51.5 pts
10. Sally Collings         52 pts 1 win
11. Paul Plested            53 pts
12. Frans King               60 pts

DF95’s

11 skippers were treated to a great afternoon sail, the sun shone and took the edge off the north westerly breeze blowing down the lake from the non clubhouse end with a bit of bias from the industrial estate.

The choice of rig was B rig which turned out to be the right choice although it was top end and touching a C rig in some of the gusts. The wind was fairly steady but there were a few gusts that could catch the unaware helm out downwind, matched with a few shifts (not as many as usual) and it was a fabulous afternoon for 95 sailing.

The course was similar to the morning but the first mark was slightly further up the lake to make the course slightly longer. A mixture of 1 and 2 lap races were sailed with a total of 8 races completed. Normal afternoon format applied with self monitoring starts and first to finish taking note of the finishing positions.

Racing was as competitive as ever in the 95 fleet with 7 helms recording a top 3 place. Paul Little had an afternoon to forget with various boat and rig issues limiting him to only 2 finishes.  John C took the honours in the opening race after a close tussle with Clive and Paul P, and the second race was more of the same with the finishing order reversed. Clive then took the next two with John B notching up a 3^rd place in what was a consistent set of results hovering just outside the top 3. Paul P then got his second win, before Mike dSP finally got the hang of his new B rig finishing 1,2,1 in the last 3 races. Overall a great afternoon sailing in near perfect conditions for a B rig.

Final results

1. Clive Warren          9pts  3 wins
2. Paul Plested          15pts   1 win
3. Mike De St Paer   18 pts  2 wins
4. John Carlin            21pts    1 win
5. John Beech            24pts
6. Alan Watkinson  27pts
7. Frans King            34pts
8. Dave Howard       35pts
9. Neil Westbrok      41pts
10. Malcolm Harvey 50pts
11. Paul Little              68pts

DF65’s

Twelve DF65 sailors arrived today to be greeted by persistent drizzle and not much breeze, however the day got better as reported below.

To begin with the breeze was about southerly, with the usual flat area in the clubhouse corner. Dave and Mike replaced all the marks which had been removed from the lake for the 36 vane event, and Dave had the foresight to lay a start and gate at both ends of the lake.

Racing started in this very light and patchy breeze, with four winners (Andrew / Mike / Alan / James) in the first four races, and just as everyone was wishing for some breeze there was a 180deg shift and everything started again from the clubhouse end in a very gradually increasing N.W. breeze. Dave’s south end start line worked well as it was tricky to decide a sweet spot on the line, but James once again aced the next races to win four in a row, and after 8 races ran out a comfortable winner.

Dave sailed very consistently to come second ahead of Mike who had a couple of wins but was less consistent and had to take a couple of self-inflicted penalties after hitting marks.

Another day of tight racing in tricky conditions. Well done James and thanks as usual to Dave for the results which ended as follows:

1. James Douglas               7pts     4 wins
2. Dave Williams              16 pts
3. Mike de St Paer            18 pts    2 wins
4. Sally Collings               21 pts
5. Paul Plested                  24 pts
6. Alan Watkinson          25 pts     1 win
7. John Carlin                    27 pts
8. Neil Westbrook           30 pts
9. Andrew Potter             34 pts     1 win
10. Richard Walker           40 pts
11. John Beech                    47 pts
12. Malcolm Harvey         51 pts

DF95’s

Just 5 boats ventured out with A rigs with the breeze proving too much after two races. So four then raced with B rigs, but after a further two races, two of these made the sensible decision to call it a day. The final pair then struggled on for 2 more races, before packing up as they should probably have dropped to C rigs.                   #Breezyafternoon

DF65’s

The forecast strong SW breeze didn’t really reach Gautby Rd lake and, as it was blowing right over the houses, gave very fluky conditions even by the standards of the venue.

Another excellent turnout of 17 skippers arrived although, as reported below, this reduced for various reasons during the morning’s racing.

Dave Williams very kindly offered to RO the racing, and then as the first race ended John Brierley had to leave followed closely by Simon who had come with only an A rig having been led astray by the forecast. Charles and Sally also departed a bit later leaving the remaining helms to enjoy the conditions which varied from real knockdown gusts to complete flat spots,

There was initially a bit of debate about which end to start, but the decision to start at the far end of the lake turned out to be the right one. The usual course was used with a line which looked very starboard end biased, but once again enabled good starts to be made pretty much anywhere.

Despite the tricky conditions there was good racing, although after 8 races (and a couple of rain showers) all agreed that this was enough for the morning.

Thanks to Dave for running the racing and for untangling the results which ended as follows;

1. Mike de St Paer     8pts           4 wins
2. James Douglas     12 pts         2 wins
3. Alan Watkinson   13 pts         2 wins
4. Clive Warren        24 pts
5. John Carlin            27 pts
6. Dave Howard       40 pts
7. Richard Walker   41 pts
8. Neil Westbrook   44 pts
9. Paul Little              45 pts
10. Sally Collings       49 pts (sailed 5 races)
11. Don Mackinnon  53 pts (sailing an A rig)
12. John Beech            58 pts
13. Malcolm Harvey 67 pts
14. Charles Legg         74 pts    (sailed 4 races)
15. Simon Bates          90 pts    (A rig & ret’d during race 1)

DF95’s