DF65’s
School half-term week attracted just 7 DF65 sailors …. which is strange since I can’t think of any regular sailors who are young enough to have school age children …. unless everybody was on grand parents duty instead … although nobody took the option to bring the grand children to Gautby Rd which might have provided some unplanned entertainment!
Those that did attend had an enjoyable morning with A+ rigs, 10 races and a (mostly) NW wind with regular puffs from a more westerly direction ensuring that the usual Gautby Rd jeopardy was in play in every race. The course comprised of a beat to the windward mark, around a spreader, back down the lake to a single leeward mark and up to the finish. There was no set pattern to the beats …. sometimes it paid to take a single port tack to the far bank while at other times it paid to take a hitch on starboard and hope to pick up one of the port lifting puffs. Downwind was just a case of being in the wind.
Charles lodged his complaint that racing was going to be dominated by James and Andrew while we were still rigging …. and then made himself look foolish by winning 2 out of the first 4 races. James decided to use his 2 discards when his main sheet came off the winch in race 2 but returned in time for race 4
After the first 4 races, Charles’s prophesy did come true with James and Andrew fighting for the top places while everybody else battled behind. James came out on top winning the last 4 races helped by Richard taking out Andrew in race 7, and some incompetent mark rounding by Andrew while leading in race 8.
Many thanks to Dave for being RO for most races and getting some photos in as well.
- James Douglas 11pts (6 wins)
- Andrew Potter 15pts (2 wins)
- Charles Legg 19pts (2 wins)
- Richard Walker 30pts
- Phyl Fanning 38pts
- Andy Mearn 41pts
- Dave Williams/Stuart Mearn 43pts
The wind was up and a chill in the air as arriving skippers readied themselves for the final round of this year’s IOM Summer series.
The predicted gusty WNW wind direction straight down the lake had the fleet split between managing the strongest gusts in B rig to capitalise in the lighter patches as opposed to driving hard with C rig and hanging on in the soft stuff.
As racing got underway, it was the B rigs of Rob McIntosh and Martin Roberts that showed the way with a 1-2 in an exhibition of top end sailing on the limits of control. Of the C rigs hurting a little in the confused chop were Bill Culshaw, Alan Bennett and Brad Gibson fighting to keep touch with the front two.
A total of 6 races were sailed up until a break for a warm cuppa with Martin winding back the clock to remind all that while form can be occasional, class is permanent with 4 firsts and a couple of 2nds back in his familiar Orange GBR 22 livery. Brad was the pick of the rest, a distance off the leader with one score outside of the top 3 with Alan, Rob and Bill finding it difficult to hit consistent scores.
After the break and with all skippers now on B rigs, it was Brad who took the challenge to Martin with 4 firsts over 6 races. Both Alan and Martin took a win apiece with Rob and Bill taking top 3 placings.
With 12 races complete and with his worst score being a third over the day, it was a thoroughly deserved win on 16 points to Martin by a point over Brad in second and Alan Bennett in third.
All agreed it was a testing but thoroughly enjoyable days racing and we thank our PRO (and photographer) Dave Williams for taking us through it seamlessly.
This was the last of this years Summer Series for the DF and RG65 fleets, although in common with just about every other week, there were only six RG65’s out and no DF65’s. The wind continued where it left off after the morning session with the DF95’s. The direction remained pretty well down the lake on average with some big shifts to exploit along with some holes to find. Expecting the breeze to build rather than die, most people sailed the first session with B rigs, although some were on low aspect A, with amix of both swing and conventional rigs.
The afternoon belonged to Alan’s Ivy with twelve straight wins. Peter worked hard to try and keep up and occasionally did hold the lead for a while, but Alan soon seemed to overhaul him. This was especially so in the first session of six races when Peter had a smaller/lower B rig compared to the other boats. The wind failed to build leaving him struggling for speed at times.
George and Dave were closely matched in this first session, so much so that after six races they were tied on points for the third/fourth places. Duncan sailing a new to him Goth, was struggling for boat speed as the B swing rig was definitely underpowered. The A rig was thought to be too big for the conditions in the first session, but did trade up for the second one, but was then over pressed in the gusts!
There were seven Df95 sailors out for this additional morning of Social Racing in a decent A rig breeze from the clubhouse end which was at times quite gusty, making it a little cool.
Peter took the lions share of the wins with one of them a tie with John Carlin as we couldn’t separate them. That’s the problem with trying to spot finishers whilst sailing. John C, buoyed by this shared win went one better with a deserved win in the next race as well. It was generally very close at the front of the fleet, with only a rare occasion when Peter pulled away to finish by a clear margin. So Peter took the win and John C was clear ahead in second.
Phyl started off the day with a couple of poor results, but then Peter tweaked his setup to make the best of the rig sheeting positions and transformed his boat speed with a number of 3rd and 4th’s and even a 2nd in race 9. He was having a great tussle with John Beech and they ended the morning after 11 races tied, with Phyl just edging out John B with more 4th’s
Martin had some great starts and was often well placed at the first mark, but dropped back during the one lap races to end up fifth overall. Duncan Neale had a good start and was up with the leaders for a few races until his transmitter battery had enough and ended his day. Fortunately, he then took over RO duties and took the photos for this session, so thanks for that Doncan.
A rather depleted field today with only six skippers showing up for the morning DF65 session – possibly deterred by the forecast for very light wind and a rather cold autumn morning.
The start was at the far end with a good direction for the beat, but a line that was well and truly starboard biased. However the starts were all incident free with everyone keen to avoid any boat to boat issues as it was hard to get moving again if you did.
Further back Dave W sailed consistently to claim third in the very variable conditions followed by Clive and Mike with a more variable set of results. Clive beat Mike on countback with Dave White showing much better speed and getting into the mix as well.
A great turnout of 12 DF65 skippers for todays social racing. Also a pleasure to welcome Andy and Stuart Mearns who have been sailing Victoria class yachts at Ashton park in West Kirby, but who came to have a look at Gautby Road and think about DF sailing.
The club marks were somewhat disorganised after the very heavy weather, and new ground tackle was needed for a couple as well as some repositioning. Mdsp went for a fairly extensive paddle, and although the start looked OK early on, the wind then went right and made the line very starboard biased.
With such a good turnout and pretty much only one place to be on the line it was crowded to say the least, and it was tricky to see all the boats clearly, resulting in some contact. There was talk of resetting the line but no one seemed keen to go for another paddle.
Peter was class of the field with four wins, including being tagged a couple of times so very much deserved the win. Racing was very close indeed overall, and although the wind blew more or less straight down the lake it remained very shifty, with some holes despite some quite decent pressure.
Behind Peter the next 5 or 6 boats swapped places and remained very close. In the end Mike dsp edged away slightly to hold second leaving Clive, John and James tied on points for third / fourth / fifth, and then Paul, Andrew and Alan in 6th / 7th and 8th within 5 points. Close racing.
Racing was close right from the start, with Peter, Clive and Ian all showing good boat speed, and generally ahead of Alan, Duncan, John and Malcolm who were having their own private battle with the occasional skirmish into the podium positions.
Peter eventually coming out on top with 5 wins, but he didn’t have it all his own way with Clive taking 2 wins and Ian with a very consistent 1 win and 6 seconds. Alan finished best of the rest with 3 third places but didn’t have the consistency of the top 3.
After 8 races, (providing 2 discards) Peter, Ian and Malcolm had to leave, as the sun was shinning and the wind for once was behaving itself at Gautby Rd the remaining 4 decided to have a bit more enjoyment and have 2 more races just for bragging rights the results of which are not included in the final results.
