Thirteen sailors turned out today, with a few that hadn’t made it down for a number of weeks. Initially the view was that the breeze suited the A+, but when the start time came around, it was definitely A and verging on a B Rig due to the strength of the gusts, estimated at around 16 knots, mostly straight down the lake from the far end, but with some significant gusts catching the unwary out.
Peter moved the marks around for a windward leeward single lap course and we got started around 11:10 having changed down. Everyone took it in turns to run a race each, but that meant thirteen races had to be completed, leading to a slightly later finishing time of 13:10, stopping a few sailors from participating in every race.
John Brierley and Peter Baldwin mostly had a good close tussle for race wins John with 6 and Peter with 3, although there were also wins for Derek Matthews (2), Alan Watkinson (1), and Dave Williams (1). Racing was mostly very close throughout the fleet, with rarely anyone getting well in the lead, never to be challenged. John won the day, with Peter close behind and then 3rd place had to go to countback to split Dave from Neil. A great mornings racing, with thanks going to Dave for working out the final scores.
- John Brierley 84 15pts
- Peter Baldwin 63 17pts
- Dave Williams 233 39pts (1 win)
- Neil Westbrook 03 39pts (0 win)
- Alan Watkinson 373 46pts
- Mike De St Paer 35 47pts
- Derek Matthews 57 64pts
- John Carlin 11 65pts
- Richard Walker 39 69pts
- Paul Hounslow 82 90pts
- Malcolm Harvey 1019 92pts
- John Beech 80 96pts
- Charles Legg 21 112pts
Next Saturday afternoon (6th) is racing for the DF and RG65, why not join us.
Five Skippers put their boats on the water to have some sprint racing of a single lap and allow comparison of rig and sail settings and see what worked and what didn’t. Dave Williams very graciously agreed to loan his fin and keel to someone who forgot theirs and his reward was then to run the racing for everyone. A big thank you to Dave for doing this.
This week we had 10 sailors for IOM racing including our American visitor Chuck Millican and also anew to Birkenhead visitor from Etherow – Alan Bennett. There was a good top suit breeze from the Clubhouse end which had some decent shifts (and short flicks) which tested the patience of most sailors. Martin Roberts (Vanilla 2) started well, picking up wins in 4 of the first 6 races before the break for a late lunch, with Peter Baldwin (Britpop!) taking the other 2. There was some close racing though throughout the fleet with good results from newcomer Alan Bennett (Viper), Bill Culshaw (Britpop!) and Chuck Millican (Britpop!).
After the break, Martin resumed with a win in Race 7, Chuck then picked up Race 8, Peter took Race 9, Martin Races 10 and 12 and Bill Race 11. Alan Bennett was once again on the podium in a few races, John Berry also stepped up a gear in this second session and had two seconds in the later races (had Jack added something to his tea?)