The forecast for the last day of sailing in 2025 at Birkenhead, promised top end A rig rising to B rig as the day progressed for the 12 skippers who turned up to play. As it turned out, it was A Rig all day with only a spell in the morning when a few gusts were a challenge for some.
Paul Plested made the mistake of getting to the Club before Peter Baldwin and it was he who donned the waders to move marks to set the standard windward/leeward 2 lap course, with a beat straight down the lake towards the Clubhouse.
As is the norm Martin Roberts was cutting it tight arriving at the Club with five minutes to go before the first race. Fortunately, his borrowed boat was already rigged and tuned by John Brierley and he did just make the start, which got away promptly at 11:00 am under the watchful eyes of Neil Westbrook and Sharon Plested, who had kindly volunteered to run the racing for the day.
The pattern for the day was to see big shifts and it was easy to slide down the fleet if you got them wrong, but equally if you got into sync you could climb through the fleet (at least the more experienced could) if you’d messed up the start.
In the first four races Peter showed his intent by scoring two firsts, but was also down in the pack in the other two races. Martin worked his way up to 2nd in the first race and also got two other podium places in this session. Paul also bagged three podium spots including a 1st in the third race. Alas, this was his best spell of the day, which would eventually end with racing cut short due to intermittent transmitter problems becoming terminal by mid afternoon. Bill Culshaw, in only his second sail with his DF95, showed his experience with a 1st in the 2nd race and a 3rd in the fourth race of the day.
After a slow start to the day by his standards, Olly Murray who had travelled down from Fleetwood, started to find his form and in the two races before the tea break he added a 1st and a 2nd to his scorecard. Peter banked another 1st and a 3rd with Martin and John Brierley picking up podium places. Bill continued to be a threat at the front of the fleet with two 4ths and a number of great starts.
After a short break for a cuppa (thanks to Chris Westbrook) and mince pies, the afternoon session of six races got underway, in what proved to be lighter and perhaps tricker conditions, particularly in the top third of the beat. As most found out at some point, wind bends to both port and startboard could leave helms having to take an unfavourable shift to get to the windward mark, which almost always proved costly. The only helm who really cracked it was Peter who dominated with both top results and consistency scoring three 2nd and two 1st, winning race five by a country mile. The only blot on his scorecard was in the last race of the day when a coming together and a terminal entanglement with a running boat led to a retirement. Olly continued to add podium positions including a 1st and a 2nd, as did Martin who also added a 1st and a string of 3rds to his tally. John Brierley, whilst lacking a little consistency over the day, did have a better afternoon and capped his day off with a big lead win in the final race. Bill also added a 2nd to his tally.
Whilst there were a few helms hogging the top spots, further down the fleet there were battles being fought and some notable performances in individual races. Guy Cowper scored a 4th in race one and might have had a better overall tally but for a few misjudged mark roundings and being OCS in the penultimate race. Dave Williams, had several good races with two 5th places on the day. Good also to see Steve Miller’s progression since the start of the year, with an 8th in one race and a 6th in the last and usually staying in touch with the fleet.
As the overall result table shows it was Peter’s day with a nine point lead over Martin, who nudged Olly down to third by a single point, With John 4th and Bill a very creditable 5th on his first club outing with the ’95. Thanks to Sharon and Neil for acting as RO and scorer’s and Chris in the galley. Post racing we had a Xmas themed buffet lunch (thanks Paul & Sharon) and a good natter before heading home.
The next Club Racing is IOM Winter 2025/6 #2 on Saturday 3rd January. Start Time 12:00 – all welcome.
Bit grey to start with for the DF65 fleet, but enough breeze to make for a good days sailing. We had all expected much more pressure based on the various forecasts, but in the event the day was top end of A+ with some lulls and a few punchy gusts as the morning sailing progressed.
The start line at the far end was pretty good although it seemed to be better up at the clubhouse side rather than at the pin, Another excellent turnout of 10 skippers, although there was a bit of coming and going as James missed the first race due to transport problems, and Duncan Neale made it later on but after only two races got a call out and had to leave straight away. It was great to welcome IOM and 95 sailor Guy Cowper to the 65 fleet, and after a long absence it was also very nice to welcome Frans back. He had decided not to sail so very kindly offered to RO for the morning.
Start 1 was pretty much on time and was won by Clive. James just made race 2 but only due to a general recall after a very confused (omnishambles? / snafu?) start which was then won by Mike. James then put in a second and three straight wins on his way to win.
As always the conditions were tricky with a bit of easterly in the breeze, and got more so as the direction went slightly right during the morning. Starting the first beat with a long starboard tack looked right but then getting back across didn’t work reliably. At the same time taking some shifts to get closer to the windward side of the lake paid off well but wasn’t entirely consistent.
Behind James there was some very close racing with Clive, Mike and John all winning one or more races. There were also a number of boat to boat touches and some mistakes at mark roundings. James ended four points clear of Clive in second, with second to fourth all within four points. Guy and Richard also had a number of good results with Guy becoming very competitive with a bit of boat tweaking input from Clive.
The Southerly breeze was tricky enough to cause some place changes, mainly due to picking wrong shifts rather than holes. Racing was competitive from the start but in reality split into 2 groups, with Guy, Andy and Clive in the first group and Steve, Stuart and Malcolm in the second, although occasionally someone would jump up or slip down. Nine races were sailed in total before bad light and heavy storm clouds threatening an imminent rain storm forced a stop.
Race 1 saw close competition between the whole fleet with Guy taking the win, Andy who sailed extremely well and consistently throughout the afternoon taking 2nd which turned out to be the first of 6, and Malcolm filling the final podium spot.
Race 4 and Guy returned to the top spot followed by Stuart who sailed well to finish 2nd and Andy with the only blotch on his score sheet if you can call a 3rd blotch.
Race 6 and after another close race at the front Andy got his first well deserved win, with Guy 2nd and Clive 3rd. After sailing in the 65s in the morning and 6 races in the afternoon Malcolm decided it was time to put his feet up and call it a day.
This years IOM Xmas Open attracted a decent fleet of 18 sailors including 4 of the GBR Team for the 2026 IOM Worlds, so it was always going to be a difficult day to get a good result.
After a short briefing by Peter Baldwin standing in for the Sailing Sec, we got started on time at 10:15 and completed five races before a short drinls break. This first session was doominated by Brad Gibson (first in every race) and Graham Elliott, who took second in the first three and then a third in Race 5, with Darin Ballington picking up a couple of thirds, Josh King two seconds in races 4 and 5, with Peter Baldwin and John Brierley a third each. There was some close racing throughout the fleet, with errors in the middle bunch being penalised by plenty of lost places it was so tight.
John Tushingham had an unfortunate early bath after gear failure before the start of Race 3 and Robbie Mac lost three races in this early session with gear problems.
Lunch taken, we sailed an additional seven races, but with only 17 starting as John Brierley also had un-fixable gear failure ending his day. Starts were interesting as we could be fetching, reaching or running off the line. Surpisingly considering the conditions, very few General recalls were called and only an occasional single OCS by someone who was well proud and visible to the Start Line Judge.
Overall a decent days racing with some close competition and some tricky close finishes to call for our Line Judge in training. Not surpringly, Brad Gibson took the day, with Graham Elliott in second and Josh King in third.
Brad thanked the Race Team (Dave Williams, Steve Miller and Judith Baldwin) and Joss Watkinson who did a sterling job in the galley, keeping everyone supplied with hot drinks and tasty snacks. More photos to follow in the Gallery tomorrow. There will be an additional post to provide the link.
A lovely bright start to sailing today, although the South West wind blowing right over the houses provided a somewhat lucky dip element to the days sailing. One of the clubhouse end start marks remains missing despite a pre-sailing search party, but the remaining start mark and the nearer gate mark provided a good start line, and it was agreed to use the finish mark as a windward mark providing a good – if very unpredictable – beat. The first few races then used the rest of the usual course, but as races were proving quite lengthy it was agreed to use a shortened course using the finish mark, outer start mark and gate.
Racing got away promptly from the clubhouse end with the line working OK. It was really very shifty (Neil would say people kept opening and closing doors in the next road) and it was somewhat of a lucky dip where to start. The first beat to round the finishing mark was also very tricky with different tactics working for different races.
Overall it seemed to pay to start on Starboard at the outer end and then sail until headed closer to the windward bank, but there were plenty of exceptions meaning there were five different winners during the mornings eight races. Almost everyone had at least one good result during the morning with Mike managing to stay clear overall.
Thanks to Commodore Dave for keeping things moving, taking pictures and doing the results which are shown below. A really pleasant day to be outside followed by an excellent Christmas meal very well organised by Malcolm – many thanks again
