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DF95 Summer Series 2023 #4 – 7/10/23

An un-seasonally warm and bright day greeted the 10 skippers who attended for the fourth round of the DF-95 Summer Series at Gautby Road. The wind(?) was very light and coming from the west over the houses giving conditions that were more suited to “a glass of Pimms on the terrace” than sailing, but our skippers decided to go for it with “A” rigs.

From the onset the conditions were very challenging with the almost none existent wind swirling, gusting(?) then dropping and full of holes but all the boats made the best of them that they could.

Given that the wind could gust and be gone faster than you could say the words there were few recalls at the starts which was at the Clubhouse end of the lake with the course going up to the top end of the lake and back over two laps with a finish half way up the lake.

John Brierley made the most of the conditions seeming to catch a wind that was not available to the boats alongside and often being half a lap ahead of the trailing fleet which gave him 5 wins and 2 seconds. Although John was a convincing winner on the day he did not have it all his own way with Alan Watkinson (1), Clive Warren (2) and John Carlin (1) winning races.

A break was welcomed by all the skippers after 5 races after which racing continued for a further 4 races before everyone agreed that conditions were just too flat to continue.

Paul Little came along to watch the racing and offered to be RO for the day which was greatly appreciated by all the skippers.

DF65 Social Racing 2023 4/10/23

A large turnout of 17 (technically 18 – see later) sailors today, who were greeted by the merest ripple on a glassy lake, even though the forecast suggested there could be as much as 15mph.  Reports from West Kirby were of 10-15mph, so there was hope.  Unfortunately, our biggest problem that the wind was SW again and so would come from anywhere in the range W to SE and so it proved.  Peter donned the waders and set out a proposed course using the South Bank and suggested a Starboard rounding so that we didn’t end up tacking to the spreader.  Sailor No 18 was Dave Williams who very kindly offered to be RO with the large turnout.

The first race was a long one with very light and shifty winds, with Mike De St Paer coming out on top.  At least the long race gave Peter time to sort Dave H’s A+ rig out and compete from Race 2 onwards.  Race 2 went to James Douglas, with Peter putting his boat on the water with 10 seconds to go, but unfortunately little wind to get to the start line.  Peter then managed 5 wins in the remaining races, although it wasn’t all plain sailing with John Carlin putting together a consistent set of results with one win  and Richard Walker taking the remaining win, whilst worrying that his batteries were going to run out before the finish, but fortunately they held up.  James Douglas, Tony Sedgewick, Andrew Potter Clive Warren and Jon Whitehead all had a number of good results in the 9 races completed.

Peter took the morning helped by the 5 wins with consistent John Carlin second, only a couple of points behind, then James Douglas rounding out the podium.  Very many thanks go to Dave for both running the morning and scoring the results, ably assisted by Neil later on who helped with calling the finish, which was very close at times.

  1. Peter Baldwin                            63  17pts
  2. John Carlin                                  11  19pts
  3. James Douglas                          73  24pts
  4. Tony Sedgewick                       19  29pts
  5. Andrew Potter                        194  30pts
  6. Clive Warren                              53  33pts
  7. Jon Whitehead                         770  37pts
  8. Sally Collings                           829  43pts
  9. Richard Walker                          39  50pts
  10. Don McKinnon                         933  56pts
  11. John Beech                                   80  67pts
  12. Frans King                                    95  70pts
  13. Mike De St Paer                           35  77pts   (left early)
  14. Charles Legg                                 21  80pts
  15. Malcolm Harvey                     1019  87pts
  16. Martin Whittingham-Jones  54  102pts
  17. Dave Howard                               00  106pts

IOM Summer 2023 #9 (30/9/23)

A great response to Peters email’s and phone calls in the week meant that we had 10 skippers sailing today.
The wind was a medium top suit from the clubhouse end with the normal Birkenhead shifts and gusts to contend with, although the temperature was reasonable, the rain was completely unreasonable, after break it bucketed down.
After Peter had tweaked the course we started racing, a few general and individual recalls were called by our starter, Dave Williams, who also finished us. 5 races before a tea break with Graham sailing his BritPOP! winning races 3, 4 and 5, Martin sailing his Chimera took race 1 and Alan sailing his BritPOP! took race 2. A short break saw the heavens open and 10 unwilling skippers not wanting to venture out but there was still racing to be finished so off we trudged. The next 5 races saw wins for Martin in races 6 and 10, Graham taking race 9, Alan taking race 7 and Peter taking race 8. John Carlin also joined us after having radio problems for the first 5 races of the day and managed a very creditable 3rd in the final race of the day.
The final scores were very close, the top 3 also all discarded the same amount of points (9).
Many thanks to Dave Williams for today, standing out in the pouring rain. Sailing wasn’t much fun, so to stand outside and not sail is something else.
  1. Graham Elliott          09 Britpop!           16pts
  2. Martin Roberts        122 Chimera         17pts
  3. Alan Bennett             180 Britpop!          23pts
  4. Brad Gibson                17  TS2                    24pts
  5. Peter Baldwin            63  Britpop!          33pts
  6. Bill Culshaw                21  Britpop!          42pts
  7. John Berry                 123  Lintel MMX  54pts
  8. John Carlin                  63  Lintel MMX  63pts
  9. Andrew Peter             66  V9                     68pts
  10. Neil Westbrook         03   Widget            72pts

We all wish Martin the best of luck at the upcoming European Championships in Torrevieja, Spain.  If you wish to follow his progress along with the other GBR skippers, the official website is;

https://2023iomeuropeans.rcnt.com/en/default/races/race

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2023 – 27/9/23

12 sailors braved the threat of storm Agnes to be greeted by a very gentle breeze blowing down the lake. By the time general greetings and pleasantries had been exchanged the wind had filled in from the Southeast and the general opinion was a B rig would be the sensible choice. A standard course using the full lake was set with the first leg towards the clubhouse end followed with a short spreader leg then down to the gate, and then a beat to the finish.

The B Rig was the perfect choice and sailing got underway on time, The wind was reasonably steady but with enough shifts to make it interesting and meant the skippers had to keep their wits about them. The sailing was extremely close and competitive throughout the fleet with 9 of the 12 helms finishing in the top 3 in at least 1 race. The rain arrived after race 5 and got heavy enough at the end of race 8 to call a halt for lunch.

The day turned out to be far better than any of the weather forecasts had predicted and was very enjoyable for those who chanced their arm.

Final positions are shown below but the top honours went to John Carlin (4 wins), James Douglas (3 wins,) and new member Tony Sedgewick (1 win). A special mention to Frans King who had his most competitive days racing to date

Finally a special thanks to Neil Westbrook who volunteered to be the Race Officer for the day

  1. John Carlin              8
  2.   James Douglas    14
  3.  Tony Sedgewick  21 (1 win)
  4.  Alan Watkinson   21
  5.  Clive Warren         22
  6.  Dave Williams      25
  7.  Frans King              29
  8.  Andrew Potter       36
  9.  Richard Walker     39
  10. John Beech           53
  11. Dave Howard       54 (1 x 5)
  12. Malcolm Harvey  54

Over lunch the rain stopped and the wind freshened slightly from the morning session to welcome the 4 die hard DF95 sailors, (John C, Frans, Malcolm and Clive). Informal racing took place over about 90 mins, no results were recorded but a great time was had by all four in one of the best winds we have seen in quite a while at Gautby Road.

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 20/3/23

Eight skippers came along to sail on a lake with a light breeze and reduced algae levels after the recent rain.  The decision was to go with an A+ set up and everyone rigged up their boats and this is where the day set its course when David Howard realised that tensioning his back stay had caused the jib crane to split his mast and he had no replacement.

It was intended to race a course set over the familiar pattern with the wind from the club house, however before the start of the first race it had switched to blowing down the lake towards the club house and back again.  The first race demonstrated how difficult the day would be with the light wind switching, gusting and disappearing as is swirled around the lake.  The course was revised to have the start at the club house end and the finish half way up the lake from race 2 onwards.

As the races progressed, frustration with the conditions seemed to be the main feeling of all the skippers and Malcolm called it a day after race 3 with sail winch creep.  Only 8 races were completed with Alan Wilkinson winning overall having 4 wins and 2 seconds and Dave Williams was second with 1 win and 4 seconds.  Other winners on the day were Richard Walker, Clive Warren and John Carlin who managed to win race 7 after struggling in the first 6 races.