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DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 24/5/23

An almost perfect sailing day, with a fresh NW breeze, with some substantial gusts to keep you ‘on your toes’, and make life on the water more interesting. The results show just how incredibly close the racing was, with wins shared by seven sailors across the fleet.The sun shone all morning, and we chased a brood of 8 baby ducklings with their mother up and down the lake. They quickly learned how to keep out of the way, after some very near misses on the first race.

John Carlin                                     11    35 Pts
Alan Watkinson                         373   36 Pts
Clive Warren                                 53   51 Pts
James Douglas                             73   52 Pts
Andrew Peter                             919   53 Pts
Neil Westbrook                           03   54 Pts
Mike De St Paer                           35   65 Pts
Don Mckinnon                          933   71 Pts
Richard Walker                            39  76 Pts
Dave Williams                              33   81 Pts
Charles Legg                                 21   91 Pts [ 1 X 4th ]
John Beech                                     80  91 Pts [ 1 X 5th ]
Frans King                                     95  113 Pts
Martin Wittingham-Jones     54  166 Pts [ Rtd ]

IOM Summer 2023 #1 (20/5/23)

A sunny start to the day with a very light breeze from the Clubhouse end. Racing commenced soon after 1.00pm with a guest from Kendal joining in with a boat he had just collected from Martin.

Another welcome club member Andrea joined us with her main objective to beat Martin. After two leisurely races the wind increased and swung 180 degrees, the new course seemed to suit everyone with very close racing and four different race winners. The only downside of the day was with the amount of debris floating down the lake with the wind change with some boats being affected more than others.

Thanks to Dave for running the racing and to Bernie manning the canteen providing welcome drinks. After 12 races the results were:

  1. Martin Roberts     17pts 6 wins
  2. Andrea Roberts    19pts 3 wins
  3. Alan Bennett         23pts 2 wins
  4. John Berry              34pts 1 win
  5. Alan Watkinson   42pts

DF65 Summer Series 2023 17/5/23

Blue sky, full sun, cold wind from the top of the lake, good A suit conditions.

Twelve sailors including a new member Martin, all anxiously waiting whilst Neil donned the leaking waders to move the start mark. With each skipper dropping out in turn racing commenced.

It was soon realised that the apparent steady wind was far from it and was proving very difficult to read, especially at the gate. On several occasions the leading boat made the wrong decision and ended losing a couple of places on the short beat to the finish. In the end it was down to the consistency of Neil and John C that enabled them to take first and second places. 12 races held.

  1. Neil Westbrook                       16 pts 5 wins
  2. John Carlin                                18 pts 3 wins
  3. Andrew Potter                         28 pts 2 wins
  4. Alan Watkinson                       38 pts 2 wins
  5. Dave Williams                          38pts
  6. Clive Warren                             46 pts
  7. 7th. Andrew Peter                   51 pts
  8. John Beech                                 56 pts
  9. Richard Walker                        59 pts
  10. Frans King                                  74 pts
  11. Malcolm Harvey                       85 pts
  12. Martin Wittingham-Jones   97 pts

DF/RG65 Summer Series 2023 #2

Competitors arrived to find the land breeze fighting the sea breeze but luckily all settled down by race 3 when we got a nice NW mid A rig wind plus wall to wall sunshine, hottest day of the year so far. A few members were missing today, Peter Baldwin PRO and John Brierley sailing at the Fleetwood DF Global race, good luck John.
Graham gave his Electronica one final outing for club racing and took the first two wins but Alan sailing his Uno and Bill sailing his Ivy were never too far behind. The next 4 races were all quite closely contested with Alan getting to the windward mark in first position in quite a few. Dave Williams very kindly shared helms with newcomer Clive Warren with whoever not sailing taking on the role of starter and finisher, many thanks for this, both of you.
In the end it was Graham Elliott with 9 wins from Bill Culshaw with 3 wins, ever so consistent  Martin Roberts, who actually scored a third in every race bar 2 races and then the consistently inconsistent Alan.
12 races sailed.
1st     Graham Elliott      Electronica            11 points
2nd    Bill Culshaw           IVY                            17 points
3rd     Martin Roberts     Pocket Rocket     30 points
4th     Alan Watkinson   Uno                          34 points
5th     Dave Williams       Uno                          49 points

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 10/5/23

While heavy rain showers battered most of the Wirral, Bidston remained as dry as the proverbial bone which provided very pleasant sailing conditions in a 10-15kt SE breeze blowing for the most part straight down the lake towards the clubhouse. A rigs were nominated, which proved the correct choice for 95% of the time, with the other 5% being spent knocked over downwind in the gusts, with the usual potential deleterious effect on results. The standard course was used with a windward and spreader mark followed by a downwind gate (which provided overtaking or undertaking options) and then to the finish. Despite what seemed a relatively stable wind direction on the shore, big gains or losses could be made on the upwind legs just by being in the right part of lake for the puffs or on the right or wrong side of what was clearly a shiftier wind pattern on the water.

Alan’s boat didn’t fancy the conditions and pulled the old ‘poor connection’ trick which allowed him to kindly volunteer to RO for the whole session.

John won fairly convincingly, due to good upwind speed, several race wins and consistent results when not winning.  Mike forgot to bring half his boat but was able to borrow a fancy yellow keel which allowed him to just sneak 2nd in front of James while Neil’s total lack of consistency relegated him to 4th

  1. John Carlin               14pts (4 wins)
  2. Mike St Paer            22pts (1 win)
  3. James Douglas       23pts (2 wins)
  4. Neil Westbrook     28pts (2 wins)
  5. Andrew Potter       32pts
  6. Clive Warren          39pts
  7. Dave Williams       42pts (1 win)
  8. John Beech              54pts
  9. Frans King              63pts
  10. Malcolm Harvey  73pts

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 3/5/23

With a brisk SE breeze blowing from behind the clubhouse and down the lake, some optimists rigged A plus, but it became apparent even before the first race that the sensible option was an A Rig.

9 sailors took turns as RO, so 9 races, and the gusting wind gave everyone a nose dive or two, which meant race places changed frequently.  This resulted in Race Wins spread across the fleet, with Alan Watkinson taking 4 wins to take the day, John Carlin 2 wins, and Andrew Peter, Frans King and Stan Metcalf all managing a race win apiece.

Very close racing, as the scores show, and welcome sunshine and more than enough wind, made for a very pleasant and enjoyable day’s sailing.

  1.   373   Alan Watkinson 15 pts
  2.      11   John Carlin           17 pts
  3.   919   Andrew Peter     31 pts
  4.    95   Frans King           37 pts
  5.    33    Dave Williams    39 pts
  6.    46    Stan Metcalf       42 pts
  7.    39    Richard Walker  43 pts
  8.    21     Charles Legg       47 pts
  9.    80    John Beech          53 pts