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DF95 Summer 2025 #3 – 7/6/25

A good afternoon?

  • Wind Straight Down the Lake – Tick
  • Sunshine – Tick (Some of the Time)
  • Rain – Tick (Unfortunately the rest of the Time)
  • Thunderstorms – Fortunately not!

A reduced roster of only seven sailors turned out for what was a decent afternoons sailing after checking out and clearing the pipework and weirs for the lake feeds (it was noted that there is a slow feed coming in when it rains).

It was a mid A Rig breeze with some occasional gusts to the top end of the rig, but also some light patches when the rain came through which necessitated the odd race or two being only one lap to keep race duration to a reasonable length.  Fortunately some of the heaviest rain came whilst on our break, which was extended whilst we waited for the worst to pass over.  The second session was the most pleasant with sunshine for most of the time.

The afternoon belonged to Peter with eight wins from the twelve races and nothing less than a second.  We also had three other winners in John Carlin, Martin Whittingham-Jones and Clive Warren.  John Carlin took overall second place with a consistent number of second and third places, whilst Alan lost oout to Clive on countback for fourth place, due to Clive’s win.  John Beech had good boat speed and led a couple of races for a while, only losing out after getting the shifts wrong coming into the finish.  Dave Williams struggled for boat speed for most of the day and then sadly had a brand new rudder servo fail after ten races, firmly rooting him in last place.

For ten races we self monitored the starts and had the leader record the finish, with Peter seemingly getting wriers cramp or something similar recording one boat twice and missing another one out completely in one race, so a bit of creative editing had to be undertaken!

  1. Peter Baldwin                           172    12pts  – 8 wins
  2. John Carlin                                   50    26pts – 1 win
  3. Clive Warren                                93   31pts – 2 wins
  4. Alan Watkinson                          23   31pts
  5. John Beech                                  288  46pts
  6. Martin Whittingham-Jones  77  54pts – 1 win
  7. Dave Williams                              33  60pts

An updated set of images from Dave – several missed when checking emails yesterday.

DF95 Social Racing 2025 – 4/6/25

A good north westerly breeze which looked straight down the lake greeted the seven DF95 skippers at a sunny  Gautby road. It looked a perfect sailing day. The choice of rig was the first question to be answered A or B, Dave Williams  was this weeks guinea pig and put an A set on and which was top end but perfect.
Neil Westbrook volunteered to be our RO for the morning and set a standard course of, windward mark, spreader, gate and a finish line half way up the lake and got us underway on time. Unfortunately before racing started Martin Whittington Jones had a winch servo problem which prevented him sailing for the day.
The wind, although looking virtually straight down the lake was in true Gautby road tradition was anything but, Although there weren’t many holes in the wind, there were plenty of shifts to catch the unsuspecting helm out,  pick a wrong one and you could be headed for 20sec or more.  The shifts were also not consistent, meaning there were plenty of opportunities to gain or lose places.
Clive was fast out of the blocks taking the first 3 races, although the pack were getting closer with each race. It was John Carlin who stopped Clive’s winning street in race 4 with the improving John Beech 2nd which started a consistent run of 2nds and 3rds for him over the next4 races. Meanwhile Clive was lucky to win race 5 when John C and Richard got tangled whilst leading nearing the windward mark. The inconsistent Dave W finally got a win in race 6. Race 8 and it was Richard who had finally got his boat moving who took the win, chased closely by Dave W and Clive. By this time the wind had gone up a notch and in the gusts the boats started to nosedive on the run .In the last 4 races line honours were split amongst the helms with John C taking 2 wins, John B 1 win and Dave W 1 win with him also having to retire in the last race with rudder servo issues
After 12 races Neil called it a day, which was just about the right timing as a change to B rig was imminent
  1. Clive Warren        18pts        5 x wins
  2. John Carlin           26pts        3 x wins
  3. John Beech            26pts       1 x win
  4. Dave Williams     30pts        2 x wins
  5. Richard Walker   33pts        1  win
  6. Malcolm Harvey 58pts
  7. Martin Whittington Jones  DNS
Summary
An  extremely enjoyable morning, with a good but challenging shifting breeze, which was top end of A rig bordering B rig nearing the end. Sailing was very close with 5 of the 6 boats on the water taking at least 1 win each
Many thanks to Neil for volunteering as RO, and keeping us in check, its much appreciated, with a few photos supplied by Dave W whilst also helming his boat!

Jack Turner Trophy IOM Open (and IOM Summer 2025 #4) – 31/5/25

Light conditions at the start of the day (c) Clive Warren

Sixteen skippers, including four visitors from other clubs, turned up to compete for the Jack Turner Trophy, which was being raced for the first time in honour of a longstanding club member who had originally joined the club in circa 1955, and who sadly passed away in late 2024.

(c) Clive Warren

The forecast for the day was for a S to SW building breeze, which is always a challenging direction racing at Gautby Road with wind blowing across rather than along the lake.  However, as folks set about rigging and then testing their set up, the winds looked promising for this inaugural event with a light breeze blowing from the E/ESE virtually straight down the lake.  Alas this wind evaporated as the planned start time of 10am came and went.  When the breeze did eventually start to build from the forecast direction the challenge for the race team was in setting the course with either end of the lake being suitable for a start at some point as as the wind continued to swing.

(c) Clive Warren

After one general recall the racing finally got underway at around 10:55 with a standard 2 lap windward/leeward course with an unavoidable heavily starboard biased beat towards the clubhouse.  The challenge for the skippers, as it was for most of the day, was less about picking the shifts and more about deciding which race track to take.  Stay away from the windward shore and risk not laying the windward mark or being sailed over, or climb to windward with the greater chance of being becalmed.  As the day progressed the former was usually, but not always, the best way to go.  By race two and for the rest of the day, the start line moved to the clubhouse end, with a now heavy port bias on the first leg.    By lunchtime, the wind had built and by mid afternoon the gusts were ripping across the lake or coming straight down, interspersed with calmer patches.  At the starts the decision for skippers was, increasingly, whether to hold a starboard right of way position and then tack at the gun or look for a gap on port and hit the line at speed.  Some mastered this better than others.

(c) Clive Warren

Without providing a blow by blow account of every race there were some stand out performances on the day, lessons learned by some as well as incidents of interest.

No surprise to many, if any, that Brad Gibson prevailed in the conditions.  Even after one or two poor starts by his standards, he was able to weave his way back to the front in most races, making it look easy.
Robbie McIntosh, after a few up and down results in the morning races definitely found consistency in the afternoon.  With great starts and a well tuned boat for the conditions he put together a strong run of 8 races, which included two 1sts and four 2nds, giving him a well deserved 2nd overall on the day.
(c) Clive Warren

Roger Crates, who had travelled over from the East Coast, had two wins on the day and may have finished higher up the leader board if he hadn’t opted for his B rig during a mid afternoon tea break.  It was looking good on the first beat, but despite A riggers nose-diving and broaching at times, the calmer patches meant the A rig was the rig to be on as he was swallowed up on the first downwind leg.  Needless to say, he only did one race on it.

There were at least two races in the early afternoon where becalmed leaders close to what might loosely be called the windward mark, were descended upon by the rest of the fleet running down with a following breeze.  As you might expect the level and pitch of the calls for room/no room (typically called as water/no water!) increased as boats got closer to the mark. On both occasions carnage ensued with several boats locked together gifting a free pass to those who managed to stay out of trouble.  As this point the the race team opted for a windward gate, giving skippers the option to pick either the left or right buoy to round, which helped to reduce the dodgem sailing in later races.
Paul Plested learned the hard way that it’s best to put your transmitter strap around your neck after removing a layer!  Fortunately, fellow club member and volunteer Clive was able to lend him a transmitter for the rest of the day.  Paul’s transmitter is now in his airing cupboard drying out.
(c) Clive Warren

In race five, and perhaps fittingly on such a day, Brad handed the controls of his boat to one of Jack’s young great grandchildren.  Under Brad’s guidance he finished 8th!

Whilst the racing could not be said to have been sailed in champagne conditions, the day as a whole was a wonderful celebration in honour of the memory of Jack Turner. Both his daughter (Debbie) and son (John), plus their families spend most of the day being entertained by the sailing and by sharing memories of Jack with both members and visitors new and old.  The atmosphere on the shore and in the clubhouse made it a joyous experience for all.
At the prize giving both Martin Roberts and John Turner both spoke lovingly of Jack, and Debbie kindly presented the prizes to the top four helms including handing the Jack Turner Trophy to it’s first ever winner, Brad Gibson.
Thanks go to all those who vcolunteered to help run the event.  Dave Williams, Neil Westbrook, Clive Warren and Judith on the race team with Joss Watkinson and Chris Westbrook in the galley – serving tea, coffee and home made biscuits and cake.

Prizewinners were:

First Brad Gibson (c) Dave Williams
Second – Rob McIntosh (c) Dave Williams
Third – Martin Roberts (c) Martin Roberts
Fourth – John Brierley (c) Dave Williams
First Junior – Noah McIntosh (c) Dave Williams

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2025 – 28/5/25

DF65’s

An early 10.30 start to allow time for some lake clean-up work between the DF65 and DF95 racing didn’t catch anybody out this week and all 10 sailors were ready for the first race. A+ rigs proved the right choice in a NW breeze blowing down the lake towards the clubhouse that averaged around 7knts with up to 12knt gusts. Last weeks lake cleanup had done a good job with the weed which didn’t appear to cause any problems this week. The standard course was used with a windward mark to port followed by the spreader mark, down through a leeward gate and back up to the finish

Pre-race impressions of the course suggested racing would be quite straight forward and it would be largely a boat speed day but the first beat of the first race gave a taste of the rest of the session with 20 degree wind shifts mixed in with puffs of wind that were quite localised …. so typical Gautby Rd. Nothing on the race course proved consistent …. sometimes it paid to tack on the shifts, at other times it was best to ignore them and hit a corner ….. sometimes the left side paid, sometimes the middle and sometimes the right …. starting at the starboard end of the line sometimes paid, but so did starting in the middle or port end of the line. Surprisingly, based on the puffy conditions, the downwind leg proved the most consistent part of the course with relatively few place changes taking place. What the conditions did mean, was that, particularly on the first beat, you were never out of the race, but that you could also lose a bunch of places by just being slightly in the wrong part of the lake.

Over the 10 races, Peter proved the most consistent to come 1st, winning 5 of them and never being out of the top 3 despite looking dead and buried halfway up the first beat in several races. John was reasonably consistent with 3 wins and able to discard 2 x 6th places to come second while James plodded around with a bunch of 2nds and only 1 result out of the top 5 to come third. Andrew was shockingly inconsistent winning 2 races but also having a load of mid fleet results  to come 4th beating Alan into 5th on race win countback.  Thanks to Dave Williams once again for remembering to take a few photos.

  1. Peter Baldwin         63  9pts  5 wins
  2. John Carlin               11  13pts  3 wins
  3. James Douglas        73  22pts
  4. Andrew Potter      194  24pts  2 wins
  5. Alan Watkinson   373  24pts
  6. Dave Williams         33  33pts
  7. Neil Westbrook       03  37pts
  8. David White             94  45pts
  9. Clive Warren            53  49pts
  10. Richard walker       39  57pts

DF95’s

After another minor lake clear up ahead of the Jack Turner Trophy race on Saturday, there should have been 4 sailors out with their 95’s this afternoon. Unfortunately Martin had a faulty winch when he switched on having checked it was working yesterday evening.  That took us down to just three for a great afternoon of close to champagne sailing, with a mid to top A suit breeze straight down the lake with plenty of sunshine.

Alan went well in the first race and took the first win of the afternoon (beginners luck according to Alan!).  Race 2 was deemed a tie between Peter and Clive by impartial observer Martin standing on the line.  Peter then put together a strings of 5 wins, before Clive took the final race 8.  A great afternoon for sailing – where was everyone?

  1. Peter Baldwin       172  6pts
  2. Clive Warren           93  11pts
  3. Alan Watkinson     23  14pts

 

DF/RG65 Summer 2025 #3 – 24/5/25

What a great Saturday afternoon we had, 6 skippers, warm, wind, fire, nosediving, flat calm, rain, flares, yes we had it all.
It all started at rigging up before the race when Alan had a bit of mishap with his batteries, plenty of smoke and burnt out cables but miraculously after this the radio gear fired up with a new set of batteries and off we went to sail.
The wind was constant with large gusts so we all chose our ‘B’ rigs but this wind direction then decided to sort of turn around and come from the houses aswell as other places at times. The first 6 races before tea break belonged to Alan for sure.
Tea break and we all changed up to our bigger rigs as the wind dropped a little and the gusts did die down a little, we also came out to a nice Everton blue flare that someone had left lakeside, obviously testing the colour before the Liverpool celebrations on Monday. First race after tea and we all fell over on the downwind leg so back to the club and change down for the next 5 races. Graham did make a better effort in the second half but the day belonged to Alan for sure. A returning Gary Benson to the club and RG racing had a great afternoon and deserved his podium finish, George got caught out a few times with his rig choice but did manage a trio of third places in races 5 through to seven. A good battle all through the fleet was great to see.
Many thanks must go to Neil Westbrook for starting and finishing us all afternoon and Dave Williams for the photos.  After 12 races the final results were as follows:
  1. Alan Bennett            68  Ivy                   12pts
  2. Graham Elliott        09  Electronica  16pts
  3. Gary Benson             68  Ivy                   35pts
  4. Alan Watkinson       23  Uno                 37pts
  5. George Bennett        71  Uno                 45pts
  6. Dave Wiliiams          33  Uno                 49

The lake was much clear of bags and weed after the Wednesday afternoon crew did a fantastic job of cleaning up ready for next Saturdays IOM open race, if you haven’t entered yet, why not?