8 skippers attended for the start of the Summer Series. The wind was variable in strength but fairly constant in direction from the NE. The result of this being that the windward marks came under the influence of the turbulance from the North bank which produced occasional shifts ready to catch the unwary skipper.

Many thanks to the Duty officers Chris Graves and Adrian Cripps.

Another nice day at the lake 11 skippers showed up and were greeted with a wind just North of West around 12/14 knots ( guessing) it was A suit and sometimes a struggle especially towards the end when Roger Bowtle was on B and clearly had the upper hand on the beat and the run well it was marginal. Mick Chamberlin was quick out of the box with a win but Gordon and Ivan were hot on his heels, Gordon took the next two races, and then Mick got four wins on the bounce. The racing was close and the fleet are getting better at both set up and tactics, The races were quite long today and only 7 quality races were completed, Roger got better as the day went on and finished with a second that in all honesty should have been a win, but the practice practice practice with the boat will help, just keep at it once you master the trim, you are halfway there. Ed Whitaker is improving every week and just pipped Mick Cooper on countback , A few missing faces today for this the last of the Winter series. But I am sure when the summer series starts we could be looking at 12/14 boats out each week for this fabulous series .

Many thanks to Mick C and Alan Newman as OOD’s and also to Roger who had everything set up before we all arrived

DF 95’s at Southport last year

Nine skippers braved a forecast that failed to materialise and gave some great A+ suit sailing until the last race, Mick Chamberlain was certainly very fast today winning the first five races and Ivan S was the most consistent skipper gaining second spot. Sailing took place on the south bank and to start was straight giving a great beat and run course, as the morning progressed the wind swung into the west and the course was changed to starboard rounding instead of port, the rain came down around 1130 making it fairly miserable and then the wind increased to make the last race impossible if you persisted with A + , as you can see from the retirements in race 6 with only three finishers.

This was the last in the DF 65 winter series , many thanks to The OOD and all the helpers especialy Roger Bowtle who did more than his fair share.

We now look forward to the Summer series starting in April when I believe we shall have fleets aproaching 15 .

A Sue Brown piccy from the DF 65’s racing at Eastbourne in 2018 Many thanks Sue

Despite dire forecasts of strong winds and heavy rain, the morning passed with light winds and a little gentle rain. The wind was from the South West giving a long beat along the East bank. The wind was, as usual, variable in strength but consistent in direction requiring no changes during the morning.

Thanks to Peter, ably assisted by Jen and friends, for keeping the racing moving and allowing 8 closely competed races to be competed.

This now completes the 2018-19 Winter Series