A beautiful warm summers day greeted nine keen skipper’s for the penultimate round of this exciting summer series, some skippers were obviously burnt out by last weeks National championship’s in Fleetwood, but not all . Mick C 46 and Greg C 21 were down early to get the bits and pieces out and sorted, setting it up on the predicted East bank. Good to see skippers picking up a rake before hand and especially to Roger C 30 who had done a fair bit of clearing the evening before, It certainly does pay dividends in the long run, Racing started on Time with skippers agreeing to take turns watching the start line, a very long 3 beats and two runs was the order of the day, and straight out of the blocks was Roger C 30 taking the first Bullet, in second place was young Martyn A 60 with an immaculate TS2 a very much older design from way back when, see photo below, Third was another older design, the Pikanto of Kevin E ,20. Just goes to show the older designs, can still cut it .

The breeze being very light and from the South was a little fluky but gave for some exciting races, Mick C 46 with his Venti, after a poor start in the first race slipped into the gear he had at the Nationals, and seemed to have great boat speed, but in race three was tested with the TS2 of Martyn taking the top spot, Dave R 57 was always there or there abouts, with some consistent results, Peter C 110 also sailed well and took the win in the last race, Chris V 85 was sailing the Mk 2 Widget for the first time in anger, and now he has the manual on tuning and setting I am sure you will see his results improve, Kevin E 20 started well and not quite sure why he faded, lets hope we can help him get the best from this boat before he takes charge of a new boat in a couple months time, Colin H 54 knows his problem and is just biding his time, Greg C 21 had a couple of great flourishes, lets hope this is a sigh of future improvement, because as we all know time on the water is paramount if we want to improve our racing .

The results are below Mick C 46 eight points from 8 races so can have no complaints .

Many thanks to all who helped get all the gear away and packed up early, I don’t think weed was mentioned and for those that were around for the 2015 Nationals that our club hosted , ” this is a very different Lake to sail on.

Well done Micky Boy

5 Lincoln Radio Sailing Club Members went to Race in the 2023 I.O.M National Championships. This is at the start and they are all smiling, !!

Day 1 report from John Taylor sail number 28

A light north easterly breeze greeted the 62 strong fleet for the first day of this event. The race team made good use of the available water setting a long course. The format for racing was a 4 fleet system with 6 places up for promotion and relegation.

Early pacers came from Andrea Roberts, Peter Walters, Tony Edwards and Craig Richards who all won their seeding races. However, it is great to see some of the talented skippers who have travelled from Europe competing, Kristina Jakelic (51) from Croatia, pictured with her Britpop, she is one of only two females to enter the championship this year.

In the afternoon session racing had to be paused due to the change in wind direction. After approximately an hour the wind settled to a north westerly breeze and the seeding round was finally completed.

Later in the day it was first class sailing as the wind increased to a hard top suit breeze. Rob Walsh continues to keep his momentum by scoring well, achieving a number of 1st place results over the day.

As for me, I started well achieving B-Fleet after my seeding race, yet in the next 2 rounds I struggled to find space between 20 IOMs at the start line, relegation followed, then worse was to come as another boat came out of a collision without an attached backstay. Although, I was not involved my boat was in close proximity, as I tacked off the bank the loose backstay somehow caught on my shrouds and pull me to the other yacht.

As a result, both boats wrapped themselves around each other, frustrated I retired with a damaged jib. So we hope for a better day tomorrow.

Day 2 report , sorry its missing But One of the Lincoln Skippers excelled and ended up after day 2 in 7th position , as you can see , he was 27th .

Day 3 & Results Report.

The weather was more of the same on this final day. Racing was rescheduled
to 3 fleets, which means 22 boats at the start line, that meant finding room
will come at a premium.

Craig Richards continues to ‘rack up’ some decent scores but closely
followed by Rob Walsh. He himself is keeping the competition alive as others
start to fall further behind.

As for me, John Taylor 28 , it is back to the drawing board which is
disheartening and frustrating.

In the final round of racing B and A-Fleet skippers changed to top rig and
we were treated to a finale. In the end…. with Darin Ballington winning the
final race and Mick Chamberlain coming home in third position.

Congratulations to Craig Richard’s (Britpop) a well deserved result in a
very high class quality fleet. Craig came out on top just 1 point ahead of 2nd
place Rob Walsh (Britpop). In 3rd place was Chris Harris (Britpop). My thanks
goes to Fleetwood Club, Derek Priestley and his Race Team, as well as the
ladies in the canteen, who looked after everyone at the lakeside

At the end of the day Darin Ballington ended top Lincoln skipper in 8th
place, but hats off to all Lincoln skippers for a great achievement, Mick
Chamberlain ended in 10th,, Rob Wilson 15th , Pete Walters 20th , and Tim Hand
34th , a fantastic effort .

 

 

Quote from ,Darin Ballington

Great experience for everyone, whether you are a squadron leader or tail end
Charlie there is fun to be had, with plenty of banter, lots of help and we all
come away with a new buddy to check in on next time. It’s not for all, but
we’ll worth entering at least once, you never know you might like it…

Quote from Tim Hand

I would just like to thank every Lincoln member that attended this years,
IOM national .
We had some fantastic results from club members and some not so good ME 😂😂.
But what a great weekend, few beers, food and laughter. Well done Lincoln.

Quote from Mick Chamberlain

If you have raced dingy’s ,keelboats, whatever , this Radio racing could be
your next move, the adrenaline on the start line, in these events will keep you
hooked , whatever your age .

Come and give Lincoln a try .

With the big boys away doing well at the IOM Nationals only 7 boats at this weekend’s club event, although one was a DF 95 and we noticed the slight difference in size and one boat had issues before it hit the water.  Through team work the issue was found to be a bad battery sending the winch servo haywire.  I tried to do most to the things the OOD does and with the help of Mike Williams everything was in the right place except the wind.  I probably missed a few things and the safety brief was a little short although with Mick C at the nationals most of the danger of someone falling in had gone.  Dave Rigby and myself moved a few buoys and set a course down the club house bank I’m sure it has a name but I’m still struggling with Port and Starboard. ( it is the South Bank )

It was apparent that there was a fair amount of weed sub surface, and the first few races pit stops were made to remove the dreaded weed but I think we managed to share it between us. As the wind changed we moved the course to the East bank for one race as the weed was far worse and the wind changed back.  Poor Chris Vincent making his first appearance in a DF65 had a really good start and was well ahead with the finishing line in sight only to catch the dreaded weed which stopped him in the water.  As the day went on the wind was a little stronger and the last few races were a lot closer with several being decided in the last few meters.  In all 11 races completed just before the heavens opened so we all stayed dry.  A good natured day with only a couple of penalty turns and as it should be everyone helping. 

Report by Richard Jutsum

Just a quick Note Dave Rigby snatches it from Martyn Aspinall on countback, and although weed has been mentioned, it is pleasing to see that it has not affected the final result. The last round of this series is on the 24th September.

Wow , yes that’s right wow ,, The Girls did their best on the footy Pitch, But Lincoln did not disappoint, with a stunning display of racing throughout the fleet, A rumour had said, there was a bit of floaty weed about, and all skippers were asked to get to the lake early and pick up a rake, they did just that and led by young Tracy , raking was well under way before 0830 with quite a few members picking up a rake, and clearing any green stuff from the sides, Darin was also out in the boat rake in hand, fantastic everybody, what a great start. We welcomed 18 skippers on this warm almost cloudless sky , with a decent top suit breeze from the South West, Rob, with the help of Darin quickly sorted a great beat and run course with the third beat , being a beat to the finish, Today was all about who could grab the bragging rights to take into the Nationals next weekend, Not sure who was doing the start line but during the morning there were a couple of general recalls, as you needed to be really on it with your starts, 1st race saw Darin 98 take the bullet, with Mick 46 in close attendance and proving that last week was no fluke Cooperman 39 took the third spot, With Mick 46 leading the fleet in the second race it looked a comfortable win , but a small error picking the wrong side of the gate Let Darin 98 in for his second, Mick also fell foul of some outside forces and he dropped a further 3 places with Pete W 65 and Dave 57 getting 2nd and third respectively, Race three and Tim 44 showed his hand , as did Rob 97, a short break whilst a course change was done ( the Start line ) and we were off again Pete this time picking up the bullet. The racing was fast and furious all through the fleet , with one or two small gust threatening a nose dive. Now I do know that one of our skippers has some hives and produces some very tasty honey, but I was as a racer getting a little confused by some of the calls that I was hearing, it seems Hubby and Wife have there own code, when sailing close together ” Starboard Honey ” was heard remarkable in this tough no nonsense racing, but in a way very pleasant and I have to say , personally I only heard good things being said , even when Mick 46 was leading just before the weather mark and fell over the scorers chair and lost control , on regaining control he was told politely, he needed to do a turn for hitting a starboard boat !!! ” turn done “It was great to see Stuart Jessop back after a longish layoff, and I think he may have seen how the fleet has moved forward during the summer months, New boy Chris 85 enjoyed, his first outing with the widget, and it was great to see Roger 30 with his K2 and especially getting three wins on the bounce, he certainly know how to take the scores by now,. A lot of skippers results were up and down during the morning and so now is a chance to analyze your performances, Re the Girls Tracy 49 has the edge over Jen 69 , and I am sure that will be a battle that will rage on and on, Jeff 174 had to pack up early because of eye problems, 2nd Place was on countback with Tim 44 nicking it from Mick 46 , but the satisfaction of having bragging rights going into the nationals is with Rob 97, .

We wish all the skippers from Lincoln a great weekend next week and hopefully it will be well reported on both on Facebook and of course the Whats App page. Many thanks to all who helped make this a great morning and helping to get all the kit put away.