Good turnout at Lincoln despite conditions, that put many off We also have two write ups from two top skippers who were competing so enjoy. results and a couple of piccys below

Seven brave skippers were greeted with rain and plenty of wind for round 4 of the DF 65 winter series.

Adrian C assisted by Roger B set a course up the East bank with a very long beat and a wide splitter gate at the end of the run. Most of the fleet opted for the B rig which would prove to be a handful at times with tacking quite tricky .

Dave Rigby 57 was fastest out of the blocks taking race one from Jen 69 and Pete 65. These three would have extremely close racing for the majority of the day. Pete quickly got into his stride taking the next two races from Dave with Jen staying in touch.

Mike Williams 76 found a great way up to beat in race three and hung on to take the win from Pete.

Race five saw Jen find the turbo button to taking the win from Dave before a welcome break was called. A few changed down to C rig during the break following an increase in wind strength. Placings were wide open at this stage with all to play for after coffee.

The wind freshened and unfortunately this was the start of Pete’s problems. His C Rig jib pivot was in the wrong place forcing a retirement. Jen carried on where she left of winning race 6 from Dave and Mike. The C rigs were now very competitive certainly downwind where the B rig boats were examining their rudders. Pete changed back to B rig joining the fun downwind. Jen and Dave traded wins with and Roger close behind. Pete got water in his electrics ending his day leaving Jem and Dave to fight it out for the win. Roger was now going very well and was in the mix in each race. Going into the last race all was even following Dave’s win in race 10 so all to play for in the final race.

Jen and Roger 74 had good starts and rounded the windward mark clear of Dave and Mike. A very tricky downwind leg left the positions unchanged and set up a very interesting last beat.

Roger headed to the middle to the lake closely followed by Jen. Dave stayed closed to the bank and closed on Jen. As the wind increased Jen struggled to tack and opted to Jibe round. Dave found a lull and duly tacked giving him a slight advantage over Jen and Roger. The last half of the beat was very tense with Dave keeping Jen covered to take the win and Roger coming a well-deserved third.

Considering how strong the wind was racing was very close and of a great standard.

Overall a great days racing sailed in a brilliant sporting manner. It’s a real shame we lost Pete for the last two races, well done to everyone. From Dave Rigby 57 the winner on the day

The forecast suggested a C rig day, however on arrival Roger 74 was sporting the C but a B seemed to be to be the more likely rig as the gusts were Infrequent and you either had the luck or not to be caught downwind. The B rigs led the first few races with Jen, Dave and Pete swopping places as getting tacks in  at times was a challenge and you could be parked for some time if you got it wrong. We were racing the East Bank with a long beat and run followed by a half beat to the finish, races took about 14 to 15 minutes with Adrian keeping  the races running. After coffee Pete W tried the C rig, first time on and incorrectly rigged, outcome , DNF. Jen was putting some bullets together with Dave coming in close with some very close finishing,  Pete W went back to a B rig however water had got in into the boat somehow and after a good pint of emptying the receiver had failed, waterlogged end of racing for him. Jen and Dave shared the last few race bullets with Dave securing the overall. A challenging day with a strong breeze a constant fine drizzle but racing competitive as normal. Thanks to Adrian and Roger for sorting the racing. The car horn finishing gun was a nice touch, whether that was just to keep Adrian dry!!. From Pete Walters 65

Very very well done to Roger Bowtle and Adrian Cripps on an excellent job dealing with OOD duties especially finishing sat in car and using car horn as finishing whistle !!!!! and windscreen wipers keeping screen clear, brilliant , Also interesting was Dave and Jen both had 4 win apiece, racing is very competitive, and everybody is upping their game . Mick C pictures below from Peter’s camera phone.

Last Sunday saw 27 IOM skippers gather together at Scotland farm the home of Lincoln RSC for the final round of this winters Midland District series, it was so good to be able to complete a series as planned after losing lots of events over the past two years.

The predicted weather forecast was for a good second suit blow from the southwest, but with a high likelihood of rain throughout the day. I have not been up to the Lincoln club for around five years, and it was good to see a lot of old faces and several new ones. The club had done a huge amount of preparation for the event what with the cutting of weed and grass around the lake sides, refreshing the piers and greatly reducing the effect of the moles in the banks.

At booking in all skippers were offered a bacon butty and a brew to get them going. Once I had said my hello’s to the race committee, I was introduced to the PRO for the day Dave Geldard, we went over the basics of running a two heat race and details of the intended race course. The heat board was duly updated, and the course board drawn out. This was going on as the skippers were preparing their boats and rigging their second suit, the gusts towards the bottom of the lake were definitely too strong for anything bigger and to remain in control.

Jackie and Ed were down for the scoring, and I took on the task of the heat board, this left two volunteers for the rescue boat duty and two for scoring the finishing positions, and not to mention the two ladies (Jan & Ann) in the galley cooking the food and keeping the water boiler topped up for the free tea & coffee. Then there was Mick Chamberlain & Jen Hand having been involved in the event preparation. All in all, a great effort from the host club.

Dave Geldard, called the skippers together at 09:45 for the initial briefing, welcoming everyone to the club and once he had explained the two-heat system for the benefit of everyone he then described the course. The control area was down the lakeside where we park the cars, and the start line was almost at the bottom of this side, plenty wide enough for the 16 boats to start, however, to get a really good beat up the course the fleet had to sail up the lake parallel with the control bank, then do a starboard rounding to a spreader mark and then all the way back down the lake to a gate. The beat back up brought the boats almost up to the top corner by the club house but kept sensibly far enough out so the wind shadow was not a major factor, then back down wind to the gate and finally a beat back up to the windward mark and its spreader for the finish line.

Darin had come up with a good suggestion before the first race in so much as he thought that it would be a good idea to have the boat crew on the water near the start line ready to move the line should it need a little more bias. The rescue boat was stationed up at the top of the lake initially and it would have taken some time to get back to the start area, this option of being on the water greatly reduces the possible wasted time in resetting the line.

The first seeding heat was away on time with the home club skippers Mick Chamberlain & Chris Elliott winning the first two heats. A little bit of local knowledge there obviously. With a very short delay to update the heat board we were underway with race 2 heat B. The wind appeared to be fairly constant in strength but there were some interesting shifts to play with that allowed you to lose or gain big depending on what side of it you were on at the time. Race 2 saw another local win this time it was Rob Wilson closely followed by the most consistent skippers namely Chris Harris & Darin Ballington. Mention should also go to Dorian Crease one of our travelling skippers from Two Islands RYC who placed fourth.

Race three saw further home success with David Rigby and his Vision holding out Colin Walton for the win.

My viewpoint was up near the clubhouse looking down the lake between the windward marks towards the leeward gate at the bottom of the lake, this allowed me to get a different perspective on the boats beating to windward, in race three Colin Walton came up towards the windward mark on a long port tack which pushed his course out into the middle of the lake, whilst David RIgby came more up the centre. Initially Colin was definitely pulling away from the fleet but then had to tack onto starboard to come back towards the windward mark, whilst he was high on the mark, he was not quiet as fast as the boats in the centre at the windward mark and he had to give best to David as they tacked over. The downwind run was very close and on the final beat back Colin again favoured the centre of the lake, it was very tight at the line, but David RIgby shaded it.

Dave Geldard called a lunch break at 12:20 after race 4B saying that we would recommence at 12:50. The skippers then topped up their cups and collected their Lincolnshire sausage burgers, and a few of us sat on the chairs provided under the gazebo to eat whilst we started to see the rain make an appearance.

Racing commenced on time, but the start was delayed slightly as two boats had become entangled during the pre-start and they needed the services of the rescue boat, by the time the boat got to them they were well down wind and away from the course, so the race was started without them. It was then that Chris Harris started to make a push for the event win with first places in both race 4 and race 5. This was also the time where Chris Cook had to retire with a boat that needed a little work.

I was getting a bit cold and wet at this stage so handed the heat boat reigns over to Jackie and said my goodbyes to everyone and set out for home. Looking at the scoresheet the PRO managed to get 7 races completed in the allotted time, which was good going, and so on behalf of the skippers I would like to say thank you to all the members of Lincoln RSC for hosting the event, and I very much hope that you have dried off and had a few minutes to put your feet up. There was a lot of walking for everyone today. Gordon Sears Webmaster Midlands

Many thanks to Gordon for the write up, and of course to Allan for taking some great pictures, My take on things, were it was a fantastic day of sailing in brisk conditions , all sailed in a great spirit, The Bacon and the Sausage burghers ran out and were a big hit with everyone who had one. My thanks and it cannot be enough is to all the helpers who made this event a big hit . Mick Chamberlain Commodore LRSC

What a day!  Believe it started with A rigs, then B’s and finally C’s.  At times there were white horses and serious waves!  

C rigged boats heeling 80degs and unable to either tack or gybe!  

Day started with 10 boats but at the end down to 3/4 boats due to skippers not having small enough rigs for the conditions.

A bit of rain, a bit of sun, mainly cloud and brass monkeys in the wind.

Everyone who turned up to sail today were utter heros!

It could be very interesting next week at the open if we get a repeat of these conditions!

Cheers, Peter, Hellen

Well done everybody looks like I missed a cracking day , Congrats to Pete W for the win

  Pics all from Alan E great stuff 40 knots i am told

Wow after the gales of Saturday In which some mad nutter sailed there boats at the farm with C rigs !!!! we had a very blissful start, in fact so blissful there was only a dogs breath for the first race, Which was won by Mick C 46 , Pete got the second spot, And Dave Rigby romped home with third, For race two and beyond we all moved to the East bank where, correct me if I am wrong the wind really filled in and we got a whole knot of wind, that is of course after we had had our early coffee break, It really was a good fleet out 14 skippers and there was a lot of helpful tuning on the bank , to the less experienced skippers, Mike W 76 winch packed up I hear on race 5 , just when we were getting 3/4 knots ,, Roger B 74 was having a much better day, and was enjoying himself. Pete W 65 was playing a very consistent game with three second places before his bullet in race 4 , but then Mick C 46 bounced back as the breeze fill in a bit with two bullets in races 5 and 6 giving him three race wins in all ( he told me to tell you that ) Pete W 65 and Keith managed two each , with Mike W 76 claiming the other win. The breeze had started to fill in and there was some great races. There was an incident in one of the races, between two skippers, and although the results will stand the issue I hope will be sorted over the next couple of weeks so we all know what may be acceptable for club racing, So no need to worry your little heads at this time. .

So Many thanks to the Race team and Roger B for organising the event so well in trying conditions , and of course well done to the green machine of Pete Walters, who took the win on the day that was held in the very best spirit that you can all be proud of , Keep your eye open for the accumulative results coming soon .