A fantastic morning greeted eleven skippers for round two of this summer series. A gentle breeze from the South enabled a course to be set on the east Bank. It was noted that the water level had again increased due to the constant rain of last week. Keith Holmes was trying out the new A rig + and in actual fact won every race bar none proving that in the lighter conditions more sail area did make a difference, Keith did not feature in the results of this round for that reason and was happy to trial the new rig, which over the coming months the skippers will take a vote on to see if we can introduce this rig in our DF 65 fleet as optional ( at the moment it is banned ) .

On to the racing Alan Newman started well in race one with a win and a second in race two, Phil Harpham was sailing consistantly well as was Gordon Bennett. The breeze was steady all morning and the sun had a glorious warmth to it that helped to keep it all very lighthearted on the bank. Only once or twice did I hear the shouts of “starboard” or “water at the Mark”,  it was so quiet I thought my hearing aids had packed up. Great club racing and in the end Mick C came out on top with Phil H not to far behind , countback had Alan N just pipping Gordon B. I was very pleased to see Ed Whitaker getting the hang of it and actually sailing very well at times,  also young Joe Harpham was finally enjoying some good results.

All in all a great day , many thanks to Keith and Joe for the OOD duties and all the skippers for turning up and having fun, A good turnout but could be a little better.

Great little boats the DF 65 fleet ( Thanks Sue Brown )

Mick admin

Round 7 I.O.M Winter series.

Perfect conditions for the last round of the winter series, a third of the membership came and raced and loved every minute , with temperatures in the low 20’s  and a warm steady  Southerly breeze everybody was happy, OOD’s Darin and Allan set a course along the East bank and with three long beats and two runs there was plenty of time  and opportunity for place changes in the wind shifts and you needed to be on your toes to take advantage.

The usual suspects garnered mostly the first three places, But for once this was not all about the superstars, the racing here was about Mr ordinary        ( no disrespect ) Forget about B/P’s and V9’s ad flash boats coting a few bob , this was about Evos the AB4’s and the Lintels, with odd gadget thrown in and Young Roger Bowtle with his skiff like racer, that’s where the battles were won and lost. The near perfect conditions made for some real battles between these guys and if I picked out a stand out star, well they all were. Just look at the results and see for yourself, If you had been there you would have loved it . I took a few pictures on the day and will try and get them uploaded as soon as possible. Many thanks to the OOD’s and also many thanks to ED and Allan who came along to do the finishing line.

A few tips from the Master about rig tune before racing

Lintel and AB4 keeping the B/P’s honest

Rogers latest Boat looking good

Offwind racing to wing or not to wing ????

Both boats still on starboard , can 39 bear away round the mark or what ?????

Not all about radio racing at Scotland Farm , it’s lambing time again .

will try to publish more pics soon

What a cracking day at Scotland farm , not a great turnout but quality was the name of the game. The wind blew strong from the south west giving a first class beat up the east bank , C suits were in favour and by the end of racing a D suit would not have been out of order. Chris E started well taking a chance on B suit it all looked bad until the final beat when the wind went light and Chris surged ahead to take the win, roles reversed in race two when the wind stayed strong for all 5 legs and Mick Chamberlain took the gun. Breakages then started to take there toll and Jen hand took the honours in race three. Mick Cooper first time out with his new TNT  had a few teethers as would be expected but got stronger as the morning wore on finishing the day with a third place, Phil H was also going well in the breeze posting some good results. PLEASE NOTE . The results have now been changed as there was some debate on Sunday evening about boats retiring or not retiring etc etc . Say no more . This has changed the results and the new results can be seen below. Well done to Chris and also well done to Jen hand.

Many thanks to Bob Geary and Mick Cooper for the OOD duties . Only one round left on the 9th April and it will be all to play for that’s for sure

Jen Hand at speed , she now has a new boat diff colour

Very light drifty conditions met the skippers with nice sunshine , I would like to say force one, but I would be lying, then the sun went in and it was quite cold, so starting with the I.O.M fleet,  Chris Elliott drifted a little quicker than the rest and had a clean sweep well done  Chris,

the Df 95 twosome also drifted around chatting most of the way and Mick C took 5 out of 6 races , we raced on the South Bank and many thanks must go to Alan Newman who came all the way from near Peterbourough to do the OOD job , Thanks also to Chris for keeping us warm with ginger cake at half time.

While the racing was a little slow , we had the chance to welcome another new member to the club brought along by Graham K , his name is Roger, and he is very keen to get started, I am sure we shall see a lot more of both of them this year as they can sort out a little car share from the Boston area .

Mick admin