Thirteen skippers turned up on a bright and blustery morning for the opening round of the DF95 summer series- and what a cracking days racing it turned out to be. The moderate gusty south-westerly made life easy for the race team -Kevin E and Ron A- who set a course off the east bank.

A long beat towards the clubhouse in a single leg to a windward/spreader mark, followed by a downwind run to a leeward gate in the northeast corner of the lake, and then a second beat to the finish line between the windward and spreader marks. The blustery conditions saw all skippers opting for B rigs for the day. Great to see both Alan N (438) and Mike W (76) back out on the water

Racing got underway shortly after 10 am, with Rob W (97) taking the honours in the first race, closely followed by Mike H (22) in second. Wins in the next four races before the tea break were shared by Paul Kelly (19), Jen H (69), Mike H (22) and Martyn A (877) showing there was no single skipper dominating the results.

Plenty of cake was on offer at the tea break, with two skippers, Colin H and Kevin E both celebrating birthdays during the previous week. Colin H came out flying after the tea break, taking wins in races 6, 7 and 9. Mike H kept up his strong form with victories in races 8 and 11 while Kevin E claimed race 10.
Both Mick C (46) and Malcolm P (01) experienced boat or electrical problems but hopefully they will be resolved for the next round.

Seven different skippers secured race wins on the day, with the points reflecting just how close the competition was and how hard fought the battles were throughout the fleet.

Congratulations to Martyn A, winner on the day with 22 points (1 win and 5 seconds), closely followed by Mike H second on 26 points (3 wins and 1 second) and Paul K very close behind in third on 26 points (1 win and 2 seconds).

All in all, it was a great day’s racing- close competition and good sportsmanship throughout.
The race team is grateful to everyone who helped pack away the equipment.

Were met by challenging wind directions constantly swinging through 90 plus degrees, so to overcome this situation Adrian set up two courses A & B with three options for each windward leg, the other challenge was whether our eye sight could cope with the distance of the windward marks towards the level crossing. All starts were very clean and towards the end of the morning several boats were pushing the line as starts being pressed hard to gain lead position.
 Some really close racing, just when you thought you new the outcome of the race suddenly a change in fortune saw several extremely close finishes , the results don’t do justice to the competitive nature of the sailing today.
Dave struggled with setting the boat up to get the most out of it but by the end of the day was sailing much closer to the rest of the fleet well done Dave, It was nice to see everyone enjoying their sailing consistency was definitely key today as shown by the results so close today well done to all .

Report by Adrian.

Here is the league table with two rounds to go:

Well, what a day for a bit of a float around, it’s been windy for what seems like weeks but upon my arrival down at Scotland Farm was met by a millpond and no wind. By 9.00 and only myself and Mike W, your Assistant Race Officer was there (who by the way had everything ready to go sailing, many thanks from Sam) it looked unlikely we would have any racing this weekend. However, a few die-hard sailors slowly started to arrive and eventually we numbered eight hardy souls, also a big thanks must also go to Paul who moved enough marks around for me on both the East and South banks to give us enough courses to pick from as the wind was going around in circles.

So, the first race on the South Bank got off to a good start on a beat, but this then went round and turned into a run, a reach and a beat again which seemed to set the tone for all races during the day. As positions changed often with the wind coming from multiple directions the mood down the lake was very good-natured with much laughter at each other’s gains and losses through-out the day. Five races were completed on this bank, before a bit of a respite from the sun and refreshments were required by all competitors.

Upon restarting the racing for the day, the option to race on the East Bank was taken for the remaining six races of the day with exactly the same shifts and holes in the breeze meaning all competitors were blessed with results of varying degrees of success or despair. This Snakes and Ladders sort of racing meant that the results/scores were some of the closest seen, with our resident score master Colin Helliwell quoting that (Don’t remember a day being packed together so tightly on points, doesn’t stop me being peed off with 7^th though).

So, to re-cap the day as a whole look at the results to see how close the points were and to see how varied everybody’s results were without a race-by-race commentary, and a final thanks to all the help I received and for all competitors good humor and sportsmanship during  the day.

Report by Sam Parker

Here are is the DF95 league table after this event:

This turned out to be a very tricky day. Race officer Dave R arrived early and set a course on the South Bank. The wind gods gave us adequate wind unfortunately it was of poor quality, massive shifts, holes and heavy gusts gave very trying conditions for the 12strong fleet. Dave did some final tweaking of the course to try and remove ant bias on the beat.

The fleet appeared to be intact so we started early but this turned into a practice race as more boats arrived prior to the advertised start time.

Paul Kelly made the most of the trying conditions to take the first race closely followed by Pete Walters. Race two saw the start of the domination by Pete W taking the next four wins followed with a 3^rd 1^st 2^nd.

There was close racing throughout the fleet with the conditions proving that any lead was not secure

With boats being becalmed one minute then overpowered the next. Race 9 saw Pete sustain damage and a breakage costing him significant speed and ruling him out of race 10.

Richard Jutsum sailed very consistently to take second with Kevin Evison 3^rd.

Nearly everyone had their moments with good results and all must be congratulated for such close racing in very shifty difficult conditions. The behavior on the bank was superb and hopefully everyone enjoyed the morning in a sadistic kind of way.

Many thanks for the help packing everything away and congratulations to the podium finishers in very tricky conditions

Dave Rigby