Lincoln hosted round 2 at Scotland farm on what was to be a testing day for both skipper and rigs. Briefing at 0945 had most skippers in B rigs but this was not to last as the wind steadily increased and at a guess was around 25 knots by 11 am forcing everybody to dig out little used C suits . Chris Elliott and the team provided a near perfect beat along the East bank , with one and a half laps for the seeding races and then two and a half laps for the rest of the day. each heat was taking around ten Minutes and a good flow was maintained to get as many races as possible in the now extreme conditions.

Bacon Butties and tea and coffee greeted the competitors on arrival in the gazebo on the South bank . It was lucky this was done early in the piece when the wind was only around 16 knots , as at 1130 the Gazebo folded big style in the strong gusts and was eventually dismantled by a couple of the crew whilst racing continued. Early pace was set By Don Charlesworth GBR 77 with his bright red New ish Britpop wining his seeding race and the first A fleet race, unfortunately for some reason the wheels then fell off for Don , also having major problems was Dave Burke GBR 30 with his sheets coming off the winch, calm was needed and Dave missed two races sorting it out and then came back with a vengeance winning the next three races and putting John Tushinghams GBR 51  lead in doubt, John did bounce back winning the last two and taking the honors for the day with 10 points from 8 races a very creditable performance, Dave Burke sailing for the Lincoln club got 2nd with Don in 3rd. The Lincoln club had some very good results with Neil Coleman in 7th and Phil Harpham in a borrowed boat came in 11th , Best lady was Liz Tushingham in 12th. I am sure lots of skippers will analyze the race results and pin point where they could have done better, The conditions were extreme,  and congratulations must be given to all who sailed. A massive vote of thanks to all the helpers who made this event possible,,  and the many who also sailed and helped from not just Lincoln , they are the true hero’s and they know who they are . I have some pictures that I will try to put on via Flickr so bear with me also the results are below.

more photos are here I hope

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126572090@N02/

Thanks to all the helpers and competitors who made a great day of it ,,,,,,  well done

COMING UP ON THE 12TH APRIL at SCOTLAND FARM 

To enter either use the Midland District Website  or email full details including sail number to Jenny Hand,       please copy and paste   clive@handfamily.plus.com     to email your entry in good time . Entries  will close on Thursday 16th April at 1800 hours,  to allow the host club some time .

The usual Scotland farm welcome will await you with Bacon Butties early on ( brown sauce optional),,            and tea & coffee till lunch time.   A good turnout is expected so get there early for the best parking.                 The lake is looking its best and this is a good opportunity to come and sail at the venue for the UK, I.O.M National Championships which will be held latter in the year at the end of August.

The recent Maltese Nationals

Graham Allen (mdsec) pointed out that the correct way to deal with ties is by the countback method.( see comments to post)  He also explained how to get the HMS scoring system to sort it all out. I have done this and a revised scoresheet is below.

The eagle eyed amongst you will also have noticed that I got the date wrong – it was the 29th on Sunday not the 27th.

The final round of this series broke the mould. We had wind! At least to begin with and it was heavily loaded with rain. Both wind and rain increased steadily up to around mid-day then both died away to nothing. Back to normal! Racing was very tight with, as the results show, 4 boats with the same score for 3rd place.

Summer Series starts on 26th April