Report from DF 95 Sunday 29th. from Richard Jutsum .

The last race of 2024 closed with an excellent morning of sun, sailing and seasonal greetings. I arrived early to find Colin was desperate to get onto Santa’s good list for next year as he had arrived early and most of the Prep was done.  Shortly after our very own Santa arrived disguised as Pete, no reindeer they were resting.  He jumped in the boat and set a course down the east bank with a steady breeze although a little shifty at times. A rig was the order of the day. By 0915 a course was set and our numbers had grown enough to run a pantomime.  This year it was Snow White (played by Jen) and the 7 dwarfs some of us not so little.

Sailing started early, I decided to let everyone get a good start and do a couple of turns for hitting the start bouy and then Kev as he tacked off the bank.  The first race was noted by Snow White being taken out by Dwarf Bashy played by Kevin who was caught out by a gust driving his boat on to Jens locking them together.  Snow White was rescued by Prince Charming played by Martyn who waded in when the boats hit the north bank.  

The next couple of races were very close with the lead changing constantly as well as close racing.  Penalty turns were done without prompting and the banter was good especially between Snow White and Prince Charming who had several races only separated by an apple on the finish line.  Coffee and a nice mince pie provided by dwarf Dave set us up for a further six races.  Santa obviously want to sleep as he kept leading the way although Martyn and Snowman Sam kept him honest although rumour has it Pete was illegally using Fairy dust on his boat.

At the end of the morning we all went away singing Hi Ho Hi Ho but Pete was singing the loudest (Not in tune though). I was hoping for rain as Santa brought me a nice coat and in the end the sun just shined.

This is the end of my first full year sailing and thank you to everyone at the Club, race officer is so easy when we all work together.  The Wednesday Club should all have been on the good list along with Mick for the best news letters. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year with wind in your sails.

Series results so far are up or will be in a mo .

Weather forecast told us it was going to be windy, it to be fair was OK , at least the rain kept away, Jen and the gang got stuff sorted out and we had a great windward leeward course along the favored East bank, 8 skipper’s on the start line, and off to a flyer was Mick C 46 on a B rig which I believe all but two skippers opted for, Martyn 66 got the second spot and Pete 65 with the A rig managed to get round the course and took third spot. We had three non finishers in the first race and one of them was the other Brave A rig starter. But buoyed by his decent position in the first race Pete opted to stick with the larger rig, a bit risky especially tacking, Mick stormed away on the second race but this time it was Sam 59 in close contention and they took the first two places followed home by Jen 69. Pete I think then realised the A rig was not the best option and quickly changed down to B and just made the start. The racing was close and it was a very good beat, the water was a little lumpy and you needed to pick your spot to tack, but once round the weather mark followed by the wing , sheets out and you were flying. Martyn took his first bullet with Mick 2nd and Sam sailing some very good races took the 3rd , Pete had not, to be fair had time to fine tune his B rig and came in in 4th, but hey look out cos we all know Pete is a slow starter.

Sure enough Pete then took the next two bullets, with Mick in his wake and Martyn picking up the bits, We had lost Dave R 180 from race three with a broken winch, and after race 5 we lost Mick for reasons only really known to him, with three 2nds and two first’s he was in a good position but hey ho. The breeze was a bit up and down for the last 5 races , I understand the sun came out and the breeze eased. the wins were shared but Martyn seemed to have the best setup , Jen 69 took a bullet in race 9 and it was pleasing that every body except Mick and Dave stayed the course. Richard J699 and Dave C 60 had their personal battles with Dave just coming out on top with 46 points, all in all a good morning’s racing for maybe the last one of 2024 ,(DF 95 on the 29th Dec ) many congratulations on the win albeit on countback from Pete .( They all count ) Many thanks to all who put the gear away ,

Merry Christmas everybody

Ok ,depths of winter and you would be surprised to get a few out , but let me tell you we had a fantastic entry , 20 skippers showed up including 4 visitors, which was exceptional, OOD’s Martin and Jen quickly got the course sorted with a bit of help on our favorite East bank , and with the breeze varying in strength from 30% to at times 90% of top rig, it was always going to be a great day of racing. 20 on the line and it was pretty congested, Micky boy 46 got the start he wanted in the first race and led the fleet from the start and took the first win with his Venti, Chris 74 taking second ” B Pop “and Dorian, 60 ” B Pop” one of our visitors took third spot. A few minutes sorting rigs to enhance the tune and we were of again, and this time Chris 74 took the win from Timmy 134 ” B P and Dorian 60 taking a win each, Dorian by the way was racing a Brit Pop, but I do apologise for not knowing our other visitors designs ” sorry ” what I do know is our very own Paul Kelly 98 ,who has only recently come into radio sailing from Dingy’s was sailing a borrowed Pikanto many thanks DB , and I am sure he enjoyed himself and we will certainly see more from Paul in future races at the club. Pete W 65 generally starts slowly but by race 4 was knocking on the door with a second place, and followed through with a couple of bullets in races 5 and 6. Lunch was had around races 8/9 a strict 35 minutes, as everybody I am sure was caught up with the excitement of the racing, it really was great conditions. Towards the end Pete took 4 bullets out of the remaining 6 races to underline his dominance, with Dorian and Timmy finishing on the podium. One or two bowed out early in the piece either with boat problems or rig failure’s but leaving a very strong fleet, Dusk was approaching as we did the last couple of races which took us right up to the 3pm deadline , For the record Pete won 7 races Dorian won 4 races Timmy won 2 races Micky boy, Chris ,and Rob, won 1 each , 16 great races, Many thanks to all , especially our visitors who will hope will come again , and many thanks to all for putting the gear away, very difficult with so many to give all a mention but you were all very much appreciated. I am sure you like me, enjoyed the day, we shall be having another extended hours day in January, just keep your eye on the calendar and MYA downwind .

Finally congratulations to Pete and the rest of the podium boys.

If I told you all it was awful you would all say ” yes not surprised ” The weather forecast was as bleak as it has ever been let me tell you , but I arrived and Tim and Roger our OOD’s for the day were both there , dingy launched ready to move the buoys, sign out flags up, wow I am thinking if no body else turns up we can cancel and go home to a roaring fire , but hey within 20 minutes we had 8 eager beavers rigging their boats in the wind ( yes it was friggin windy and the rain was horizontal ) so 9 of us Roger was not sailing, Even the Landlady turned up, I had already received messages from a few pussies, Not coming today etc etc, But hey what I am about to tell you is we had 9 fantastic races , we helped repair and rerig a couple of boats , big joint effort and we all raced to the end.

Timmy as he is fondly called down under was the master of the conditions, and won four of the 9races The old man Micky boy tried to keep him honest and had a couple of wins, Colin Helliwell sailed brilliantly and won a couple and took the final race of the morning and you could see the pleasure emanating from his face after that one , and the other win was taken by Kevin, The morning started on C rigs except for Colin Toll who only had a B rig but sailed very well with it, we could have probably gone to B rigs around midday when the breeze moderated , but we didn’t, The races were all fantastic I kid you not, If we were in dingy’s we would all have been swimming that’s for sure, just goes to show turn up and take what comes and sometimes you could well be surprised and we were .

Well done Timmy and well done to all for showing up and having a go it really was worth every minute.

Thanks also to everybody for putting all the gear away .