Forecast was for light winds, bit of an exaggeration, but what’s new since the Michael Fish Fiasco way back when, a whisper of wind more like, but enough to worry some skippers, or should I say lightweights who may have got blown into the lake. We welcomed Jon Lee to our sailing today and hopefully he will become a full time member, it was his first time sailing a DF 95 but showed enough that he will soon get the hang of it. Tim took over duties from Cooperman who managed to pick up Covid man on his recent trip to Italy, all chipped in and helped out and a course was laid , while some of us cleared the remnants of green stuff from the edges, Mick C 46 got of to a great start and drifted to the weather mark first and was not caught, The race was really on Colin H 301 and Kevin E 02 who were virtually equal top in the series, Tim H then put a string of good results together with I may add his new DF 95, he will be a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming Winter series, Richard J 699 was having a decent day, which taught most of us a thing or two about light airs sailing, at the end of the morning Tim H 10 took the top spot, and Micky Boy took second, the pressure, told on Kevin and Colin, and they will need to up their game, to be a threat in the Winter series , there could well be some tuning tips and advice some Wednesdays, who knows . A good morning with pleasant banter on the bank as always.

Well Done Tim , and also well done to all for the help in getting it all sorted.

A beautiful warm summers day greeted nine keen skipper’s for the penultimate round of this exciting summer series, some skippers were obviously burnt out by last weeks National championship’s in Fleetwood, but not all . Mick C 46 and Greg C 21 were down early to get the bits and pieces out and sorted, setting it up on the predicted East bank. Good to see skippers picking up a rake before hand and especially to Roger C 30 who had done a fair bit of clearing the evening before, It certainly does pay dividends in the long run, Racing started on Time with skippers agreeing to take turns watching the start line, a very long 3 beats and two runs was the order of the day, and straight out of the blocks was Roger C 30 taking the first Bullet, in second place was young Martyn A 60 with an immaculate TS2 a very much older design from way back when, see photo below, Third was another older design, the Pikanto of Kevin E ,20. Just goes to show the older designs, can still cut it .

The breeze being very light and from the South was a little fluky but gave for some exciting races, Mick C 46 with his Venti, after a poor start in the first race slipped into the gear he had at the Nationals, and seemed to have great boat speed, but in race three was tested with the TS2 of Martyn taking the top spot, Dave R 57 was always there or there abouts, with some consistent results, Peter C 110 also sailed well and took the win in the last race, Chris V 85 was sailing the Mk 2 Widget for the first time in anger, and now he has the manual on tuning and setting I am sure you will see his results improve, Kevin E 20 started well and not quite sure why he faded, lets hope we can help him get the best from this boat before he takes charge of a new boat in a couple months time, Colin H 54 knows his problem and is just biding his time, Greg C 21 had a couple of great flourishes, lets hope this is a sigh of future improvement, because as we all know time on the water is paramount if we want to improve our racing .

The results are below Mick C 46 eight points from 8 races so can have no complaints .

Many thanks to all who helped get all the gear away and packed up early, I don’t think weed was mentioned and for those that were around for the 2015 Nationals that our club hosted , ” this is a very different Lake to sail on.

Well done Micky Boy

5 Lincoln Radio Sailing Club Members went to Race in the 2023 I.O.M National Championships. This is at the start and they are all smiling, !!

Day 1 report from John Taylor sail number 28

A light north easterly breeze greeted the 62 strong fleet for the first day of this event. The race team made good use of the available water setting a long course. The format for racing was a 4 fleet system with 6 places up for promotion and relegation.

Early pacers came from Andrea Roberts, Peter Walters, Tony Edwards and Craig Richards who all won their seeding races. However, it is great to see some of the talented skippers who have travelled from Europe competing, Kristina Jakelic (51) from Croatia, pictured with her Britpop, she is one of only two females to enter the championship this year.

In the afternoon session racing had to be paused due to the change in wind direction. After approximately an hour the wind settled to a north westerly breeze and the seeding round was finally completed.

Later in the day it was first class sailing as the wind increased to a hard top suit breeze. Rob Walsh continues to keep his momentum by scoring well, achieving a number of 1st place results over the day.

As for me, I started well achieving B-Fleet after my seeding race, yet in the next 2 rounds I struggled to find space between 20 IOMs at the start line, relegation followed, then worse was to come as another boat came out of a collision without an attached backstay. Although, I was not involved my boat was in close proximity, as I tacked off the bank the loose backstay somehow caught on my shrouds and pull me to the other yacht.

As a result, both boats wrapped themselves around each other, frustrated I retired with a damaged jib. So we hope for a better day tomorrow.

Day 2 report , sorry its missing But One of the Lincoln Skippers excelled and ended up after day 2 in 7th position , as you can see , he was 27th .

Day 3 & Results Report.

The weather was more of the same on this final day. Racing was rescheduled
to 3 fleets, which means 22 boats at the start line, that meant finding room
will come at a premium.

Craig Richards continues to ‘rack up’ some decent scores but closely
followed by Rob Walsh. He himself is keeping the competition alive as others
start to fall further behind.

As for me, John Taylor 28 , it is back to the drawing board which is
disheartening and frustrating.

In the final round of racing B and A-Fleet skippers changed to top rig and
we were treated to a finale. In the end…. with Darin Ballington winning the
final race and Mick Chamberlain coming home in third position.

Congratulations to Craig Richard’s (Britpop) a well deserved result in a
very high class quality fleet. Craig came out on top just 1 point ahead of 2nd
place Rob Walsh (Britpop). In 3rd place was Chris Harris (Britpop). My thanks
goes to Fleetwood Club, Derek Priestley and his Race Team, as well as the
ladies in the canteen, who looked after everyone at the lakeside

At the end of the day Darin Ballington ended top Lincoln skipper in 8th
place, but hats off to all Lincoln skippers for a great achievement, Mick
Chamberlain ended in 10th,, Rob Wilson 15th , Pete Walters 20th , and Tim Hand
34th , a fantastic effort .

 

 

Quote from ,Darin Ballington

Great experience for everyone, whether you are a squadron leader or tail end
Charlie there is fun to be had, with plenty of banter, lots of help and we all
come away with a new buddy to check in on next time. It’s not for all, but
we’ll worth entering at least once, you never know you might like it…

Quote from Tim Hand

I would just like to thank every Lincoln member that attended this years,
IOM national .
We had some fantastic results from club members and some not so good ME 😂😂.
But what a great weekend, few beers, food and laughter. Well done Lincoln.

Quote from Mick Chamberlain

If you have raced dingy’s ,keelboats, whatever , this Radio racing could be
your next move, the adrenaline on the start line, in these events will keep you
hooked , whatever your age .

Come and give Lincoln a try .

With the big boys away doing well at the IOM Nationals only 7 boats at this weekend’s club event, although one was a DF 95 and we noticed the slight difference in size and one boat had issues before it hit the water.  Through team work the issue was found to be a bad battery sending the winch servo haywire.  I tried to do most to the things the OOD does and with the help of Mike Williams everything was in the right place except the wind.  I probably missed a few things and the safety brief was a little short although with Mick C at the nationals most of the danger of someone falling in had gone.  Dave Rigby and myself moved a few buoys and set a course down the club house bank I’m sure it has a name but I’m still struggling with Port and Starboard. ( it is the South Bank )

It was apparent that there was a fair amount of weed sub surface, and the first few races pit stops were made to remove the dreaded weed but I think we managed to share it between us. As the wind changed we moved the course to the East bank for one race as the weed was far worse and the wind changed back.  Poor Chris Vincent making his first appearance in a DF65 had a really good start and was well ahead with the finishing line in sight only to catch the dreaded weed which stopped him in the water.  As the day went on the wind was a little stronger and the last few races were a lot closer with several being decided in the last few meters.  In all 11 races completed just before the heavens opened so we all stayed dry.  A good natured day with only a couple of penalty turns and as it should be everyone helping. 

Report by Richard Jutsum

Just a quick Note Dave Rigby snatches it from Martyn Aspinall on countback, and although weed has been mentioned, it is pleasing to see that it has not affected the final result. The last round of this series is on the 24th September.