Lincoln Radio Sailing Club

Another great day of racing at Lincoln, 14 skippers arrived with a steady Easterly blowing around 8/10 knots and steady , OOD’s Mick and Rob arrived early and the course was set on the South bank and was to be a perfect beat and run course that would certainly stretch our legs. There had been quite an orgy of boat swapping in the previous two weeks, with some new coming in and second hand boats being snapped up, and so what we had was very able skippers getting their hands on probably a better boat.

Racing got underway at ten sharp with Mick Cooper doing all the donkey work, as his brand spanking new Venti was not quite finished. Race one had two or three OCS , but Tim 134 was fast off the line ans never looked troubled to take the win from Chris 74 and Pete 65 taking third spot, race two had Roger 30 take the win with Pete 65 and Tim 134 keeping up his fine form by getting the third spot, Racing was very close up and down the fleet with some very tight racing, and that is not surprising when you see the pedigree of designs on show, 6 Brit Pops , 5 Venti’s , a very well sailed V 10 by Paul Kelly, a Vision and aa Sedici, By race three we started to see winch problems with Pete’s Venti that would see him retire for the day, Roger took his second win of the morning in race four and Rob 97 started a run of three decent scores , and Tim worst two races of the morning, Mick C 46 started to go aa little better and Kevin E 87 managed a good win, but as always consistency is key, and the top three , especially Tim 134 had this well under control. Jen Hand and Martyn were close at the end, with Jen just having the edge , Colin H with his newish Sedici will I am sure be well pleased for his first time out, and Sam 59 just needs a little more time on the water with his Venti, Adrian I guess the same, it does take time to get used to a new design , One man who will certainly go home with a big smile on his face is Paul Kelly 144 who steered his V10 to a great win in the final race followed home by Chris 74 and Tim 134 the eventual and well deserved winner of the mornings racing, discarding two fourth places. All in all a great mornings racing with a steady breeze, this fleet at Lincoln is getting stronger and stronger and with the National championships coming up over the Easter bank Holiday, what more can we say , except many thanks to all who helped get the props put away , and a very well done to Tim on his win, Brit Pops certainly rule the roost at the moment. We look forward to round eleven, when we know there will be at least one brand new boat on the water , maybe two .

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 any 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 3rd 1st 2nd.

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 3rd.

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

Write up from Dave Rigby , Many thanks

Wow , The forecast looked good all week but the 30 skippers got some of the very best conditions ever for Radio Racing, hey it was 2nd February , it could have been mid summer, The club had visitor’s from far and wide, a 3 hour trip each way for some , and we are pretty sure the drive home had them smiling. The breeze started a little East of South and so the seeding for both fleets was sailed on the South Bank, Darin B was great in the boat and got a course set in no time, Winners of the seedings were Martyn A sailing his Brit Pop and Roger C 30 with his heavily modded Venti. a short delay while our scorer Colin H sorted out the fleets and we were off , still on the South bank, but a change in breeze was imminent, B fleet completed , and we moved to the favored East bank, Race two was won by Robert Mcintosh, followed home by Dorian Crease , third going to Ben Wallace sailing his Rockstar.

The racing was incredibly close and the conditions nigh on perfect and with three long beat’s and runs you had a chance to get back should a minor error happen. Mick C the OOD for the day kept things moving and the superb race team worked well together. and the racing just flowed. The behaviour on the bank was superb after an earlier incident,( just handbags ) and a pattern was beginning to form as it usually does, Class generally show’s , but the battles all thru the fleet were a delight to watch. By 3 pm the breeze fell away slightly and the skill factor really came into play, the wins being well spread and nobody having it all their own way , in fact we manage to do 8 races , that’s actually 16 heats, Robert Mcintosh sailing his V9 came out tops ( the Lincoln lads heard he was good ) he took two wins, Our very own Darin Ballington was second , 1 win, Tim Hand another local in third with 1 win, Dorian C 1 win, Brian S 1 win , and Paul Kelly 1 win and he will be delighted as he was sailing his new V 10 I had heard that some boats had changed hands after the event, this is such an exciting class to race in, so guys very well done to the top three , in what was a very competitive fleet, In fact very well done to all skippers taking part and many who travelled, you are all a credit to this great sport. Also the race team Colin H , Mike W , Richard J, Mick C , Ed W , and Both Jen H and Darin B who did so much behind the scenes as well as on the day . Hope you all have safe journey home and your all welcome at Lincoln any time .

Picture quality not great sorry .