Friday DF 95s 2017/18
Sailing of DF 95s takes place each Friday morning and the competitors directly circularised. Occasional reports will be posted here to give a flavour to those who are interested. Those tending to be posted are the reports of the first event of the month which for 2017/18 will count towards a trophy.
Friday March 2nd
There is no evidence that this event took place, there was probably a couple of keen sailors who battled through the snow, but who are keeping quiet to avoid derision being heaped upon them.
Ed.
There is no evidence that this event took place, there was probably a couple of keen sailors who battled through the snow, but who are keeping quiet to avoid derision being heaped upon them.
Ed.
Friday February 2nd
Friday 2nd Feb was a new record for the Friday DF95 fleet with eleven skippers on the water, during the early races anyway. Richard Dolman was the first to strike a problem with his yacht where the winch appeared to have gone 'half strike'. Lakeside wisdom suggested that it had somehow dropped a turn of its line but Richard decided to man the start/finish line and score sheet rather than get his cold fingers down in the depths of his yacht: a very big thank you to you, Richard.
Most of us elected to use 'B' rigs as the North North West wind looked very strong out in the area of the windward mark: those that stuck to 'A' rig had their moments but never managed to get to the front and break away although both Mike Stevens and Alan Smedley had a collection of 3rd and 4th places in the big rig. Overall the sevens had a good day with Mike K. (37) and Geoff Raygada (57) near the front at the finish of most races although both had their 'moments' at or before the start but managed to fight their way through the fleet in most cases.
I will have to draft a bigger score sheet if this trend continues - heaven forbid that we have to start splitting into heats with HMS and all that!
Regards
Mike
Friday 2nd Feb was a new record for the Friday DF95 fleet with eleven skippers on the water, during the early races anyway. Richard Dolman was the first to strike a problem with his yacht where the winch appeared to have gone 'half strike'. Lakeside wisdom suggested that it had somehow dropped a turn of its line but Richard decided to man the start/finish line and score sheet rather than get his cold fingers down in the depths of his yacht: a very big thank you to you, Richard.
Most of us elected to use 'B' rigs as the North North West wind looked very strong out in the area of the windward mark: those that stuck to 'A' rig had their moments but never managed to get to the front and break away although both Mike Stevens and Alan Smedley had a collection of 3rd and 4th places in the big rig. Overall the sevens had a good day with Mike K. (37) and Geoff Raygada (57) near the front at the finish of most races although both had their 'moments' at or before the start but managed to fight their way through the fleet in most cases.
I will have to draft a bigger score sheet if this trend continues - heaven forbid that we have to start splitting into heats with HMS and all that!
Regards
Mike
Friday January 5th
Hi Folks,
The first Friday of the year saw six of us sailing from the 'Spit' into a South Westerly breeze that could be described as brisk - that's an average of what we faced. Mike Kemp started the morning in 'B' suit after Geoff kindly suggested that might be the sail set to use, but then joined the others in 'A' suits - a 'con' was suspected, especially after Geoff won the first race! By race 4 it became more likely that 'B' was actually the way to go and Geoff retired to follow his original recommendation: whilst Rob, Alex, Mike S, and Richard soldiered on with their 'A' rigs. Mike.S eventually withdrew from sailing after, first, a batten separated from the middle of his mainsail then, having taped it back in position, his mainsail developed a tear at the batten point.
The course took us from a start between White 6 and the left hand end of the Spit launching platform, up the lake to White 1, down to Orange 6, on to White 6, back up to White 1, down to White 8 (I think) in the channel, and back across the line to finish. Despite the leader generally getting fairly clear of the 'pack' the finishes were pretty close affairs with boats being close enough for last moment position changes. Geoff summed up the session as "a good morning's sailing, very enjoyable": well said.
Regards,
Mike
Hi Folks,
The first Friday of the year saw six of us sailing from the 'Spit' into a South Westerly breeze that could be described as brisk - that's an average of what we faced. Mike Kemp started the morning in 'B' suit after Geoff kindly suggested that might be the sail set to use, but then joined the others in 'A' suits - a 'con' was suspected, especially after Geoff won the first race! By race 4 it became more likely that 'B' was actually the way to go and Geoff retired to follow his original recommendation: whilst Rob, Alex, Mike S, and Richard soldiered on with their 'A' rigs. Mike.S eventually withdrew from sailing after, first, a batten separated from the middle of his mainsail then, having taped it back in position, his mainsail developed a tear at the batten point.
The course took us from a start between White 6 and the left hand end of the Spit launching platform, up the lake to White 1, down to Orange 6, on to White 6, back up to White 1, down to White 8 (I think) in the channel, and back across the line to finish. Despite the leader generally getting fairly clear of the 'pack' the finishes were pretty close affairs with boats being close enough for last moment position changes. Geoff summed up the session as "a good morning's sailing, very enjoyable": well said.
Regards,
Mike
Friday 1st December DF95 results
Hi Folks,
Wednesday sailor Alan Smedley picked a cold day to come and show off his skills with a DF95. He quickly aclimatised to the 'fresh' Northerly breeze - some would say a freezing North wind - and led the way around a course which started between the two white bouys in the shadow of the western island out to the second orange bouy taken to port and on to the first orange bouy, again to port and down to the western-most orange bouy in the shadow of the island. After rounding that to port we beat our way back to the windward mark, returned to the leeward mark and a nasty little, lopsided, beat to the line.
Rob and Alex started the day in 'B' rig and were joined by Mike Stevens after the first race: they probably had more control than the rest who flogged around in 'A' rig and didn't really lose out to windward but when it came to the downwind legs, with the fluctuating wind strength, they found themselves being overtaken often. Brian Haith arrived ready to go but, sadly, didn't complete the first race and spent the rest of the morning 'adjusting' and trying to get his boat to work properly - the conditions conspired to make this an impossible task. Race eight saw the demise of Alex Robertson's sail winch which brought his morning to end and a wise departure from the proceedings. Alex had been getting good results in his 'B' rig, achieving a couple of second places. It took Mike Kemp quite a while to 'get going' consistently: putting the blame on his new gloves which, while ensuring his fingers stayed warm throughout the morning, made feeling the 'sticks' next to impossible. In reality it is probably an indication that Friday morning competition is getting stiffer.
Overall it was nice to have a wind direction which was hardly influenced by the foliage on the islands - it would would have been so much nicer if the temperature had been at least 10 degrees higher.
Regards,
Mike Kemp
Hi Folks,
Wednesday sailor Alan Smedley picked a cold day to come and show off his skills with a DF95. He quickly aclimatised to the 'fresh' Northerly breeze - some would say a freezing North wind - and led the way around a course which started between the two white bouys in the shadow of the western island out to the second orange bouy taken to port and on to the first orange bouy, again to port and down to the western-most orange bouy in the shadow of the island. After rounding that to port we beat our way back to the windward mark, returned to the leeward mark and a nasty little, lopsided, beat to the line.
Rob and Alex started the day in 'B' rig and were joined by Mike Stevens after the first race: they probably had more control than the rest who flogged around in 'A' rig and didn't really lose out to windward but when it came to the downwind legs, with the fluctuating wind strength, they found themselves being overtaken often. Brian Haith arrived ready to go but, sadly, didn't complete the first race and spent the rest of the morning 'adjusting' and trying to get his boat to work properly - the conditions conspired to make this an impossible task. Race eight saw the demise of Alex Robertson's sail winch which brought his morning to end and a wise departure from the proceedings. Alex had been getting good results in his 'B' rig, achieving a couple of second places. It took Mike Kemp quite a while to 'get going' consistently: putting the blame on his new gloves which, while ensuring his fingers stayed warm throughout the morning, made feeling the 'sticks' next to impossible. In reality it is probably an indication that Friday morning competition is getting stiffer.
Overall it was nice to have a wind direction which was hardly influenced by the foliage on the islands - it would would have been so much nicer if the temperature had been at least 10 degrees higher.
Regards,
Mike Kemp
Friday November 3rd - Commentary and scoring by Mike Kemp
Seven of us gathered this morning and wondered where the wind was, so smooth was a major part of the lake. It turned out that there was more wind than we thought, though as usual it was not always where one's boat was.
The course was laid as a result of a sort of committee decision, using the orange mark at the extreme west end of our water and the two white marks in front of the eastern island starting and finishing between the red and white marks close to the 'gallery'. Two laps gave us a long course resulting only seven races with lots of opportunities to make up, or lose, places during 'quality races'. Occasionally one skipper would 'get lucky' and escape to a seemingly unassailable lead, on fewer occasions that lead was maintained all the way to the finish. One wrong choice out of the leeward mark would see one or more boats creep past on the other side of the course. It was an excellent exercise in light wind sailing which saw nr 37 (Mike Kemp) winning the morning again but closely challenged by Rob Tottey who convincingly won the same number of races but slipped further down the fleet in his other races. All the races saw fairly tightly grouped roundings at both ends of the course with boats trying different ways between the ends.
Seven of us gathered this morning and wondered where the wind was, so smooth was a major part of the lake. It turned out that there was more wind than we thought, though as usual it was not always where one's boat was.
The course was laid as a result of a sort of committee decision, using the orange mark at the extreme west end of our water and the two white marks in front of the eastern island starting and finishing between the red and white marks close to the 'gallery'. Two laps gave us a long course resulting only seven races with lots of opportunities to make up, or lose, places during 'quality races'. Occasionally one skipper would 'get lucky' and escape to a seemingly unassailable lead, on fewer occasions that lead was maintained all the way to the finish. One wrong choice out of the leeward mark would see one or more boats creep past on the other side of the course. It was an excellent exercise in light wind sailing which saw nr 37 (Mike Kemp) winning the morning again but closely challenged by Rob Tottey who convincingly won the same number of races but slipped further down the fleet in his other races. All the races saw fairly tightly grouped roundings at both ends of the course with boats trying different ways between the ends.
