5 Skippers met at the Fort for today’s DF65 club racing. With a WSW to westerly wind blowing anywhere between 12 knots and 30+ knots. Most skippers selected a B rig, with Dave opting for C.
The session started with some boat handling practice and practice starts, allowing skippers to try different positions and timing and seeing the effect on reaching the windward mark. The start line was selected between 11 & 12 and the newly positioned 13 and a pole on the bank.
Thank you to James who undertook starter duties and some analysis of the starts and upwind leg, this was very useful .
Just before break the first of todays 12 races was held. Starting 11 & 12, 13p, Xp, finish 13 and bank.
Races 2 to 7 were held before lunch that was called at 12:30. To try and practice some downwind gate courses, the course was changed at race 5 to, 11 & 12 start, 13p, gate 11 or 12, 13p, gate 11 or 12, finish 13 and bank. Unfortunately with the wind direction, 11 became the clear favourite for all skippers. Hopefully the wind next time will allow a better gate course to be set.
After lunch the gusts seemed to get stronger at times with the B rigs being over powered. Some skippers opted to take an inshore course where there were less chop and wind, gaining a good advantage and sometimes a huge lift all the way to 13.
Racing was very tight and throughout the fleet today, where everyone finished at the front and back of the fleet. The score reflect this with only 1 point between 2nd, 3rd and 4th places!
Thank you everyone for a great days practice and racing. It was very enjoyable and great to do some extra boat control work before racing, I hope every skipper managed to take away something away from this, I certainly did.
Well done to Glenn for the overall win today with Ian taking second and Phill taking 3rd place.
Coalhouse Fort Radio Yacht Club 