With the main man away square rigging, the rest of us came out to play, a couple of welcome visitors to our shores came along for the ride, Paul Risdale (who has embarked upon a John Lewis "Siskin" build) and Colin Davies. Alongside the seven sixes were a couple of Dragon Flites, newish member Ian Bell who is starting to get to grips with his and Tim Leese, as the scorecard was split in two they were given a minute start over the rest of us so that they could have their own private battle.
In the Six fleet, Gabriela the Romanza of Peter Jackson was sporting new cloth for the first time, as was Keith Bells Tias, once the initial teething problems were mainly sorted Peter sailed Gabriela into a very respectable third and but for Keith doing the penalty pirouette on far too many occasions and the slow start in adjusting his sails, he would have been higher up the ranking. This was the deciding race of the series with only two skippers with any real aspirations to take home the superb little trophy John Burgoine & Peter Shepherd, as it worked out Peter managed to keep Monica in the hunt up to race nine when John put in some cracking races to the finish with three straight wins out of three to take the series. (if only I hadn't got John hooked on sixes by lending him my boat for the first round when i was unable to sail! still there is always next year! Geoff Raygada's Mr Ga Ga results were a bit up and down consequently seeing him into fourth place and the visitors from not so afar rounded out the card, showing that it really does pay to keep sailing these yachts on a regular basis.
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A nice fleet of seven Sixes, three DF95's and one IOM came out to play today. Despite the weather forecast conditions were a little better than the previous event in this series with enough wind to allow some good racing throughout the fleet.
John Burgoine borrowed Mike Ewart's wooden hulled Rococco and once again showed us all how it should be done, Peter shepherd started slowly but managed to trim up his Romanza to give John a few good races towards the end, Mike himself managed to start well, however being as he is getting over being quite ill from last week he wasn't able to keep up the strictly dancing pace and dropped back towards the end of the day. Grenville Thornhill rounded out the top four with a series of consistant results, with Richard Dolman just behind, sailing his Ravenna for the first time in earnest., It was a shame his race win wasn't rewarded with a higher overall placing, as he failed to notice his topping lift get caught up for the final two races, looks like another well sorted Ravenna has just joined the ever burdgoening Six Metre Fleet. Keith Bell and Peter Jackson had their moments but never seemed to capitalise when they had the advantage, more set up and sail work required for all of us I think! Geoff Raygada joined us for a couple of races with his "Alternate" IOM and the small fleet of DF95's had their own private battle which was eventually won by Tim Leese, from Ian Bell and Derek Lane who after having lent him my DF95 told me his fathers army days nickname was "Jinx Lane", it would seem like father like son. Fickle light winds greated us, not the 7mph with 20 mph gusts that were forecast, nor was the direction correct still we manfully soldiered on. With Mike Ewart away on another mini break and a number of skippers turning out without yachts it was a small but selective fleet that took to the water.
The DF95 of Tim Leese suffered more than most with the lack of wind, apart from the odd race where it blew up a little and it came steaming along, it did however look somewhat diminuative along side the fleet of sixes. I couldn't persuade the gongoozlers on the bank to take on the challange of sailing my rinky-dink pink DF95, (was it the colour chaps?) so unfotunately Tim didn't really have anyone to sail against. A couple of prospective club members joined us to sail as guests Paul Risdale "did I forget to mention his Renaisance is salmon not pink" who we know well and Grenville Thornhill with his newly completed Romanza. Messers Shepherd & Jackson made adjustments to mast positions just before the event and so consequently spent most of the races slowly getting their sails set up back to where they should be! (that's our excuse and we are sticking to it, never mind the "lost" keys!). Geoff Raygada went well whilst he was sailing keeping it consistant and would have probably gone on to win however family commitments meant he had to cut his racing short, with the tricky wind and the close perfomance of all the yachts everyone had a turn at the front. When I got the chance I kept Paul Risdale honest out tic-tacing him for a couple of race wins. Help was gratefully recieved from the gongoozlers Ian, Derek & occasionally Tim, can someone send me some photographs? I didn't think I would have much to write about but it seems I have babbled on for sometime so I expect you will want to get to the results. The first round of this series was run as an open event for Six Metre Yachts only, however the weather and the prospect of little wind meant not too many visitors came to sail, that having been said the interest the resurgence of this class has created meant that we had almost as many skippers come to check out what was happening as were sailing! Hopefully we managed to convert a few. Mike Ewart sailed Christina his Ravenna to a victory despite a rudder issue keeping him out of a couple of heats, John Burgoine visiting from Birmingham MYC borrowed Monica, Peter Shepherd's Romanza which has undergone quite a few changes with our ongoing quest to get the sails right, (by jove I think we have it!). Geoff Raygada sailing his Rococco "Mr Ga Ga" stayed as long as his pass allowed, with Keith Bell "Minikins" Tias and Peter Jackson "Gabriel" Romanza consolidating their positions on the water. Many thanks to Tim Leese for his assistance in running nthe event and the Hot Soup from the Hollowell Club house kitchen was much appreciated at the end of the day. |
Dates
HOLLOWELL SC Archives
January 2017
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