DF95 ND Championship – 28th April 2024 Report and Results

Just 23 sailors (out of the 28 who entered) registered for this inaugural DF95 Northern District Championship and Open event kindly hosted by Fleetwood MY&PBC and run by experienced RO Derek Priestley, supported by Bob Jolly (HMS), Judith Baldwin (finishing and Fleet Board) and Pete Iles (Boatman).

Conditions were far from ideal at the start of the day with an A rig breeze straight across the lake from the North (creating a start line just off the near shore), so the fleet was spilt into 2 heats and racing got underway shortly after 10 with a zig zag course down the lake and a reach back to the finish line by the start.  John Tushingham and Tony Sedgwick won their seeding races with plenty of place changes throughout the fleet due to an inconsistent and very changeable breeze at the windward marks especially towards the far end of the lake.  John then went onto win Race 2, with David Potter and Neil Davies taking the other podium positions.  After two races with the breeze across the lake, it started to swing to a more diagonal direction and after a break a new course was set using more of the lake length with a windward leeward course and two beats.  The change suited Mark Rose who won Race 3 from John and David. We then had a new name as winner in Race 4 in the form of local sailor Paul Middleton who was gifted the win by Peter Baldwin who hooked up on the last gate mark and dropped him to second with Mark in third place.

John then took Race 5 (with the breeze straightening further still), with Olly Murray in second and Mark picking up another third.  By now the breeze was picking up and although some sailors had already changed down, the whole fleet were in B rigs.  Two boats had by now withdrawn and as the fleet size was reduced and the breeze was nearly straight down the lake, the RO dropped down to a single fleet for the last four races.  David picked up another race win in Race 6 with John taking races 7 and 8, with Bob Lafbery showing excellent speed in Races 6 and 7 to gain a third and second place.  A further increase in wind speed by Race 8 led to a number changing down to C rigs which showed great upwind speed and easier tacking in the waves.  Those who remained in B rig were faster downwind and as long as tacks could be completed cleanly were just maintaining the advantage, with John (in B rig) taking Race 8 from Clive Warren in a C rig.  The final Race was definitely one for the C rig as Clive dominated the fleet to take the win, with Peter and John (both in B Rig) following in his wake to take second and third.

Overall a great days sailing at Fleetwood, especially once the breeze swung more to the West and plenty of downwind surfing in the waves.

This left the top three as John Tushingham, Peter Baldwin and Mark Rose, with David Potter unfortunately missing the last couple of races and a chance of a podium place.

As usual at Fleetwood, there was also a separate competition for the ToT’s (Team Of Two) Trophy.  Competitors were matched based upon their overall position after Race 3 and then help and guide the lower placed team member to improve their performance.  Early in the afternoon, David Potter and Bob Lafbery were the leading pair and would have probably won if it hadn’t been for both of them having gear failure in the last two races.  This let Peter Baldwin and team-mate Ian Sinclair take the prizes this time.