Dragon Force Winter Series at West Lancashire Yacht Club - Day 1
by Tim Long 6 Jan 2015 14:23 GMT
4 January 2015
Liz Tushingham at the finish line in the Dragon Force Winter Series at West Lancs day 1 © Tim Long
This is the second year that West Lancashire Yacht Club have run a joint winter series for both DF65s and RC Lasers and the first day took up where last year finished with a total of 28 boats on the racecourse using staggered starts and the same course with a slightly shorter beat for the DFs.
The day dawned cold and frosty with eleven DF65's arriving at the start line for the first of 12 races in light top suit conditions. 2013 National Champion John Tushingham showed the fleet his heels in the opener with Tim Long taking a reasonably close second place which seemed to be the run of form through the morning session with third place and below being fought for by the remaining nine skippers.
Lady skipper Liz Tushingham showed some good form through the morning session as did Marblehead Veterans National Champion Graham Whalley who also had some great battles with Tommy Mills and first time WLYC visitor John Brierley of Llandudno MYC.
Lunchtime brought a welcome respite from the cold but sunny conditions and allowed everyone to catch up on Christmas manoeuvres before getting togged up again to take on the afternoon racing.
John Tushingham continued his good form dropping only two races whilst Tim Long seemed to spend the afternoon getting tangled up with other boats and took some mid fleet results before returning to his second place form in the last race.
Liz and Tommy both took a win whilst Graham didn't look quite as racy during the latter part of the afternoon session. There were, again, some great battles throughout the fleet with newcomers and seasoned competitors alike. Racing concluded just after 3pm and the final reckoning saw John Tushingham taking the win from Tim Long with Liz Tushingham in third place.
The next event takes place on the 18th January at WLYC and if you haven't yet experienced the great atmosphere and racing then you should really give it a go.
For more details please check out www.df65racing.co.uk