RC Laser & Dragon Force event 6 at West Lancashire Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 16 Mar 2016 15:04 GMT
13 March 2016
This was the last event from the 6 day series of racing at Southport.
For the conclusion in the Laser class the first 3 places had all ready been set in stone. On the other hand nobody could challenge John T's perfect score from the DF 65 series, although second place was still up for grabs. Tim Long and John Brierley were on similar scores so far, meaning everything was still to play for, but an outright win on the day would be needed to change how it stood.
Light winds of around 5MPH were forecast through out the day, lots of sunshine with little cloud cover.
In for a treat we were joined by the new released Dragon Flight 95 boat. 5 of them, 5 Dragon Force 65 and 12 RC Lasers. A first for the UK and anywhere else in the world to have all 3 classes racing together. We previously only had sneak views of this boat, but now it was going places.
Eager to try, the main contenders for the DF65 had all changed allegiance in favour of their new boats just for the day, so there would be no change in the end of series result.
A shorter course for all was used to make use of the light wind with 2 of the buoys having a starboard rounding, followed by 2 to Port and repeated for 2 laps.
5 races of each class were held before lunch. The Lasers started first in their usual fashion of a 1 minute countdown followed by the smaller Dragon Force after a further minute and then finally its big brother the new DF 95 on the last minute.
During the 2 laps it was seldom to get round the full course in full strength wind force. Most of the times there was an occasional Lull, just to slow things down a touch.
After a Hotpot lunch and a cuppa, 5 more races were held to complete the afternoon session. The little wind that we had reversed a full 180 deg, so the course was tweaked a little and then sailed in the opposite direction.
A change of start order was introduced just to spice up the day a little. The Tiny DF 65 started, followed by DF 95 and finally the RC Lasers.
The end results for the Dragon Flight had the same individuals that had actually already won the full Dragon Force series.
As an Intro for 3 classes there were only a few slight teething problems, mainly encountered from the cross over in the middle of the course. Otherwise it seemed to work just well.
Thanks goes again to Alan's West Lanc's crew for providing us with another good Winter series, next event there will be part of the TT series.
Overall Results:
RC Laser
For the day
1. Jordan Porter
2. Dave Foster
3.Tony Wilson
For the Series (best of 3)
1. Dave Fowler
2. Jordan Porter
3. Skip Reaser
Dragon Force 65 Results:
For the day
1. Mike Parkington
2. Chris Chatsfield
3. Sue Parkington
For the Series: (best of 3)
1. John Tushingham
2. John Brierleyv
3. Tim Long
Dragon Flight 95 Results:
For the day
1. John Tushingham
2. John Brierley
3. Tim Long