Inaugural Dragon Flight 95 race day at Fleetwood Model Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 29 Nov 2016 05:53 GMT
27 November 2016
The forecast for the weekend wasn't looking too great. Garry, our new DF95 captain, must have been dreading Sunday coming, as what can you do with only 1mph of wind especially on the launch of the clubs new class.
Saturday was supposed to be alright for the smaller Df65 but unfortunately had to be called off due to no wind at all. It was as though the wind Gods had been discussing in the heavens to who was the greater deity. It seems the bigger brother Dragon Flight god had won the battle and won the weekends worth of wind as to surprise it was a complete reversal.
You might think what a load of baloney, but by the way, You play with toy boats. So my missus keeps reminding me whenever in a serious discussion.
I can't argue with her as she makes the best apple pie on this planet. I wouldn't want her to change the recipe and exchange any of the ingredients in any way. In her wicked sense of humour she might make me apple pie surprise. At this time of the year I could end up with a couple of mushy Brussels sprouts in the middle.
Any way a pleasant surprise for Sunday on the Inaugural Df95 as we were greeted with 10 MPH winds from an Easterly direction with a touch of North, which meant it should be tunnelling in nicely through the arch shaped window (under the bridge).
Garry set a brilliant course which was from two thirds down the bottom end on a slight biased start line.Beat up to the pump station, reach across to the club house mark and then run back down to the start line which had an extra buoy put in for as a gate. Something we don't use to often at this club which is a treat, but most favoured the right hand start mark as that put you on the breeziest part of the lake and meant you'd be coming straight back up the middle for your second lap.
Racing started about 11ish as there was an introductory briefing and a couple of help tweaks for any Newbies from the established racers.
Two and a half laps were used for the first race but then shortened to a lap and a half to get near the 15 minutes per race time.
Tim flexing his muscles just to show the fleet he meant business won the first race.
Peter Isles kindly lent Tony a go of his boat for the second race to his surprise, especially with a new boat. Also Jim Lydon found he'd been passed over the Transmitter from Tommy to have a couple of goes. You never know who you can entice when they've had a go in the driving seat.
Next couple of races went to Shaun Holbeche, he's also pretty good and with the 12 boats on the lake it looked quite well filled and busy.
We had two new comers to the group and they endured the whole of the twelve races we had throughout the day, learning as they went along. The course remained the same.
To represent Derek for the day we had the younger Priestley Shaun that did his father proud keeping his beloved N0 67 at the forefront of most races.
At the end of the day it was Shaun H that emerged victorious and with a count back for second place with equal points Tim L. lost out to the other Shaun.
Most encountered a bit of weed throughout the day but we've had a lot worse, otherwise it was a great opening to the new class.
The next race with the DF95 is supposed to be in a fortnight on the 11th December, but is looking very doubtful. Sunday 4th December is again RC Lasers which might be the last use of the lake before the plug is pulled out and drained.
The date for weed removal is down for the 7th.
Overall Results: (top three)
1st Shaun Holbeche 21pts
2nd Shaun Priestley 26pts (countback more 1st places)
3rd Tim Lanigan 26 pts