DF95 and IOM Twixmas Festive Event at Fleetwood Model Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 4 Jan 16:58 GMT
29-30 December 2018
Twixmas Festive Event at Fleetwood © Peter Iles
With the festive season in full swing and not too much sailing going on, the thinking heads had been busy working out how we could better last year's silly jumper competition. A successful global event with the DF95 had awarded itself a worthy place to be included in the 'Twixmas' sailing weekend pre-New Year. When else dare you leave the house with a carrot protruding from your jumper?
At least 17 DF95s entered for the Saturday, and the Sunday also had similar numbers to sail the IOMs. Some guys had both boats and others just fancied a day of the what was going to be great action. The playing field was going to be of a high standard as we had our global winner J.T. along with wife Liz, Our Derek and Son Shaun, John Sharman and Susan, Tim L, The Benson brothers, and also Fleetwood's locals, plus many other incoming visitors.
If like me you're a light sleeper, then the sound of swirling wind through the telegraph wires and trees would have already forewarned you into thinking, 'small sails today chaps'.
By about 10:30 after all the scurrying about with sail swapping, the show finally got under way.
A sausage course for two laps around the central area was sailed and finished on a beat. The Westerly wind was lengthways so was optimal, but that first race or two caught many out with the full gusts to see some carnage and half a page recorded of DNFs and DNSs filled the score sheets.
A tweak of the course had our boat boy Peter place two nice brightly coloured red buoys further down the lake, one now acting as a spreader and the start line was also moved further along. Still all in C rigs, we sailed five complete races and then it was into the cabin for hot mince pies and mulled wine to settle the nerves.
By mid morning John had certainly set the standard and most had changed up into the B rig with the very slight drop in wind. We had the odd runaway boat and the usual tangles, but nothing looking too drastic and just the normal ongoing minor running repairs.
There only really seemed to be Derek and Tim putting the pressure onto John and then only pinching the odd first or second place and John had the rest to himself.
A slightly delayed lunch with some piping hot tomato and basil soup with freshly carved bread brought another welcomed break. The fleet was now split into racing pairs only by score to form the 'Teams of Two' for a set of additional end results.
The races continued in the same format for the afternoon with the same guys dominating most races. An odd A sail appeared but most continued in their B outfit and completed the somewhat delayed finish of a total of 16 races just as the light had begun to fade.
The overall single handed winner went to John. Great in-depth pictures can be found on the Dragon Force website where by Anna McKone has spared no expense into providing a wealth of excellent pictures for us all to drool over. Certainly a 'splashing selection'.
Sunday had more of the same with many of the same candidates from Saturday. We also had a few extra of the known celebrities that joined Fleetwood's Rob Walsh and would want to test their metal on his home ground.
The full lake was used and a sausage course again of two complete laps in the lesser wind than Saturday was to be sailed. Lots of good beating up the lake and the picture looked quite full as the boats, only a few centimeters longer than the Dragon Flight looked much fuller as they were dressed in
the larger rig for the lighter airs.
On Saturday we had walked about five miles, but Sunday had a distance of closer to eight miles recorded by our local trotters.
Rob was victor for the Sunday's sailing with only a few points separating the best from the best. Most had had a great day or even weekend when both days had been sailed and again we had more of the mince pies, wine and a good cake selection that made everyone happy.
Thanks to all of the working crew at Fleetwood and the Galley staff that made the weekend a great event.
fleetwoodmypbc.org.uk
Saturday DF95 Results:
1 John Tushingham
2 Derek Priestley
3 Tim Lanigan
Sunday IOM Results:
1 Rob Walsh
2 John Tushingham
3 Shaun Priestley