DF Racing TT Rounds 5 & 6 at Eastbourne & District Model Yacht Club

Let's begin of Friday, it was a lovely day, plenty of warm autumn sunshine and a great day for sitting at The Perch café opposite the club and chewing the fat with friends as they arrived. It's also a great place to enjoy a snack or two, plus a beer or two and a coffee... or two. Unfortunately there was very little or no wind so practice was somewhat limited.

Friday night involved some beers and some curry which was very pleasant.

Saturday dawned chilly but sunny and the 22 skippers assembled on the far side of the pond for the morning briefing which gave us all the info we needed for the day. Unfortunately there was, once again, very little in the way of breeze which was to be theme of the weekend.

With 22 DF65 skippers we sailed in one fleet which meant we were in for lots of races. Wayne Stobbs to the first race from Ken Binks and Jimmy La Roche. Ken went one better in race 2 taking the win from Tushy and Tim Long. Three was Tushy from John "The travel agent" Cleave with Ken in third spot.

So the pattern was set with Tushy and Ken trading wins with the odd interloper making an appearance on the top step, Wayne had another win but Jimmy La Roche, who has never won a DF race before can now claim two race wins in quick succession during the mid afternoon session and with a series of top six finished throughout the day he was having the day of his racing life!

After 22 races, yes 22, it was Tushy at the top of the pile and well clear of the chasing pack. Ken and Tim were separated by just two points with Ken on 81 and Tim on 83. Wayne was 20 some points back in fourth with Jimmy scoring his best result in fifth spot on 116 just one point ahead of Dorian Crease from Two Islands. Liz Tush, Andrew Barnes, Trev Binks and Bryn Holland rounded out the top ten.

A quick wash and brush up and off to the pub for the other 50% of any race weekend. Lots of banter as usual followed by another excellent meal at the Tomato and Cheese Italian, which does amazing food washed down by a bottle or 5 of fine wine.

Sunday morning and a North wind was forecast which never really made it. There was enough to race with for most of the day but it got a little light at times and the cloud prevented breeze from making a proper appearance and no amount of weather app surfing could provide any hope of improvement. So, far side of the lake for the 32 DF95 skippers and another briefing about the day's activities.

A selection of windward marks was set to allow for the shifting wind and all four were used at some point during the day as the breeze tried to clock round further North, but alas it never managed to stay for any length of time.

Startlines were busy and it was important to be on the front row otherwise in the light breeze you were buried and it was a monumental task to claw your way back up the fleet. With 32 skippers we sailed in two fleets so the first two heats were the seeding and it was Tushy and Ken taking the top spots with Craig and Tim in second spots with Dorian and Jimmy in third.

Race two saw Tush, Craig and Tim make the best of the available breeze, Craig, Ken and Dorian were the top three in Race 3 with Ken going one better in 4 taking the win from brother Trev and Dave Andrews. Craig took race 5 narrowly beating Tim and Tushy before Tush stamped another win on his card from Tim and Craig in 6.

It was then Ken's turn top win again from Tushy and Craig. Race 8 was Liz Tush's by a margin, she sailed an epic race and couldn't be caught. Craig and John Tush looked unusually slow in second and third.

Race 9 saw another new winner in Alan Hounsell from Tushy and Ken. The final race of the day was held in what was to be the last of the day's breeze and Tushy took the win from Craig and Dorian.

At the final reckoning it was as tight at the top as it has sounded with Tushy taking a two point win from Craig with Ken four points back on 20. Tim was a distant fourth on 34 points with Dorian in fifth on 42. Wayne, Alan, Trev, Dave Adams and Andrew Barnes rounded out the top ten.

An enormous thank you to the race team at Eastbourne, headed by Jes Collier who worked tirelessly to give us the best courses to sail. The scorers and observing team made our racing possible and without you we just couldn't do it. Thank you one and all.

Also a note here about the scoring system we used over the weekend, it was a new system developed by a club member and this was it's first "big outing". It's operated on a tablet and updates scores in real time without the need for manual entry. Scores taken on the finish line tablet then upload to the main one and sort the heat board and scoring. Jes reckoned it perhaps gave us another hour of racing time on Sunday. It seemed to be faultless.

Prize giving sorted and drives home began, some short, some slightly longer. As I write this on Monday morning I think Bryn Holland is probably having breakfast on top of a mountain somewhere in mid Wales!

Another great weekend of friendly, fun racing interspersed with occasional drinking and comedy banter.

Next time it's the last of the year at Southport on the 13th and 14th November, plenty of info on dfracinguk.com perhaps we'll see you there? We saw plenty of new faces this time out.

Overall Results:

DF65

DF95