DF95 open meeting at Huntingdon Radio Yacht Club
by Andy Start 9 Oct 2023 13:11 BST
7-8 October 2023
Twenty Four skippers joined us for our second DF95 Open meeting since arriving at our new waters at Hunts Sailing Club St Ives in 2022.
A warm welcome by Karen and Maureen after check in for coffee and our now legendary free cake!
As a club we were pleased to receive visiting sailors from as far and wide as Keighly, Fairhaven Lake & Eastbourne, and our usual buddies from within the MY Eastern District.
Club commodore, Andy Harrold welcomed everyone to the event and passed over to PRO Andy Baldock, who explained how the day would pan out, and that he would be charging £50 for protest forms! (Seemed to work.)
A usual UW/DW with a gate course was set and the fleet being sorted into heats set to into the first two seeding races, it was immediately obvious that we needed to have a slightly longer races, so after the two seeding races, the lap count was increased to three.
A good blow!! Someone said, the very top end of A Rigs for the start of the days racing with some brave souls changing down throughout the morning only to change back again.
John Tushingham set his stall out for the day in the first four races with straight wins, but the likes of David Hope & Ken Binks were hot on his tail and Buzz Coleman not far behind in these early races, local HRYC Skipper Dave Green had equipment issues early on, but came to life in the afternoon once all fixed.
After a brief 40 Minute lunch break, the fleet were informed that we had lengthened the course and we would return to two laps once again.
Ten HRYC skippers entered the event and we finished with three in the top 10, with a fleet this hot, that was some achievement, well done guys, and rather surprisingly our Commodore Andy Harrold managing to cling onto his place in A Fleet for most of the afternoon.
As the day unfolded it was clear this was going to be a great event with "Racing Across The Fleet" for all abilities, knowing we had many skippers enjoying there first open meeting, and pleasantly surprised how much they enjoyed the experience, and really great to see the top skippers offering words of advice and tuning tips to all, our Ben Wallace had the pleasure of his craft being "Binked" on Friday afternoon, as Ken arrived for a cheeky peek at the lake.
After a total of 20 races across 10 heats the winner of the day was John Tushingham with a stunning 14 points, followed by David Fowler in second, and Buzz Coleman in third, our tryer of the day was Tony Merrit from Harwich & Dovercourt, who has only just put his boat on the water, congratulations to all of you.
We hope to release a video of the event later in the week, please subscribe to our YouTube channel for notifications, and photos will appear on our club website throughout the week.
And finally a huge thank you to all the competitors for your entry to the event, we look forward to welcoming you in 2024
Overall Results:
| Position | Sail No | Skipper | Club/City | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 51 | John Tushingham | Keighley & District MES | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 14 |
| 2 | 840 | David Fowler | Fairhaven Lake MBC | 2 | 15 | 18 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 25 |
| 3 | 12 | Buzz Coleman | Coalhouse Fort RYC | 1 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 28 |
| 4 | 83 | Ken Binks | Eastbourne & District | 3 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 15 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 32 |
| 5 | 11 | David Hope | Alton Radio Controlled | 4 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 10 | 4 | 15 | 38 |
| 6 | 22 | Ben Harker | Norwich MYC | 5 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 6 | 41 |
| 7 | 459 | Dave Green | Huntingdon RYC | 9 | 11 | 25 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 6 | 5 | 52 |
| 8 | 640 | Oliver Knowland | Alton Radio Controlled | 4 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 54 |
| 9 | 65 | Ben Wallace | Huntingdon RYC | 2 | 8 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 59 |
| 10 | 48 | Andrew Johnson | Huntingdon RYC | 6 | 16 | 2 | 8 | 15 | 13 | 15 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 65 |
| 11 | 100 | Liz Tushingham | Keighley & District MES | 5 | 2 | 6 | 14 | 17 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 22 | 10 | 66 |
| 12 | 422 | Andy Harrold | Huntingdon RYC | 7 | 9 | 11 | 18 | 22 | 20 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 13 | 76 |
| 13 | 195 | Martin Brooking | Huntingdon RYC | 8 | 3 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 17 | 12 | 16 | 15 | 17 | 84 |
| 14 | 418 | Glenn Meekcoms | Coalhouse Fort RYC | 9 | 17 | 16 | 3 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 13 | 23 | 20 | 88 |
| 15 | 29 | Noel Donaldson | Huntingdon RYC | 3 | 12 | 13 | 25 | 12 | 16 | 11 | 18 | 18 | 8 | 93 |
| 16 | 414 | Stuart Akers | Huntingdon RYC | 8 | 19 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 25 | 15 | 16 | 25 | 106 |
| 17 | 300 | Steve Taylor | Coalhouse Fort RYC | 11 | 15 | 12 | 17 | 15 | 15 | 17 | 21 | 21 | 15 | 117 |
| 18 | 200 | Michael Willett | Two Islands RYC | 12 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 9 | 14 | 19 | 17 | 12 | 19 | 120 |
| 19 | 206 | Phil Davenport | Huntingdon RYC | 10 | 21 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 11 | 124 |
| 20 | 61 | David Norris | Huntingdon RYC | 7 | 25 | 15 | 16 | 18 | 12 | 20 | 22 | 19 | 25 | 129 |
| 21 | 14 | Graham Nelson | Norwich MYC | 6 | 15 | 17 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 19 | 25 | 18 | 137 |
| 22 | 370 | Alan Cooke | Huntingdon RYC | 13 | 23 | 21 | 15 | 25 | 22 | 18 | 24 | 13 | 21 | 146 |
| 23 | 95 | Fred Coker | Two Islands RYC | 10 | 20 | 25 | 25 | 23 | 24 | 22 | 20 | 20 | 16 | 155 |
| 24 | 177 | Tony Merritt | Harwich & Dovercourt | 13 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 19 | 23 | 23 | 23 | 17 | 25 | 161 |