DF95 open meeting at Huntingdon Radio Yacht Club

From far and wide skippers travelled to be with us for our third DF95 open event, after a couple of last-minute cancellations 16 skippers presented themselves to Noel Donaldson who gratefully signed them all on.

Once again, a splendid array of cakes was available to welcome our travelling skippers.

RO Martin Brooking (and club commodore) welcomed the rather chirpy rabble, which included one loony wearing shorts in October (but we wont mention that, Derek). A briefing was completed, and racing started almost immediately.

The wind was superb A rig weather all day, with a few fruity gusts thrown in for good measure.

A pretty usual upwind mark with a spreader down to a leeward gate course had been set on the Friday in preparation for the day, of course the wind hadn't behaved so the course did need a slight tweak before racing started at 10am.

A single race was completed allowing for those final adjustments, then the RO set the racing off in sets of three races, with some comfort breaks included.

Nine races were completed by lunchtime where Nigel Barrow had already set himself up in first placed followed by Peter Baldwin (13 points behind) and closely followed by Derek Preistley in third.

During a sunny and warm lunch, the gathered skippers were particularly pleased with the Red Arrows fly past that we had organised, in fact they cheered so loud, the jets did a return pass!

A further ten races were completed in the afternoon session, as with the morning all in a really friendly manner, with some good banter between the skippers, our youngster, Hayden Wallace came alive in the afternoon (well he managed to avoid getting hit/weed) and pulled off two wins, well done young man!

We also had two very new members join in the racing (well, they were pressed into it) - both stated they had had a great day of racing with lots of tips and encouragement from the fleet. It would be great in 2025 if other clubs encouraged this.

With the final race completed just after 3.30pm it was time to pack the kit away and present the prizes to the top four, and to our Trier Of The Day, John Doe of Huntingdon RYC.

DF95 open meeting at Huntingdon - photo © Andy Start

I am sure pictures from the event will be loaded up onto our Facebook page soon - www.facebook.com/groups/huntingdonradioyachtclub

And a movie of the event will also be uploaded to our YouTube channel in the near future - youtube.com/@hrycstives

From the club, a huge thanks to all the team for assisting in making the event happen, without willing volunteers, we wouldn't be able to hold such a fantastic event:

• Phil Davenport
• Ben Wallace
• Val Brooking
• Noel Donaldson
• Stephen (he did the cakes) Brown
• Karen in the Galley
• Martin Brooking RO
• Andy Baldock - course setting Friday

We look forward to welcoming skippers to our 2025 events:

• 5th April - IOM Open
• 11th October - DF95 Open

If you are reading this and keen to find out more about the club, please feel free to poke around our website hryc.co.uk

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