DF95 Autumn Series event 5 at East Kent Radio Sailing Club

DF95 Autumn Series event 5 at Conningbrook Lakes - Adrian Tomlinson escapes an OCS as Peter Jackson and Mike Brand nail a biased port end © Peter Jackson

East Kent's fifth DF95 Autumn Series event was held at the clubs Ashford venue in 0 to 15 knots, with proper Conningbrook Lakes wind-shifts to mix up the results. The rain stayed away and the sun put in a showing. Every boat in the fleet led at least one of the 15 races at some point, but only four scored wins. Top three were three of the clubs four past keelboat national champions, Adrian Tomlinson, Mike Brand and Peter Jackson.

Mike started strongest with 1,4,1, but only managed one more win, with eight podiums. Peter matched Mikes three wins but with only seven other podiums. Adrian was the luckiest with the shifts by far, also with three wins by race 8 but then punched in another five, often by taking unlikely fliers in the unpredictable shifts.

The remaining win, in race 6, went to Alan Hounsell with skilful negotiation of the cyclonic minefield. Alan also plugged in three second places and a third, but couldn't challenge the top three overall.

Ralph Wikinson managed one second but otherwise struggled badly. Peter Glover visited the podium twice in a row with thirds in races 4 and 5, and consistent (nine!) fourths and fifths kept him in the hunt ahead of Rob Maunder and Martin Hill, both leaving the podium clear for others by consistently tacking on the wrong headers.

Adrian won the last three races to finish the event 10 points clear of Mike, just a few points ahead of Peter, with Alan a distant fourth. All but Adrian seemed a bit shell shocked by the flukey winds and arrows of outrageous fortune by the last race, looking forward to the less shifty Sheppey venue for the next event.

Results:

1. 030 Adrian Tomlinson (White)
2. 875 Mike Brand (Grey)
3. 211 Peter Jackson (Blue)
4. 380 Alan Hounsell (Red)
5. 026 Peter Glover (Dark Blue)