DF95 Summer Series at East Kent Radio Sailing Club - Week 4
by Peter Jackson 16 Aug 12:15 BST
14 August 2025
DF95 Summer Series event 4 at Barton's Point © Debbie LaRoche
A balmy 7-11 knot south westerly and 9 members turned out for 13 races, missing normal front end runners Dave Adams, Mike Brand and Rob Owens. Ralph Wilkinson officiated and Alan Hounsell set the courses. The planned National Championship southerly control area was used as the Northern area was full of trainee Sea Cadet dinghies and holiday paddleboards.
Jim LaRoche, back after a break, got the first bullet, from Adrian Tomlinson and Alan Hounsell. Adrian immediately replied with a win, from Peter Jackson and Alan. Jim and Adrian swapped 1st places in the next 2 races, with Paul Woodward then Peter again 2nd. Alan scored another 3rd before hitting form with two 2nd places. Jim slipping to 4,3,6. The four giant wind fans 2 miles away didn't seem to help stop the wind shifting, and position changes were common in the local puffs.
Adrian won race 5 to put him ahead in the event, and three other skippers then scored wins; Peter Jackson (race 6), Paul Woodward (race 10) and Alan Hounsell (race 12) after a 3rd in race 8 but surrounded by 7,6,5,4 taking him out of contention with Jim who'd got back on the pace to finish the event with a strong sequence of 2.4,1,2,1,2,1. But Adrian had already all but sewn up the event with wins in races 7 and 8, only needing a few podiums to hold of Jim's late charge.
Adrian's younger brother David, experienced in RC Lasers and in DF 95's in Ramsgate's 'intro' events, had raided one of RC Yachts '23 Globals charter boats and was never far off the pace, with 3rd places in races 6 and 11. Paul Woodward was also consistent, precursing his win with a 2nd and 3rd.
Performance of the day went to Andrew Nichols, normally near the back, who held 2nd place to Jim all the way round with his new hull in race 9 under pressure from Peter and Adrian. A close 2nd to that accolade was Ed Coxon, struggling with the heat of mid fleet, who finished with 3rd places in both the last 2 races.
Paul finished 6,6,5 to slip back from Alan in 3rd, but Peter, with the wrong glasses, had a spate of hitting buoys that Alan had placed 6" too far away, so stayed behind. Adrian finished 3,3,2, (7), 2, which was enough to beat Jim by 2 points for the event. All the other places had clear margins of at least 4 points.
Top 6 Places:
1. 30 Adrian Tomlinson
2. 57 Jim La Roche
3. 380 Alan Hounsell
4. 20 Paul Woodward
5. 211 Peter Jackson
6. 750 David Tomlinson