DF95 Autumn Series at East Kent Radio Sailing Club - Week 6

Spencer Pope, Mike Brand, Colin Honour & Simon Thornton downwind - DF95 Autumn Series at Barton's Point week 6 © Mike Brand

One course fitted all for the 12 boats in the 6th East Kent Autumn Series regatta. The wind started top of A rig, shifting back & forth a little then eased away to nothing after 15 races.

The previous event, with no reporter present, saw Adrian Tomlinson do an almost clean sweep of 11 wins, Dave Adams hitting the top step in just 3. Mike Brand, Alan Hounsell and Rob Owens had cleaned up most of the scraps.

Event six started the same, Adrian winning race 1, then also 5 of the next 7 before lunch, often coming back through half of the fleet after setbacks. Dave grabbed the other 2 wins plus 3 seconds and a third. Mike Brand and Alan Hounsell were having a private match race, hitting the 3rd podium step just once each as Robert Owens and Colin Honour scored 2nd places, Colin backing it up with three 3rds. Peter Jackson had returned vowing to help give Adrian some competition but even when leading early slid to 2nds & 3rds at best.

Adrian rounds the leeward mark first, followed by Dave, Alan & Peter - DF95 Autumn Series at Barton's Point week 6 - photo © Mike Brand

After lunch Adrian banged in 2 more wins in a row to impress and depress all, but in a fading breeze it all changed as Adrians secret was revealed: He took his orange anorak off and stopped winning. First Mike won race 11 and might have continued but for Dave hitting him on port, a move he'd practiced earlier on Peter. Then Peter finally turned up with two straight wins and three in the last 4 races to beat Dave's win tally. But it was all too little too late as Adrian stayed in the hunt, then put his anorak back on and won the penultimate race from Alan and Dave as the wind died away. Dave plugged in a consistent row of 2nds & 3rds to stay in second for the event from Peter 3rd.

Rob had gained one more 2nd before an 8th, a 13th and an early bath. Race officer Ralph Wilkinson got the last race away in 5-6 knots. It finished Peter, Dave, Adrian, Alan in just 3 knots, then 2, and finally a flat calm as some had to be rescued by launch. The first 3 places; Adrian, Dave, Peter, were each separated by a comfy 13 point margin, then a bigger gap to the better grouped Mike, Alan & Colin, the last two just one point apart, as were Rob and Spencer Pope behind them.

Week 6 Results: (top ten)

1 30 Adrian Tomlinson
2 358 Dave Adams
3 211 Peter Jackson
4 875 Mike Brand
5 380 Alan Hounsell
6 48 Colin Honour
7 470 Robert Owens
8 32 Spencer Pope
9 613 Andrew Nichols
10 665 Simon Thornton