DF95 Summer Series at East Kent Radio Sailing Club - Week 4

Starting near the cafe; Max pushing his luck. Rob (479) on port, as usual - DF95 Summer Series at Barton's Point week 4 © Mike Brand

In fabulous sunny max A rig weather 14 races were sailed by 12 skippers despite Paul Woodward and Dave Tomlinson being away winning trophies at Cowes Week. But Dave's big bro Adrian was finally back from being smoked in France. We had the honour of a visit by Colin Honour, more often at Chipstead, and Max Hunt was back from Laser sailing in the USA to continue his apprenticeship. The wind was a tricky direction from over Sheerness, with shifts aplenty.

Adrian Tomlinson, with some nice new looking sails, re-established his credentials from the off with a win, from Colin and Peter Jackson, then went on to make it 1,2,1 while fine tuning his rig. Peter won race 2 from Adrian, with Rob Owens 3rd, scoring 4, 3, then 2nd in race 3 before collapsing to 7th and staying there. Peter, with his winning Joysway sails, kept Adrian mostly honest by plugging in 3, 1, ap, 1, 3. (average points for RO duty, done by all in turn).

Mike Brand, winner last week, started ap, 5, 4, 2, 1, but returned to mid fleet in races 6 & 7. Colin Honour was consistent, following his 2nd with 4, 5, 5, ap, 4. Simon Thornton also threatened, after 3 sixes, with 2, 2, 3 before lunch. Alan Hounsell also started slow then got 3rds in races 4 & 6 and led race 7 before Peter slipped past on the last run. After some bad shifts and a foul in race 6 for 8th that win put Peter level with Adrian on 3 wins and (at ap 2.6) 0.4 up after discard.

One second to go; Rob Owens early as usual, Mike spot on but Peter nails the pin - DF95 Summer Series at Barton's Point week 4 - photo © Max Hunt

Alan was course setter and his major adjustments over lunch didn't stop the big and largely unpredictable shifts, reshuffling the pack up each beat. But the old firm still hit the front in race 8. Adrian winning from Peter and Mike Brand. Then Ed Coxon, with a 3rd in race 3 but average 7th, went hard right and got a big right shift to lead race 9. Peter was chasing but hit mark and Ed got away for the win. Simon was 3rd & Colin 4th.

The top 2 battled it out, with Colin & Simon just out of range. It was sewn up with wins in races 10 and 11 row, from Mike then Colin, including one after hitting a start mark, as Peter got lucky with the shifts and Adrian got some horrors, scoring ret, 6, 6. Peter then had two races with misread shifts but recovered to 4, 4 to hold off any challenge. Colin, in Chipstead mode, picked the shifts well to finish 2, 4, 2, 1, 3, putting him 3 points clear of Simon for 3rd place overall with a race 12 win then a 5, 2 finish.

Heading up the beat - DF95 Summer Series at Barton's Point week 4 - photo © Mike Brand

Alan finished well with 3, 7, 2, 4, and Rob Owens, (only really a multi-national judge) re-appeared from having fun in the depths of the fleet to plug in two 3rds in a row to regain a respectable 7th slot behind Alan. Mike, not having his best day, finished 8, 5 to finish 5th, 1.8 points up on Alan. Max Hunt, in only his 3rd outing, plugged in a few 6ths finishing 10th, 5 points behind Andrew Nicholls then 10 to Ed Coxon then 17 behind Rob Owens, but is expected to visit the podium soon.

Three of Adrian's wins had been by half a leg, but he scored 4 less podiums than Peter, so was not yet really back in the groove. Peter was RO again for the last race, which Adrian again won, by a wasteful margin, from Simon and Colin But by then Peter had secured his 3rd event win of the series by 8.6 points from Adrian and Colin.

Results:

1. 211 Peter Jackson
2. 30 Adrian Tomlinson
3. 48 Colin Honour
4. 665 Simon Thornton
5. 10 Mike Brand
6. 380 Alan Hounsell
7. 479 Robert Owens
8. 07 Ed Coxon
9. 9613 Andrew Nicholls
10. 963 Max Hunt

Full results at www.eastkentrsc.com/2026

Peter J (211) and Adrian T (30) ended up with 6 wins each - DF95 Summer Series at Barton's Point week 4 - photo © Mike Brand