Race Report

Balne Moor MBC Winter Series 7^th February 2016

16 skippers were blessed with a good breeze and blue skies at the start of the third round of the BMMBC Winter Series. Two welcome friends and new faces to the series were Martin Hallums from Keighley, returning to DF racing after a significant break and Cathy Wilson for her first DF race this year.

The all Dragon fleet started on a mixture of A and B rigs and the breeze was one of those testing ones, definitely A in the lulls and definitely B in the gusts.

It didn’t take long for the two returning skippers to wash the dust off their boats, the first three bullets going to Martin, Cathy and then Martin again, with Dave Darwell and Chris More never far away. Cathy quietly used the port bias on the start line to great effect, particularly in the morning, clocking up no less than 3 wins before lunch.

In the 4^th race it was Chris More’s turn for the win and this set an interesting trend for the day in which, over 15 races, no less than 5 different skippers had bullets, Dave Darwell getting the first of his two wins in the day in the 9^th race and Jo Sharpe getting her first of two in the 8^th race. And it was close right down the fleet with 4 more skippers having top 3 finishes; Mick Hebden, John Bush, Bert Down and John Goodyear.

After 3 or 4 races, everyone had had either settled for A rig or changed up to it, and there the wind stayed for much of the morning. However the forecast was for it to freshen and freshen it did to the point shortly after the lunch break when B was the only practical choice and even then, several skippers were displaying their rudders down wind, Mr. Darwell giving a particularly well choreographed display

With 15 races completed, Paul Rudkin set about calculating scores just before 3pm and the result was a win for Martin Hallum.

1^st        Martin Hallum (Keighley)

2^nd        Chris More

3^rd        Cathy Wilson

4^th        Jo Sharpe

5^th        Dave Darwell

6^th        Bert Down (one of our very welcome visitors from Ripon SC)

7^th        John Bush (struggling manfully on an A rig all day)

8^th        John Goodyear (From ROFWAC)

With two more events to go, the Series is now neatly poised with John Tushingam (absent on IOM duties this week) leading the way, chased by Chris More, John Sharman (now on his ‘Grand European Tour’), Jo Sharpe, John Bush, Dave Darwell and John Goodyear.

Once again, huge thanks go to Cliff Jefferies for sterling work as OD (he claims to have the loudest voice in Doncaster – and nobody argues with this claim) and Paul Rudkin slaving over the results after being at the pond at 8am laying buoys (No !! Look at the spelling).

Sorry, no pics this week, everyone was too busy racing !!

The next event will be on 21^st February and we’re looking forward to another excellent day of close racing at DN6 0JB with support from our friends around the Northern District clubs.