Last Friday saw more than a dozen DF95’s pitch up at Furzton Lake for some great racing, well, provided you hadn’t locked yourself out of your car of course…..

Geoff Raygarda has written this short report and there is a PDF results sheet too.

With an azure blue sky, unbroken sunshine, a warm, strong, tricky westerly breeze, what has Rio got that Milton keynes doesn’t?

OK we didn’t have a difficult tide to contend with or the distractions of Copacabana beach, of course, but Furzton Lake was a very pleasant place to be this afternoon.

A great turnout of nine Two Islands skippers with boats and another four or so watching or trying out boats along with five visitors made for some very exciting racing.

We started by meeting up at the Old Beams for a spot of lunch and a drink at mid day, then on to the lake for the afternoon.

Since the buoys had been re positioned for Sunday’s RG65 open to suit the predicted westerly wind, which we had today, we sailed an upwind/downwind course with two sausage laps.

Mike Stevens and John Simmonds kindly offered to man the starting lady and count them in over the finishing line, which made life so much easier.

The rescue launch had a couple of outings when one boat landed on the island and another hooked a buoy rope but apart from a couple of contacts and turns there were no major incidents and everybody did their turns without any asking.

The wind certainly proved challenging, being just between A and B rigs, with a few competitors changing rigs but eventually most of the fleet settled on being slightly overpowered at times on the bigger rig. True to form for Two Islands  the wind had more twists than politician and holes than a Swiss cheese, which made for a few exasperated expressions.

John Tushingham brought prototype number 2, the aptly named ” The Darkside”, with it’s all black hull and black sails, which he lent to Mike Clifton who was always at or near the front to finish second overall, just behind John Tushingham., not far behind was Wayne Stobbs, myself and Keith Coxon.

Keith Bell was struggling with a sail winch that would not hold it’s position, which hampered him no end so he was not able to challenge up at the front.

I have to confess to not being quite sure what was going on in the fleet as I was concentrating so hard on keeping the boat going in a straight line without taking anybody out,

There were a fair few retirements and early baths, possibly due in part to the wind strength but most skippers seemed to manage the conditions well with some very exciting hair raising down wind runs and only the very occasional nose dive.

All in all a fun day with great company, thanks in no small part to those who had travelled a day early for tomorrows RG65 open, to make today such a great success.

Geoff Raygada

Results sheet, guess who got locked out of his car……answers on a postcard please! dragonflite regatta 12th Aug 16 Race Sheet

The following day, Saturday, saw Round 6 of the RG65 travellers series where 22 RG’s and DF’s lined up to race in one fleet, there is a report on the RG65 website

Sue Brown was on hand with her photographic skills once again and you can check out her photos here.