So, we are just two days away from the gun going on the 2021 DF95 Nationals up at Fleetwood MYPBC and the big question is…..who’s the favourite for the title? Lets take a quick look at the contenders.

First up we have Global Champ John Tushingham, fresh from his top spot finish at the DF65 Nationals a couple of weeks back he’s got to be right up there for the win. He’s been tuning up his new 95 at his club for a couple of months now and always enjoys a trip to Fleetwood.

US skipper Mark Golison was second at the Global’s in 2018 behind JT. As 3 times US 95 Champ he should be in with a good shot of beating JT, could jetlag be an issue? Who knows?

Swede Jonas “Black sails” Samson is another strong contender for the win, he showed well at the Global’s in ’18 and shouldn’t be overlooked.

If he’s allowed out of the country Aussie skipper Chris Dance is a canny chap on the racecourse and could well be a threat.

Craig Richards showed well at the IOM Nationals with his new boat, but will he fair well in a restricted class?

Tjakko Keizer is always strong unless there are jellyfish!

There’s always Tim “Snackers” Long to look out for, he’ll either have a great championship or drink too much and enjoy the social far too much and not feature.

In short, there are any number of skippers that could make a great challenge for the 2021 title, to finish anywhere in the top ten of this fleet would be a great result for any skipper. Racing is sure to be tight with a bad route up the beat having the potential to cost you anything from one to five places or more.

The weather looks like it should offer us some breeze for practice day and Friday’s racing but the weekend forecast currently sees the wind dying and moving around a lot which could give the race team a headache or two over the last two days of racing.

I’ll try and post a couple of end of day updates as we go along but there’s bound to be lots of pictures and info on Facebook which is much quicker than me, a pint or four and a steam powered laptop!

Good luck to all the skippers.