Another season has begun, we have results so we’ll post them up here. The 2019 results page has now been archived.

DF Racing UK TT Series overall results to Round 2 West Lancs.

 

DF Racing UK TT Rounds 1 & 2 West Lancs YC.

Last years TT event at West Lancs was a distinctly chilly affair which we hoped wouldn’t be repeated for the 2020 season opener.  It was good to turn up on Saturday morning to some pretty spicy breeze which was accompanied by a bit of sunshine and some cloud.

Mountainous seas for the DF65’s  – Photo Sue Brown

Peter Baldwin had opted to be PRO for the weekend allowing the 31 skippers to get rigged and ready for the seeding races.  As you’d imagine the C rig was certainly the rig to have and even then it could have done with being a bit smaller at times.

Seeding races went off well with our two foreign visitors, Chris Dance (AUS) and Chuck LeMahieu (USA) taking the honours, Tushy and Derek P taking seconds and Liz T & Nigel B taking the third spots.

A short reshuffle of the heat board gave us the two fleets for the second race. which was won by Ken B, showing that he’s still a master of the DF65, second spot was Tushy with John B in third spot.

Race three saw Tushy, Tim & John B take the podium, much like a winter series Sunday at West Lancs. Further down the field the going was just as tough with skippers finding that the knots they tied two years ago weren’t as good as they thought they were and that a watertight boat is a happy boat in these conditions. Even with the tough conditions it was unusual to see a skipper without a smile and the racing continued to be close throughout the fleet.

It was time for a hot lunch in the warm clubhouse which revitalised the skippers, but with a gust of 42 knts over the lunchbreak and no sign of the breeze abating the afternoon session looked like an even tougher task for the skippers.

Race four saw Tushy at the top with Ken and Tim taking second & third spots in the fierce breeze.

Race five was won by Chuck from Chris and John B and it proved to be the last race of the day. PRO Peter made the call to postpone and see if the wind would drop, but at three thirty, with no decrease in windspeed, he called the day. A little disappointing not to get more racing in, but in reality it wasn’t quite the racing we’d all hoped for so it was kind of ok. Gear failure kept some of the usual suspects at bay with Derek finishing outside the top ten for the first time in a good while. Even so it was a fun experience trying to make a DF65 go downhill in a blow of 30 odd knts!

The final reckoning saw JT take the top spot scoring six points from the five races. second spot went to Ken on 11 points who showed his skill all day in the tough conditions. third spot, and only a couple of points back on 13, went to Tim who seemed to enjoy the conditions. Just one point back was Chris the Ozzy, lucky not to have been blown away by the breeze. Chuck took fifth spot and John B sixth on 16 and 17 points.

It was the same all through the fleet with single digit differences between skippers.

Cue early dart to the pub and some social.

The forecast for Sunday wasn’t as brisk as Saturday but it suggested we’d be in B or C rig…happy days indeed. However Saturday had stolen quite a bit of Sunday’s breeze and we started the day in A rigs on a course which was set offshore, into the “Southport glare”. The windward mark was some distance away which made layline judgement crucial in the tight fleets.

Seeding races away, Derek & Tushy showed us all how to do it with Chris Dance & David Nickerson taking seconds and John B & Chuck taking the third spots.

DF95 top mark action – Photo Sue Brown

PRO Peter saw the change in the breeze and made a good early call to swap the course out for something the resembled Saturday’s. The course was set and the breeze had built a little which forced the first rig change of the day with the fleet changing down to B suit. Tushy had an issue which ruled him out. John B took the win from Chuck & Mickey C in second & third. Race three saw Tushy taking the top step, Nigel second and Chris Chatfield in third.

Race four probably saw another rig change and another win for Tushy from Chris Dance and Tim. Five saw Derek, Ken & Chuck do the business. Lunch, again hot, was most welcome as the breeze was a little colder than Saturday.

Tushy took six from Chris C & Tim, a course reset for seven saw Ken take the win from Tushy & John B. Eight was Derek’s from John B and Tushy and the final race of the day, nine, was Derek from Tushy from Tim.

A good finish to a great weekend  saw Tushy take the day with 11 points from Derek on 18, John B took third on 26 just two points ahead of Tim on 28. Fifth was Chris D on 33, three ahead of Chuck in sixth spot.

Special thanks to all at West Lancs YC for doing what was required in sometimes miserable conditions. PRO Peter and scorer Judith did an exceptional job over the course of the two days, as a class we are ever so lucky to have two such individuals who are willing to take on the running of an event such as this. I think they both had a tough job to do and it was done very well.

It was also great to see Sue Brown scampering around the pond taking photos of both days racing. Check out her photos here.

Next stop is Gosport in late March for a weekend of DF65 racing. Details coming soon.