TT Series 2023 Overall

DF65 Ranking 2023 Overall

TT Series Finale weekend – Fleetwood

So, we all know that Fleetwood can be a fantastic venue to have a yacht race at, we proved that with a week of Global Championships earlier this year and many classes have proved it time and time again. So we are aware that the venue is great, sometimes it blows straight down the lake at 20 knots and sometimes, well, it just doesn’t blow at all.

Friday afternoon saw a few skippers turn up at the club but no one really got excited about having any practice so it was an early trot off to the pub for a beer or two followed by some jolly nice fish based dinner at The Trafalgar in town.

Saturday dawned with sunshine but not a lot of breeze. No matter we were on early starts with the first races each day being gunned at just after 0900. 30 skippers lined up at the briefing to be welcomed to Fleetwood by PRO Derek. Everyone had a boat and a full bucket of enthusiasm which was a good start to the day.

The omission from the report so far is the weather. Sunshine was abundant throughout the day however unfortunately there was little, or no, wind all day which isn’t ideal for a yacht race.

Seeding B got away and nearly a half hour later the first skipper crossed the finish line and that set the tone for the day. Seeding A was held in a little more breeze but not much. A tough day followed for everyone with some large gaps in the racing.

The last race started with the B fleet before the time limit set in the NoR and it could possibly be the longest race in the history of long races with the A fleet losing all of the breeze and finishing in the dark. Still, at least it didn’t rain.

Winner for the day was Tushy with 5 points, John Brierly took second with 7 and Peter Baldwin finished third on 10 points.

Cue food and drinks.

Sunday promised much more than it ultimately delivered both in terms of breeze and rain. The windy front passed during the evening leaving a good top of A rig breeze for the 27 skippers that headed to the start line.

As the day wore on it was clear that the chill in the air combined with the now damp outlook would see several skippers head for an early bath whilst those left were having some great racing up and down the pond. With six races in the bag it got breezier and a bit less rainy and there was a mix of A and B rigs in that race with the B’s doing better. For races seven and eight we had lost sufficient numbers of skippers that we combined into a single fleet. This made for a busy startline and first mark rounding. At the end of eight races PRO Derek declared that even he had had enough and we packed up and handed out prizes for the day. John Brierly took the top spot with a great day on the water. Tushy took second spot son 17 points, some six behind JB. Dave Potter rounded out the top three a handful of points back.

And that was the end of the 2023 DF Racing TT series here in the UK. Around 140 skippers took part over the course of the year which is good going. The 2024 calendar will be out soon and has at least one fresh location on it.

TT Series Round 10 – Birkenhead DF65 Weekend

The day started with little or no wind, but a light breeze picked up after RO John Brierley had given his briefing and so Race 1 got underway soon after 10:00.  However, the breeze dropped during the race and the fleet was well spread by the time the leaders finished and the RO called a temporary halt and we restarted after about an hour when the breeze had picked up to a nice WNW breeze straight down the lake of about 5 knots.  We managed 5 races before taking lunch, with John Tushingham taking three wins, plus John Carlin and Peter Baldwin one each.  After lunch, a total of 11 further races were completed (with one break) before the cut-off time of 17:30. In this session there were five different race winners.  Peter took the lions share of seven race wins, with Dave Burke, Alan Watkinson, Simon Fairman and John Tushingham with one each.  Special mention to newcomer to the sport, Tony Sedgwick, who was unlucky to lose out in one race ending up second to Peter on the final leg into the finish having led for a good part of the race.

Day 2 dawned with sun, but sadly no wind.  A postponement was called by the RO and we waited for the breeze to fill in.  By 11:00 there was  gentle SSW breeze sufficient to allow racing to start by 11:10.  After a few had decided not to attend or leave early only 16 boats took to the water in a light and patchy 2 to 5 knots.  We completed an additional 4 races before breaking for lunch, with a breeze that was at times nearly straight down the lake, perhaps helped by a bit of sea breeze adding to the gradient.  John and Peter continued their tussle for the overall lead, with John getting the upper hand in this first session, winning two races to Peters one, with one race tie as the finish judge was unable to split the pair as they crossed the finish line.

After lunch, a further 4 races were completed, although the breeze could shut off at any point and one race was abandoned and break taken before racing continued.  John continued to dominate this final session, with 3 wins, and Tony Sedgwick getting a win in the final race, having had some other excellent results over the weekend, but previously missing out on a win.

This gave a podium of John Tushingham in first, Peter Baldwin in second, with Dave Burke in third.  We had a great weekend of A+ sailing, and thanks go to the Race Officer John Brierley assisted by Dave Williams (Sat), Neil Westbrook, Malcolm Harvey and Judith all helping to run the racing, plus Jocelyn and Chris in the galley keeping everyone fed and watered throughout both days from early in the morning to the end of racing.

TT Series Rounds 6 & 7 – Manor Park

Last weekend saw the latest rounds of the DF Racing UK TT series at Manor Park in the Midlands.

Whilst I wasn’t there it was well attended and the organisers have written a great report which details all of the goings on including Micky Chamberlains excellent race winning celebration!

Click here to read the report.

Click here for the results from both days

DF95 Global Championship 2023

So, we are now a week and a couple of days out of the back of the epic event that was the DF95 Global Championship at Fleetwood MYPBC, and I think my head has just about recovered enough to write a short report.

It started on the 10^th May really with a quick jaunt up to the NW of England and the historic town of Fleetwood. Arriving fashionably late I met up with Derek, Chuck and Brig who hurried me to a pub (there’s a theme here) and made me drink Gin and Tonic and then more people arrived and we went for some food.

Thursday was a busy day at the club with lots of setup going on and more competitors arriving from all corners of the globe via various means of transport. There was lots of activity on the water with boat tuning and messing about but by the time we got to the official club racing there were very few takers as the pub was, once again, calling. Plenty of us then descended on the popular Italian, Pacino’s, where we ate lovely food and drank lovely wine.

Friday was a pretty similar affair even down to the choice of restaurant, food and wine!

Saturday was a continuation of Friday with registration and measurement continuing to ensure everyone’s boat and rigs were compliant. There were a couple of issues which were sorted quickly and easily thanks to competitors compliance and the useful RC Yachts outlet that was based on site.

The evening was splendid, the wind dropped off nicely and after a brief opening of Timmy’s beer truck we were treated to the opening ceremony for the event. The club commodore gave a welcome speech as did MYA President Derek Priestley, we also had an introduction to PRO Peter Baldwin and judge Gordon Davies. This was followed by each country presenting the club with their National flag. This was followed by an International buffet, food from around the world, an amazing feat by each country to provide a speciality of the country for the rest of the world to try. There may have been some beer and wine, we may have retired to the pub…….

The next morning it was time for most of the fleet to get serious and start the racing. I started the day with a bacon sandwich, some coffee and some left over rum punch from Team Bermuda, and that set the tone for my week!

Seeding races were held, these were a little longer than the normal races to allow the cream to rise to the top should it have had a poor start. Predictably the races were won by good skippers, Craig Richards, John Tush, Mark Golison and David Potter.

Race two saw Potter take a second spot from DF95 designer Mark Dicks with Craig Richards in third spot, an all GBR podium. Race three saw USA take the top two spots with Golison and Sean Fidler with Tush third.

Tush and Craig were one two in race four with Swede Thomas Enwall taking the bottom step. The top two steps were reversed for race five with Thomas in third. He did better in race six and took the win from Peter Feldman with Craig in third.

Swede Michael Collberg took race seven from Tush with Craig posting another third spot. Craig bettered this in race eight with a bullet from Swede Magnus Bood with Golison in third spot. Feldman took race ten from Enwall with collberg on the bottom step.

Craig, Tush and Golison made the race ten podium, Feldman, Craig and Enwall were winners in eleven. Collberg, Tush and Feldman in twelve. Craig, Tush and Golison in thirteen.

Fourteen saw USA skipper Sean Fidler hit his stride to take the win from Aussie Chris Dance with Enwall in third spot.

Fifteen saw Craig Feldman and Tush on the podium. Sixteen saw Fidler at the top with Dance and Craig below him on the podium.

Seventeen and eighteen were all about Chris Dance, epic sailing and clean roundings saw him take both races, not to be outdone too much Craig to second spot in both races too, with Dicks and Fidler in third spots.

We are now getting to the nub end of the Championship and whilst there are some significant gaps at the top of the table it doesn’t take much to close them.

Tush’s bullet and Craig’s 21^st spot in race 19 made the point well for me, Collberg and Golison were second and third.

Craig soon bounced back and posted the win in 20 from Fidler and Feldman.

The final two races were Collberg with two bullets, Tush with two second and Craig with two third spots to round out the championship.

All down the board there were close battles between all of the 78 skippers, it was as hard to get out of D fleet as it was to stay in A fleet, or so I was told!

Every skipper I spoke with enjoyed the event immensely but felt they could have done better with the sailing. There was only one person that couldn’t have done better with his sailing and that was Craig Richards. Over the 22 races he counted nothing higher than a seventh place finish and he had six wins over the course of the week, a true champions race and ever so well deserved.

Tush finished second but was 19 points adrift, Feldman was a distant third with 102 points.

So, lets focus a bit on the social side of things, Sunday was a free night and after a tough day’s racing it was well taken and a quiet evening was had. Monday saw a Fleetood fish and chip night at the club with one of Derek’s famous quizzes, followed by a trip to The Mount pub.

Tuesday and Wednesday I dipped out of due to some family commitments I had to take care of, however, Wednesday was a lay day from the racing so many people went off and did many things, some ended up in Blackpool, some in the Lakes, some went and played golf whilst Mike Weston saw the beach at Fleetwood for the first time and then promptly fell over!

Thursday evening saw some of us eat at the Trafalgar fish restaurant, always a treat and the food was sublime.

Finally, Friday, and if you were still strapped in this was the big one. I started early after the racing and managed a fine session whilst enjoying the closing ceremony for the event at The North Euston Hotel. Speeches were made, thanks were offered and Craig was presented with his Championship trophy.

Over the course of the ten days we spent at Fleetwood I think we all made new friends and cemented friendships made at previous events. The racing was fair, the competition was tough, the attitude of all the competitors was amicable and fair. There were protests, of course there were, but they were handled quickly and fairly by Gordon and it was rare that they held up the racing.

So, now we need to thank some people, well, quite a few people really. Firstly to everyone involved, competitors, organisers, race team, club members and galley crew I’d like to offer my heartfelt thanks for an absolutely fantastically epic week. For you all to give up your time to come and help or race in such great numbers is really rather a cool thing. Right, that’s covered everyone so if I forget anyone please refer to the above!

Derek Priestley, David Rose and the Fleetwood MYPBC. Without your initial interest in running this event 18 months ago we’d be a poorer class right now. Your desire to run this event and run it so well is a credit to you and your club. The fact you have one of the best and most historic venues in the world just made it better!

Peter, Judith, Damian, Gordon and everyone else in the race team. Your dedication to getting us the best racing we could possibly have and the most number of races with the least amount of faff is amazing. Here in the UK we are lucky to have Peter and Judith offering their race team services on a regular basis, but for Peter to offer his time when he really should have raced is testament to his dedication. Thank you.

Galley crew, we couldn’t eat and drink without you, from a bacon butty first thing to a bit of cherry pie as a mid afternoon pick me up, you had it all. Maureen and Elaine as the backbone of the crew with daily helpers kept the fleet marching on.

Peter Isles – Boatman extraordinaire. Keeping the course right, rescuing boats and resetting marks, a whole week of being in that rescue boat is no mean feat, thank you.

Eric and the facilities team, there before you got out of bed to put up flags, there after you’d left to take them down and everything else you guys did to make the event colourful and fun, thank you.

Skippers, without you lot it wouldn’t have been much of an event. You travelled from all corners of the globe to Fleetwood so that we could have a bit of a yacht race, wow, thank you so much for making the commitment to take part.

If I have forgotten to thank anyone I apologise.

So, in closing, we had some yacht racing, Craig won it, we all had lots of fun but many of us could have done better.

DF65’s next year in Sweden if you fancy it…….

Timmy out x

Pictures and many more words than I’ve written on the DF95 globals 2023 facebook page.

Round 5 Eastbourne

DF95  TT 22^nd – 23^rd April 2023

Race Officer’s Report

Just imagine 1170 boats on a start line with 60 laps of the race course to complete over two days. If the race team and the competitors get 99% of it right, there are still going to be nearly 12 boats that will be disadvantaged through bad luck, gear failure or poor decisions.  At the Eastbourne and District Model Yacht Club, we all did better than that, with  John Tushingham winning the event. Well done, John.

Entry: There were originally thirty nine entrants, many of whom registered on Friday 21^st April. This enabled a smooth start to the racing on Saturday with one withdrawal making the starting number of entries 38.  Competitors came from many clubs across the country, David Potter’s epic drive from Workington in Cumbria is worthy of mention.

Weather:   The forecast changed several times in the week preceding, but was  promising stronger winds with rain on Sunday. 

Saturday started with a gentle breeze from the east necessitating three heats each with 13 boats. Fortunately the breeze strengthened and swung to the south allowing a longer course allowing the three heats to become two. Once the course was set, it stayed that way enabling the racing to be completed, without a single protest.

Sunday’s forecast of  the strong southerly winds was replaced by light winds dying off at midday, but we still had the incessant rain. Fortunately when the wind returned, the rain stopped and we could even get one more race completed after the national disaster mobile phone test warning at 3pm.

Many thanks go to Rob Shepperd, Jes Collier and Dave Allinson for moving marks and resetting the course many times during the weekend making the races challenging and enjoyable.

Scoring: Two races of three heats and twelve races of two heats gave a total of 14 races over the two days. The superb ‘Racemaster’ race control system, ensured that there were minimal delays between races and a 100% accurate 6 boat up/down promotion which balanced the fleets when six boats had withdrawn from racing on Sunday. Our thanks go to Mike Parris for creating and operating the system.

Protests:  Thanks to the volunteer observers and club observers under the Observer Marshall Roger Clifford , protests were avoided with good sportsmanship taking precedence.

Social: The lakeside cafe/restaurant provided good hot drinks and refreshments and some skippers enjoyed a tasty Italian dining experience in Eastbourne on the Saturday evening.

In addition to those already mentioned by name, additional thanks go to the competency and enthusiasm of:

Reception and Registration team – Roy Curtis and John Wright.

Starting team –  Scott Pearce and Rob Ahier

Permanent Race Observer (Saturday) – Brian Burford

Finishing Team –  Janet Derricott, Jim Baldwin, Karl Booth and Martin Dangerfield

Peter Kemp

Results below

EDMYC

Round 3 & 4 – Lincoln RSC

A great weekend at the side of the pond at Scotland Farm, lots of fun things on the go and a great effort as ever by the Lincoln RSC team in organising all the race team to allow the skippers to go racing. There is a superb report on the Lincoln RSC website, click here to take a look.

Round 1 & 2 – West Lancs YC.

As with all good things our trip to West Lancs YC for the first wo rounds of the 2023 DF Racing UK TT Series was well worth the wait. The early birds that arrived on Friday were greeted by a distinct lack of any real breeze from any real direction but there were several who rigged and tested the newly filled marine lake. Others that arrived on Friday managed a coffee and retired to a bar rather quickly.

Saturday dawned chilly and windless and after an introduction to the club from Alan Tickle and a briefing from the weekends PRO Peter Baldwin there was plenty of time to catch up on people’s winter news whilst we waited for some breeze.

Peter set and reset the course throughout the day as the wind came and went and I’d suggest that his day was tougher than any of the 49 competitors. Eventually we got underway with the seeding races and on a day with little prospect of more than a handful of races it was important to get your mojo on early doors and hold onto it as best you could.

The first seeding race was taken by the ever helpful Jen Hand who showed the fleet the way round the course, the other two races were won by Nigel Brown and Buzz Coleman in some tough conditions.

The second race was won by Craig Raistrick, a newcomer to the 65 TT series but a great skipper and a bundle of fun too. John Tushingham was second having collected weed in the seeding race and Jim La Roche came home third following his second spot finish in his seeding race.

Race three saw Malcolm Price from Alton Water take the win with father and son duo Derek and Shaun Priestley finishing second and third.

The fourth, and final race of the day saw Tushy find his form and he nailed on the win with Nigel taking second spot and Craig third spot.

There the day ended, the wind died and there was little point in starting a race that we wouldn’t finish. So, the winner of the day was John Tushingham on 7 points, there were four skippers on 10 points and another four skippers tied on 16 points. Second spot went to Malcolm Price, third was Nigel Brown, Fourth was Shaun Priestley and fifth Jim La Roche.

There were points ties down the board which made the fact that Peter and Judith’s computer broke and the scoring was completed manually all the more complicated. The 49 skippers had enjoyed the sailing for sure and there would be many of them back the next day when some more wind was forecast

Results below.

Cue social activities and a trip to the lovely Italian just across the road from the hotel.

Sunday kicked off with less of a delay and more wind which was a welcome treat. It was however still extremely chilly and even Tim Long, known for hardy shorts wearing had opted for a long trouser start to the day.

PRO Peter set a course which changed a couple of times during the day but was broadly the same and racing got underway after the morning briefing. With 54 competitors there were busier starts and there were many general recalls during the days racing.

Seeding races were won by John Tush, Buzz Coleman and DF95 National Champ Craig Richards. Buzz looked racy as he took race two with Tush close behind and Shaun Priestley in third spot. Nigel Brown took race three from Craig and John Brierley. Race four was Nigel again from Tush and father Priestley Derek whilst Tim Long, clearly not warm enough decided he should have a small fire onboard his boat during the A fleet start.

Race five saw John B take the win from Tush and Derek. The final race of the day was taken by Craig who bookended his day with his second win. Derek and Tush swapped spots with Derek second and Tush third.

Computer back working again the results were put through and despite only having one win it was John Tushingham who won the day on 10 points. Second was Derek on 14 points with Nigel snapping at his heels on 15 and Craig in fourth of 16 points. Further adrift in fifth was John Brierley on 29 points.

As the competitors left West Lancs YC the rain started and the wind dropped off which was ok because we were all sat on our cars on the way home with the heater on.

Huge thanks to the WLYC crew who, as ever, were just brilliant. Judith and the scorers were equally brilliant, but my person of the weekend has to be Peter Baldwin, who would have wanted his job this weekend, not many, but as ever his professional approach to the job just made everything run a little bit smoother and we are lucky to have him as PRO for the upcoming DF95 Globals in May.

Next stop is Lincoln, where we are assured another warm welcome. There’s still plenty of time to enter the event which takes place over the weekend of the 1^st and 2^nd April.

Sue Brown took some great photos, two of which are in this report, take a look at all the others by clicking here.