RC Laser and Df65 Southport Winter Series at West Lancs - Day 3
by Tony Wilson 13 Feb 2017 06:59 PST
11-12 February 2017
Saturday and Sunday saw the launch weekend for the first Travellers' Trophy 2017 Joint DragonFlight 95 / DragonForce 65 event. There are to be 18 events in total giving 9 for each class. The best thing is they both count with equal points towards the same prize. Half of the events have to be sailed to qualify, but it doesn't matter which.
We were promised a rain free weekend with plenty of wind.
Also at the West Lancs club it was the regular Winter Series N03 RC Laser together with the Df65s on the Sunday. Fresh from the German Toy Exhibition was the latest version N06 Df65 all in white, this time on display complete with the newly introduced A plus sail. There's a great video from the event with John Tushingham and his team from last week's visit. Check out and search Nuremburg Toy Fair 2017.
24 DF95 skippers turned up on the Saturday and it was chilly, with a Beasterly Easterlie and the order for the day was surprisingly ' A ' rigs.
John T was racing N051, while he'd lent out the Dark Destroyer all in Black attire to a friend.
So after 16 full-on races it was back to totting up and topping up with a brew and some gorgeous choc chip cookies Liz had baked (I need that recipe, the best I've ever had, must be some secret ingredient, please bring 'em again)... I hope nobody saw me sneaking back for another.
The evening saw a bit of the social side of sailing with a drink or two in the local club house and some had opted for a Chinese supper.
Day 2
Sunday saw much of the same with an increase in wind speed by about an additional 10mph. The smaller Dragons were a mix of B and C rigs, while the Lasers were dressed down in their smallest D sails. Euan, not possessing a D Rig, seemed to do pretty well all day and battled with just the C.
17 Df65 skippers and 9 RC Lasers decided the best option was to alternate racing for the day, rather than the usual 1 or 2 minute interval before starts.
To keep damage to a minimum each class would retire to the invitingly warm hide away in-between races to defrost with maybe another cuppa. What a brilliant idea.
Again 16 races were completed for the day, but only 8 from each class.
This time we had cake and lots of it. It was John T's birthday and a Biggie, 51 (boat N0) plus 9 little ones). Liz had supplied us with 3 big cakes, a chocolate cake, a gateaux and a cream sponge all to go with the filtered coffee.
A great weekend was had by all. For a fuller picture, please check out the individual videos below for each of the days.
Day 1 Results:
Df 95
1st boat N0 51, John Tushingham 21pts
2nd boat N0 02, Peter Spence 32 pts
3rd boat N0 84, John Brierley 35pts
Day 2 Results
Df 65
1st John Tushingham (Keighley)
2nd Ken Binks (Eastbourne)
3rd Derek Priestly (Fleetwood)
RC Laser
1st Shaun Holbeche (Fleetwood)
2nd Steve Wroe (Delph)
3rd Skip Reasor (West Lancs)
Next week is N04 of the West Lancs Joint RC Laser / Df65 over at Southport.
The next TT for the Dragon Forces is over at Chipstead and Coalhouse fort in March.
Please check out the DF Racing UK's dedicated website for directions and more detailed results from this weekend's racing.