East Kent Radio Sailing Club DF95 Spring Series Event 4 at Barton's Point Coastal Park

DF95 Spring Series at East Kent RSC - a pre-start during Event 4 © Mike Brand

The forecast 9kts dropping to 0-1kt proved accurate, but the tree free banks of the coastal park allowed 12 races to be completed. Of the 14 skippers there 12 competed, with Ralph Wilkinson as RO and Rob Owens as observer. The first 4 races had 4 different winners as the four big windfarm fans a mile away ran fell still and the lake became a glassy millpond.

First winner was Mike Brand by a large margin from Dave Adams and Adrian Tomlinson. Then Dave took his turn from Mike and Alan Hounsell. Dave again led in race 3, all the way round from Peter Jackson but Peter slid past at the line to win by millimetres, with Colin Honour third and Rob Maunder with a second 4th place. Colin then showed his 0-1kt set up was spot on by winning race 4, from Adrian and Peter. Adrian was struggling for a change, not helped by new sails in the flukey conditions, so all was still to play for.

The sun then appeared for race 5. Paul Woodward and Peter got away at the port biased end then stopped as a zephyr from the right took the fleet past. Dave got on the edge of it and ghosted away, leading to the finish, with Colin and Adrian creeping in to fill the places, ahead of Paul, recovering to his best result of the day, then Peter. Mike Brand, after scoring 7, 8, 6, got his second win in race 6. Colin remained consistent with another 2nd, as did Dave in 3rd ahead of Adrian and Peter.

DF95 Spring Series at East Kent RSC - photo © Alan Hounsell

After lunch the wind remained the same but the results didn't. Alan Hounsell popped in a couple of podiums as Peter fell away with just one 4th. Mike put in a bid with 2, 3, 3 before his luck ran out to finish with 7, 4, 9. Adrian now had his settings right and apart from a 6th place after an OCS finished 1, 1, 3, 3.

But that wasn't enough to catch Colin who finished with two 2nd places to take 2nd spot overall from Adrian by 1 point. Rob and Paul also finished 1 point apart for 7th behind Alan. But Dave Adams had showed how important small trim margins were in near zero wind, making some critical port tack crossings by a few mm in the last few races to get clear of the pack and comfortably sew up the event win with scores of 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, discarding a 3rd and 4th.

Top 10 places:

1. 358 Dave Adams
2. 48 Colin Honour
3. 30 Adrian Tomlinson
4. 875 Mike Brand
5. 211 Peter Jackson
6. 380 Alan Hounsell
7. 20 Paul Woodward
8. 571 Rob Maunder
9. 665 Simon Thornton
10. 32 Spencer Pope

DF95 Spring Series at East Kent RSC - a pre-start during Event 4 - photo © Mike Brand