DF95 Autumn Series at East Kent Radio Sailing Club - Week 7

DF95 Autumn Series at Barton's Point week 7 © Mike Brand

The coldest day of the year so far kept many away but nine members turned up at the Kentish Riviera for DF95 event 7, with Ralph Wilkinson as R.O. Jim LaRoche also braved it, but with his IOM, and later.

16 races were sailed in winds near the top of A rig range, or bottom of B rig range if you were Rob Owens! Peter Jackson set the courses but the WNW wind was quite steady.

Having been wet-wiped by Adrian Tomlinson and others in recent events Dave Adams was determined to stage a come-back so employed Mike Brand and Peter Jackson's old tactic of winning the first two races. Adrian, using his lucky orange anorak, was close behind in both, with Mike and Peter third. Dave then hit the 'race 3 slide' down the pack, but only to 3rd, then recovered with 2, 1, before a 4th. It was Peter who took advantage with firsts in races 3 and 5, ahead of Adrian then Rob Owens. Adrian got the other win to punctuate straight 2nds but then crashed to 7th in race 6.

Alan Hounsell and Mike Brand were again locking horns for 3rd spots, claiming two each among 4ths, 5ths & 6ths. They were then joined by Adrian, having a torrid time with two 4ths and a 5th in the lead up to lunch. In the meantime Dave, now getting used to his new hand (home) made sails, had started a string of five 1st places in a row over lunch, two from Peter, one Adrian and one Rob. Peter stayed in the top 3, which Rob and Alan visited. After a second 3rd place in race 5 Mike Brand fell away, loosing the will to live after scoring 7,5,5,5,6,9 and taking a early shower.

After a last minute switch to an old hull Peter tried starting all races in irons and coming back through the fleet, with limited success, finishing 3,3,3,4,4,4,4. Rob Owens, persisting with his B rig, finished more strongly with 3,5,2,3 but finished 10 points behind Peter in 4th. Alan put in a late 2,3,3, and could still have beaten Rob for 4th with a last race win if Rob had finished with his normal retirement, but Rob held on and Alan ended up 6 points adrift in 5th, 10 points ahead of Mike. Ed Coxon & Simon Thornton had a close battle for 7th in the tricky waves, just won by Ed.

At the front end, Adrian now finally got into the groove with a 2,1,1,1,2 finish. But Dave had done the comeback job to sew up the win by race 12. He interspersed a 1st and two 2nd places with a discarded 6th and a 5th to take the event by a comfortable 5 points from Adrian, who still leads the series. Behind these terrible twins Mike lies in 3rd, 3 points ahead of Peter by virtue of some good October form. With still a few events to go Mike may need to find that form again.

Week 7 Results:

1. 358, Dave Adams 18pts
2. 30, Adrian Tomlinson 23pts
3. 211, Peter Jackson 37pts
4. 470, Robert Owens 47pts
5. 380, Alan Hounsell 53pts
6. 875, Mike Brand 63pts
7. 07, Ed Coxon 89pts
8. 665, Simon Thornton 94pts