DF95 Spring Series at East Kent Radio Sailing Club - Week 1

Practice start during the DF95 Spring Series at Barton's Point week 1 © Mike Brand

In a maximum 14 knot wind, easing all day, twelve DF95 skippers attended the first East Kent Spring Series event at Barton's Point. The fleet was well behaved (apart from pre start collision damage to Jim LaRoche) and used A rigs all day with rotating race officer duty earning average points.

The first 4 wins were taken by Peter Jackson, Mike Brand, Adrian Tomplinson and Dave Adams. Dave and Mike also got one 2nd place and Peter got two, but Adrian only 3rds. These 4 booked out the podium until race 7 when chairman Alan Hounsell finally paid his only visit with a 2ndplace.

Peter, using an old set of Mikes sails, was the first to get two wins, followed by Adrian, both ending up with 4 wins. But Peters cunning tactics to get a good average points score was to plug in consistent 2nd places (7) against Adrian's 3rds (6). Dave scored one more win than these 2 but his sheet jumped the winch in race 6 and he missed 3 races. Mike ended up with 3 wins and 4 other podiums but also had to count two 4ths and a 5th.

Adrian Tomlinson's little brother Dave, another good keelboat helm, gets faster each week, He scored four 4ths, but from race 8 he was also plugging in the podium spots finishing with four 3rds. A more steady improver was Simon Thornton, with a string of 4ths from race 8 and finally a 2nd in the last race to pip Rob Owens, who had a very average day, managing four 4ths but finishing with a 9th and 10th.

Newby Ed Coxon was another improver, with a 4th in race 12 and beating chairman Alan, struggling in mid fleet, for the first time. Spencer Pope only just kept off the podium, but comfortably won his weekly battle with his Medway mate Andrew Nicholls.

At the front, as the wind faded, Dave finished most strongly with 1,1,3,1, too late to get back into contention for the event but enough to beat Mikes 4,2,5,3 finish and secure 3rd overall. Peter had a comfortable lead on Adrian for 1st, but a retirement from the lead in race 14 for a battery made it close. Adrian won race 15 but Peter kept him honest with a 2nd and covered him down the fleet in the last race to take his first event win for a few months.

Week 1 Results: (top ten)

1. 211 Peter Jackson (110)
2. 30 Adrian Tomlinson
3. 65 Dave Adams
4. 10 Mike Brand
5. 740 David Tomlinson
6. 665 Simon Thornton
7. 479 Robert Owens
8. 007 Edward Coxon
9. 380 Alan Hounsell
10. 32 Spencer Pope

Full daily results can be found here.