The first round of the GBR RG65 TT series was hosted by Lincoln Radio Sailing Club on Friday 1st April. The experiment of holding a race on a Friday before a DF TT weekend unfortunately did not work out, it was hoped we would swell our numbers with either RG’s or a few would enter and use their Dragonforce 65’s as a practice for the TT race’s being held on the Saturday.
Still, 17 RG65’s entered and were welcomed to the club by our PRO for the day Pete Walters at 9.45, Pete proved himself a great PRO for the day, keeping racing ticking over nicely and setting some great startling line’s and courses which was not the easiest job with the wind swinging in direction over the day, using a pole on the bank as one end of the start line was a good idea, as no time was lost to alter the bias.
Racing started at 10am prompt with most skippers opting for the ‘B’ rig, some swing and some conventional. It was Graham Elliott sailing his Brad Gibson designed Electronica who set the early pace winning 6 out of the first 8 races but the pack was not far behind led by Peter Baldwin sailing his Uno and Derek Priestley sailing his newly acquired Scurry design.
At around 1pm a 40 minute lunch was called and this gave skippers a chance to escape the elements and get warmed up as most were now drenched by snow, rain, sleet and frozen to the bone by the wind chill factor and freezing conditions. To think only one week ago I was in shorts planting bedding plants and having a Guinness on the patio, what happened to Spring?
After lunch, the wind continued to go from ‘A’ rig to ‘C’ rig gusts in a matter of minutes and it was Peter Baldwin that mounted his challenge winning races 9,10 and 11 with Tobias Laux sailing his new design, Deadbeat65, also making progress, his new design certainly was an improvement in these conditions, especially downwind, even with an extra set of 60g batteries in the boat that he had forgot about, sandbagging before the Nationals in 5 weeks maybe?
Pete called it a day at 4pm, just as the sun decided to come out and 16 races sailed. Race winners were, Graham Elliott (8), Peter Baldwin (5), Derek Priestley (1), Tobias Laux (1) and Jim La Roche (1).
Many thanks must go to the Lincoln club, they always do the best they can to ensure the skippers have great sailing under some challenging conditions, special thanks must also go to Jen Hand and Judith Baldwin who finished every race in what can only be described as filthy weather.