Saturday’s forecast for Round 5 of the TT was at best light and variable.  Who says that the wind always blows in Yorkshire.  The briefing took place as normal with Derek Priestly arriving just in time to pick up the boat being loaned to him by Michael Parkington, and then the wait started.  If there was some wind, it was not suiting the course. PRO John Sharman would get the course reset, only for the wind to die or swing through massive angles.

Racing eventually took place with John Tushingham managing to come to terms with the variable conditions over 14 races taking him to the win with Derek 2nd and Peter Baldwin 3rd.  It was great to see a mix of Scurry, Scram, Pocket Rocket, Sith, Sledge and Manta in the top 10.

The forecast for day 2 and TT6 was much the same, possibly even more variable.

Derek hit the road running with a win in the 1st race before having his mainsheet snapped in race 2 by a rogue whirlwind.  In the end this setback did not not have too much of an impact as he went on to take the event win, with John Tushingham second and Wayne Stobbs 3rd.

Thanks must go to John Sharman and his team of merry helpers for keeping things going as best they could under testing conditions.

Thanks also go to Judith and Peter Baldwin for keeping the score sheets in order and last but not least, Liz Tushingham and the other ladies in the kitchen for keeping us fed an watered during the weekend.

13 Skippers turned out for the 09:45 briefing from PRO Clive Bardell at Watermead for round 4 of the RG65 TT on Sunday 9 June.

Glassy spots on the lake were an indication that the forecast was correct, but in the end the wind filled nicely for the day, well, till the last of the 16 races on the day.  Indeed, 16 races were sailed before the 16:30 cutoff and it is safe to say that the day proved be good fun for all those competing.

Mrs Tushingham beat Mr Tushingham into 2^nd place in race one which clearly upset him as he went on to score 12 wins on the day, tarnishing his overall score with a 2^nd place after the 3 discards.

Phil Holliday managed a brace of wins on his way to 2^nd overall with John Brierley taking 3^rd place on the day.

Great to see the 9 different designs of Rg65 carrying both Swing and Conventional rigs mixing up the racing proving that there is no one design that is running away with all the honours.

Well done to the race team at Watermead for running the day so efficiently.

A good entry of 19 boats of which there were 7 different designs competing for round 3 of the RG65 TT at Birkenhead, where we were met with blue skies and a decent breeze of 6 to 8 knots straight down the lake, with all skippers opting for their number 1 rigs to start the days sailing.

We sailed 4 races before a quick cup of tea/coffee (and a piece of cake) with no one skipper quick out of the blocks. Martin Roberts did take 2 out of the first 4 but also scored heavily in the other 2 sailing a borrowed Scram for the day.

Eight races were sailed before lunch and still no one skipper dominated with 5 different race winners and only a few points separating the top 5 boats it was obvious that consistency was going to win the day.

After lunch with the breeze building and skippers going down a rig at some point during the next four races, it was tight to the finish, finally after 17 races it was Martin Roberts who ground out the win on his maiden venture with an RG65 and gave the lad a smile from ear to ear.

We had two lady helms competing at this event, both enjoyed the champagne sailing with Liz Tushingham finishing in a well placed 7th and Susan Parkington 13th.

Thanks must go to  Judith Baldwin, Bernie, Neil and Chris Westbrook for their help and not forgetting John Brierley for supplying the scones and Bara brith to have with our tea.

The RG65 circus came to Bournville and what a cracking do!

18 skippers from the length and breadth of the country, Keigthly, Birkenhead to Portsmouth and most places in between. To say Bournville was surprised and delighted was an understatement, there is a burgeoning fleet of RG’s growing there and after seeing how these cracking little boats perform it will grow again. So win win for all.

The wind was a nice top suit breeze from the far end of the lake allowed RO Peter Moore to set a course that used the lake fully in a two lap figure of eight configuration.

There was a good spread of the current designs, Scurry’s, Sledges, Syth’s and the odd Pocket Rocket a mix of carbon and glass hulls, most had swing rigs.

Using the long race format Peter got in 12 races during the day with not too much time out.

John Tushingham lead the way to come out the winner on the day, Clive Cockayne was second, Mark Dicks third and Liz Tushingham fourth.

The racing, as always, was tight throughout the fleet and it was excellent sailing across the board. It can all be wrapped up with that very apt but totally applicable “A jolly good time was had by all” and Bournville is looking forward to the circus coming back again next year

Skippers were greeted with a forecast of 20 mile an hour winds gusting 30 from the west. 20 Helms had pre-entered but on the day 18 arrived starting at 10 o’clock, not before people enjoyed bacon BAP‘s and egg and bacon rolls to start the day.

Roger Clifford was RO along with the usual group of Eastbourne club members and wives to run the event for which the skippers thank them enormously.

Racing started at 10 o’clock and continued at slick pace as you can see from the number of races completed. It became a war of attrition as boat and electronic failures arrived regularly during the day.

Rig choice was between B and C initially some using A- but it very soon became apparent that B rig was the order of the day until later in the morning with the gusty wind becoming even stronger most opted for C rig.

After an excellent lunch break with hot soup French bread sausage rolls and hot dogs were the order of the day as we all warmed up.

Racing resumed at 1:45 and continued until 4 o’clock. During the afternoon the wind abated and we opted to go back to B rig which most people finished up with.  At some point the wind was even light enough for people to go back to an A minus momentarily but it soon became clear as it’s was just too much sail area.

23 Races completed and the top 3 on the day were within 10 points of each other.  Ken Binks took the win, closely followed by Alex Cory and Clive Cockayne

Full results are shown below and we almost achieved a fourth discard but the clock just beat us.

Thank you to Roger Clifford and all his team along with the catering wise made it a superb day to start the season. Thanks also to the Eastbourne club for once again providing a great day’s sailing.

Thanks to Dave Pickett for the use of his photos.  Move pictures available on his Flickr Page