Rounds 8 and 9 of the 2023 were held at Eastbourne over the weekend of 7th & 8th of October.  Two contrasting days sailing as indicated in the attached report from Race Officer Peter Kemp.

It was probably one of the best weekends of weather at Eastbourne this year, especially for October.  A highly competitive fleet of nine boats enthralled spectators over the two days, with over thirty races completed. Tobias Laux won each day, with Sunday being another ‘first’ with all first positions to count after discards!  Well done, Tobi!

 Entry: There were nine entrants each day, most of whom were registered before Saturday.  Competitors came from many clubs across the south of the country.

Weather:   Saturday’s forecast was very accurate, starting and finishing with a predominately south westerly force 3 to 5, needing skilled sailing as well as good tactics. 18 races were completed without protests and plenty of time for rig changes and repairs!

Sunday, as forecast, had no wind to start with, but just after an hour’s delay, a decent sea breeze filled in and stayed through to four o’clock. Foregoing lunch another 18 races were completed.

Many thanks go to Jes Collier on Saturday and Dave Allinson on Sunday for moving marks and resetting the course as needed, making the races challenging and enjoyable.

Scoring: No heats were necessary over the two days. Our ‘Racemaster’ race control system, ensured that race results were 100% accurate. Our thanks go to Mike Parris for creating the system.

Protests:  No protests were lodged. Thanks go to the club’s race team of starters, finishers and observers; John Crix, Tony Marshall, Rob Ahier, Dave Allinson, Scott Pearce and Rob Shepperd.

Social: The club team provided hot and cold drinks at the waterside, with an après sail beer later back in the clubhouse.

Results

A video of Sundays racing was taken by club member Terry Connell and is available on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/yoewPdCWohc?si=sQX0PqjBBG8hppQ9

Day 2 dawned with 14 knots from a SSE direction with a forecast set to move this to a Southerly and increase in strength at some point during the morning to be 20 knots with gusts of up to 30.  At least it was mild in the breeze and there was only a small amount of rain most of it falling during an early lunch break.  Course changes were also minimal as the breeze probably only changed in direction by 20 degrees and so all racing could be conducted from the good vantage point of the promenade.

Graham Elliott (Electronica) continued where he left off after the first day and had a dominating day winning 9 of the 15 races sailed.  There were4 race wins for Victor Izquierdo (Ivy), plus one each for Rohan Williams (Uno) and Bill Culshaw (Ivy).  Tobias Laux (Ivy) also had a very consistent day, but without a win to his name.

Unfortunately the combined effects of the strong winds, leaking boats with salt water led to a good number of retirements from racing during the day, so that having started the day with a potential 12 boats racing, by the end there were only 6 boats  in each of the last 4 races.

The final result gave the Championship to Graham in first, well ahead of Victor in second who narrowly beat Tobias into third place.  Full results are below along with pictures of the podium sailors.

Winner Graham Elliott, 2nd Victor Izquierdo, 3rd Tobias Laux

Photos from both days of the event are available on the Birkenhead Flikr Album HERE

A video of Race 10 was taken by Birkenhead member John Beech is available on Youtube here

It was a tricky day at West Kirby for both the sailors and Race Officer.  After setting up a proposed Course prior to the briefing the wind had swung through nerly 90 degrees during the briefing and so had to be reset and caused a 20 minute delay to the start of racing.  As the day progressed, the 6 to 12 knot wind kept the Race Officer and his mark laying team on their toes with changes or potential changes after every few races even up to the final Race (16) which was completed by 18:00hrs.  The day was rounded out with Graham Elliott sailing an Electronica leading the event, with Spaniard Victor Izquierdo sailing an Ivy in second and Tobias Laux also sailing an Ivy in third.

Here are the overall results with 7 events sailed and 4 to count.

Whilst waiting for the report to be generated, here are the results for Saturday and Sunday.

There are some photos taken by Errol Edwards on Sunday at TT #8 here

Here are the overall series results after 5 events have been sailed with 2 discards. 

A great turnout of 19 skippers arrived at Bournville for the event. Two fleets were the order of the day, particularly as the wind was forecast to increase and generate some lively conditions. A westerly prevailed for the day, but it was anything but steady. Much frustration was evident as skippers made changes from 1st to 2nd rigs and back again whilst the wind strength rose and fell to contradict the skippers’ efforts. There were two instances of de-masting and various other strength testing happenings. Repairs were skilfully implemented under pressure of time to resume sailing and get those much sought after points.
Most skippers found themselves in A fleet and then B fleet at various times, and it was not all one way for the top five.
Good sportsmanship was displayed by everyone with all contacts being resolved with penalty turns completed quickly. In all, the RG65 class provided some fast and close quarter action which all enjoyed taking part in.

RG65 TT-1 15th April 2023

The race team turned up to 15-18 mph winds from the north with light drizzle. Fortunately the drizzle stopped around 09:00 never to reappear. This just left the wind where it was and the skippers debating which rig to start with.

Racing got under way at 10:00 with Graham Elliott taking the first win followed by Chris Elliott & Rohan Williams. This was followed by an enforced break while the Sea Scouts launched their dinghies. The wind eased slightly during the break so all started race 2 with top rigs.

Although the wind strength was fairly consistent throughout the morning the direction wasn’t, there was fair amount of mark moving. 10 races were managed by lunchtime with Graham Elliott taking 9 wins and Chris Elliot the 10th. Second and third places were shared between the rest of the fleet.

We continued after lunch but after 4 races, in a break and without warning, the wind veered 90 degrees in around 30 seconds and stayed there for the rest of the day. A new course was quickly set on a different part of the lake and racing got under way again.

By the end of the day we had managed 22 races with 17 wins to Graham Elliott, Rohan Williams 3 wins, Chris Elliott and Dorian Crease with 1 each.

Later that evening, several beers were drunk, Toby Laux joined us and a good curry was eaten.

Thanks to the East Kent RSC race team Ralph Wilkinson and John Nash for their help in running the event.  Results as follows:

RG65 TT 2023 R1 15 Apr 2023 713727

RG65 TT-2 16th April 2023

It didn’t look very encouraging on arrival Sunday morning. The water looked like glass. By 09:00 a few puffs here and there had appeared from the south. A course was set and racing started at 09:30.

2 races were completed in light airs before the wind backed to the east and increased to 10-12 mph. Once again a new course was set on the same part of the lake as on the Saturday. It stayed there for the rest of the day.

19 races were completed, Graham Elliott with 11 wins, Toby Laux with his new Ivy got 6 wins, Chris Elliott & Rohan Williams had 1 each.

Again, thanks to the East Kent RSC race team Ralph Wilkinson, John Nash and Ian Lloyd for their help.

RG65 TT 2023 R2 16 Apr 2023 685612