DF95 Winter Series event 5 at East Kent Radio Sailing Club

Close call between the leader and the spreader mark - DF95 Winter Series event 5 at East Kent RSC © Peter Jackson

Nine EKRSC members braved a biting north-easterly breeze at the top of A rig range. Ralph Wilkinson kept warm hands by running the racing. Mike Brand, Adrian Tomlinson then Peter Jackson started with a win each and shared the other podium places. But then things changed...

After some 1mm tweaks Peter found the sweet spot and banged in 5 clear wins in a row. Colin Honour and Alan Hounsell took 2ndplaces with Adrian slipping to 3rd and Mike falling away for most of the morning. Jim LaRoche felt slow and found he had a leaky hull so retired early. Adrian did his own tweaking but to no avail and had to settle for a string of six 2nd places each side of lunch, taken in the warm café now open again. Colin was sailing consistently with three 3rd spots to Mike's one. Alan reached a peak with a 3rd followed by a win before the break.

After lunch the gusts became a bit feisty, testing control skills and adding entertainment. Peter had one aberration judged to tack onto starboard too close the Adrian at the finish, but race 9 saw the new normal service resume as Peter plugged in another four straight wins to all but tie up the event with 4 races to go, wondering exactly where he was going right! Spencer Pope didn't like the cold and bailed out after lunch and two 5th places.

10 seconds to a port end biased start - DF95 Winter Series event 5 at East Kent RSC - photo © Peter Jackson

Alan's challenge fell away after lunch but Mike's tweaking started to work with a 3rd then a 2nd but he then found he didn't have a clew in race 12. Colin won race 13 amid a 3rd and 2nd to overhaul Mike and lie 3rd in the table with two races to go. Adrian mostly kept plugging in the 2nd places behind Peter plus two 3rd places, first behind Mike, then behind Colin.

Peter could now ease off but scored two more 1st and one 3rd place for good measure to win by 9 points with 11 wins.

Adrian finally got his second 1st then a 2nd place in the last two races but was already firmly in 2nd spot, taking it by 17 points. Rob Owens had a mare of a day with a plethora of OCS's, collisions, missed wind-shifts and poor speed. Alan mostly kept Rob at bay but both only scored 4ths at best after lunch. Mike finished with a 2nd & 3rd but only enough to get within a point of Colin who faded but just hung on for 3rd overall. Alan was 14 points back, holding off Rob by 7 points to take 5th.

All look forward to spring arriving!

Results:

1. 211 Peter Jackson
2. 30 Adrian Tomlinson
3. 48 Colin Honour
4. 875 Mike Brand
5. 380 Alan Hounsell
6. 479 Robert Owens
7. 32 Spencer Pope
8. 57 Jim La Roche

Five seconds to the start - DF95 Winter Series event 5 at East Kent RSC - photo © Peter Jackson