DF95 Winter Series event 6 at East Kent Radio Sailing Club
by Peter Jackson 2 Mar 10:58 GMT
27 February 2025
It was Mike Brand's turn to win the latest East Kent DF95 Winter series event following Adrian Tomlinson's & Peter Jackson's recent wins. 16 races were run by Ralph Wilkinson with up to 12 knot winds with many lulls and a few 15 knot gusts. Club Chairman Alan Hounsell handed over course setting to Peter Jackson for the day.
Mike was fast out of the box, winning the first five races. Most had Peter ever closer behind, but Spencer Pope was 2nd in race 3. Alan Hounsell was getting up to speed with four 3rds, a 2nd then a 1st in race 7. Rob Owen's tried a B rig, immediately causing the wind to drop, then switched back to A to score 2,1,3,2 in races 5 to 8. Jim LaRoche just missed out on the podium places before retiring hurt. Peter Jackson was struggling with electrical problems, missing 3 races before lunch, then returning with a win from Alan and Spencer.
Alan plugged in 3 more 3rd places in the afternoon then finished with his 2nd win. Spencer manager two more 3rd spots. But it was all change at the front as Peter and Rob traded 3 wins each, Peter also scored four 2nd places to come back into contention, but Mike fended off the late challenges with four podiums from 8 races, including a race 15 win, for Nett 23 points.
Robert and Peter finished all square on 30 points with Rob, after some stunning risky starts punctuated by the odd 'bail out', taking 2nd on countback. Alan faded in races 11-13 to slip 7 points further behind but the final race win meant he comfortably held off Spencer for 4th. Adrian held on to win the Winter Series. Mike and Peter finished level on points for 2nd but Peter again lost out on countback, only fair as he'd borrowed Mike's fast spare battery for his last 3 wins on the day!
Event 6 Results: (top five)
1. 875 Mike Brand
2. 479 Robert Owens
3. 211 Peter Jackson
4. 380 Alan Hounsell
5. 32 Spencer Pope