DF95 Winter Series event 7 at East Kent Radio Sailing Club

DF95 Winter Series event 7 at East Kent RSC © Peter Jackson

13 knots, 11 boats and 16 degree sunshine turned up for 14 races at East Kent's 6th March DF95 event including recent Chipstead open winner Stuart Ord-Hume guesting, who found the competition close and intense. Mike Brand continued his previous event form by starting with 1,1,2,1.

Rob Maunder, back from a long break in NZ, was straight back on the pace with a 2nd Stuart struggled before posting two 2nd places but Adrian Tomlinson stayed mostly on the podium before posting 4 wins by race 8. 3rd spots went to Robert Owens, then two to Peter Jackson then Alan Hounsell. Peter then hit form with 2,2,1,2 to get in contention before being the first of two front runners to suffer rudder servo issues.

Stuart, unfamiliar with near windshift-free sailing, finally got a win in race 9, then staying on the podium. Peter, left in irons on failing to shoot the windward mark was almost passed by Rob Owens for the lead but the collision put both out of contention. After his 4th win and 3 more podiums Mike then suffered the same rudder servo failure as Peter and both were out of the game.

Robbed Maunder popped in another 2nd in race 12 but the main mover was Peter Glover, absent for some months, who finished with three 3rd and one 2nd place. Alan, Martin Hill and Spencer Pope never seemed to get their settings right, and stayed out of the chocolates to the end. Adrian on the other hand got on a roll, winning the last 4 races to grab a clear event win, with Stuart 18 points back. Mike had done enough for 3rd, from Rob M and Peter J, to lead the series from Mike with Peter one point back.

Overall Results:

1. 30 Adrian Tomlinson
2. 25 Stuart Ord-Hume
3. 875 Mike Brand
4. 571 Rob Maunder
5. 211 Peter Jackson
6. 380 Alan Hounsell
7. 26 Peter Glover
8. 156 Martin Hill
9. 32 Spencer Pope
10. 479 Robert Owens
11. 86 Johnny V