A day of wind, waves and weeeed!   Five skippers started the morning (Eric was delayed), all in C rig, except for Tony W with his heavyweight Lintel, he opted for B rig, which seemed to suit.  As the wind was barrelling down the lake from the west, we started on the Yellow line, up to the Red gate and then back downwind to Yellow Buoy #1, the finish over the Yellow line, keeping away from the waves and the weed accumulation at the clubhouse end.  Despite this, we all caught the ‘grass weed’, several of us more than once.  Getting the boats out at the end of a long starboard  tack and clearing the weed seemed a good tactic, but in the gusty wind and waves catch and release was somewhat dicey.  Paul M sensibly quit during race 2, to avoid damage to his lovely V12, but the other four kept on with the weed lottery.  (oh, and 2x stray crab lines).  Eric joined in for race 6, just in time for Tony to get water in the electrics and cut his knee.  After Race 8 we stopped for lunch and, in the increasing wind and waves, didn’t restart in the afternoon.  Thanks to Paul for starting and scoring, and to Garry and Tony for helping get the clubhouse end weed rafts out of the lake.  Hopefully this wind will have moved most of the weed down to the end ready for tomorrow’s Northern District R6M championship.

IOM – no scores

Well what a result ladies and germs!  A low turnout again, but a lovely afternoon and evening, marred only by an excess of floating weeeeeed.

The three musketeers organised themselves in the afternoon (Peter was out having tea and scones), with Derek taking the win from Eric and John.  

In the evening peter was sufficiently sconed-up to join in, and Mark came along as well. At the end of the session, after discards we had a three-way tie for first place.  All had equal numbers of firsts and seconds, and it was only on thirds that Mark tiptoed past Derek and we had to go to fourths for Derek to pass John!  Eric came in next leaving Peter to bring up the rear.  Thanks to Paul for starting and scoring both events.

Entrants from Birkenhead, Leeds & Bradford and Fleetwood attended. The wind was light from the West end of the lake giving perfect run and beat conditions. Most skippers set spinnakers downwind. All yachts had both a skipper and mate. Zac and Sam Roberts gave an excellent performance, only losing one beat to Dave and Jeanette Geldard. After completing the first round, two additional heats were sailed.

Thanks are due to Bob Jolly for scoring and Martin Roberts for starting and also aiding the most elderly skippers.

Results

1st  Zac & Sam Roberts                    Designer J. Simpson       Birkenhead                32 points

2nd Dave & Jeanette Geldard                          W. Sykes          Leeds & Bradford      25

3rd  Derek & Lisa Priestley                               D. Hollom         Fleetwood                 18

4th  Olly Murray & Rob MacIntosh                    G. Bantock      Fleetwood                  14

5th  Peter Whiteside & Kevin Berry                   D. Hollom        Fleetwood                  10

6th  Peter Iles & Eric Austwick                          W. Sykes         Fleetwood                   6

Sunday 21st June 2026 Northern District Championship

The wind direction had changed to North East and was very light. Spinnakers were just about useable for the first two heats, then the wind became more square across and even lighter, so they were not used. During heat 3 the wind direction kept swinging so trimming became difficult. 

It was decided to finish the round and the event.

Results

1st   Dave & Jeanette Geldard                14 Points

2nd  Peter Whiteside & Kevin Berry        12

3rd   Derek & Lisa Priestley                     10

4th   Olly Murray & Rob MacIntosh          8

5th   Peter Iles & Eric Austwick                6

Thanks again to Bob Jolly for scoring.

A bigger turnout for today’s racing, Number 2 of the summer series (but in reality no.1 as last week was too windy and rough to sail).

What a pity the wind didn’t cooperate, particularly for the evening racing.  After blowing nicely all morning down the lake and under the bridge, by start of racing at 15:00the now fitful breeze was pushing inland across the lake, making sailing slow and allowing the floating grassy weed (which had been pinned tight into the clubhouse corner) to slowly expand to the first row of buoys.   An attempt by several skippers to push a floating island to the bank at the end of the final race left them all stranded in the Sargasso Sea! 

During tea break the wind shifted to blow more down the lake, leaving the weed trailing along the near bank meaning that for the start of evening racing if you found a clear space to launch and stayed out in the middle you were (mostly) ok.  A complete reversal of direction, to blowing back up the lake and under the bridge again, however, spread it out across the whole lake so everyone was catching it and as the promised rain started spotting, we stopped after five races. 

Afternoon honors went to John S, with Derek taking second.  In the evening Derek took first, with Terry R second.

A quiet day’s sailing with an oddly variable wind, defying us to set a sensible course.  Whilst most of the gang were off in chocolate-land with their 6 metres, Neil showed us how it was done with ten victories in fourteen races.  Even intensive work by Eric’s pit crew over the lunch break couldn’t keep him off the podium!

Will I see more of you at next Tuesday’sevents?