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.
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!
Entries were received from Gosport, Hampton Court, Vintage Model Yacht Club and Fleetwood.
On arriving at the lake on Saturday morning it was practically flat calm with a very light breeze from the south. Fortunately at the 10-00 hrs start time there was a light breeze blowing from the west, so racing commenced. Most yachts were in their tallest rigs, the Vintage with 72″ rig height and the later Classic yachts up to 85″. There were 7 Vintage and 7 Classic yachts so Teams of Two (TOTs) with each team consisting of a Classic and a Vintage yacht, were drawn at random. Seven heats were sailed on Saturday. The weather was warm and sunny and the wind strengthened a little. Oly Murray had a good day only dropping 2 points.
On Saturday evening our President, Derek, had booked a table for competitors and guests at the North Euston Hotel and a pleasant evening was spent.
On Sunday morning the wind was still from the west, but much stronger than the previous day. Smaller sails were employed by all. Some impressive runs were seen by those brave enough to use spinnakers. Racing was terminated around 16-00 hrs with just 2 heats left of the race schedule. Scores were converted to %, as some had not had byes.
RESULTS
%
1st Oly Murray Fleetwood Classic 90.9
2nd Keith Wiseman Fleetwood Classic 83
3rd Dave & Rob Bell Fleetwood Vintage 63.6
4th Derek Priestley Fleetwood Classic 58.2
5th Peter Whiteside Fleetwood Vintage 56.4
6th Peter Iles Fleetwood Vintage 54
7th Derek Morland Gosport Vintage 52.7
8th= Nigel Brown Gosport Vintage 40
8th= Dave Lindsay Gosport Vintage 40
10th David Mathers Hampton Court Classic 36.4
11th John Sharman Fleetwood Classic 35
12th Tony Wilson Fleetwood Vintage 34.6
13th Gareth Jones Vintage MYG Classic 30.2
14th Wayne Stobbs Gosport Vintage 27.6
Trophies Presented
1st Classic Mayoral M Class Cup Oly Murray
2nd Classic Pearson Trophy Keith Wiseman
1st Vintage Walter Jones Trophy David & Robert Bell
Fleetwood MYPBC 