Radio Sailors kick start 2025
Published 20:25 on 4 Feb 2025
First race - Wednesday 22 January
Forecast was grim. No wind, but in reality very light to moderate winds from the north. With six boats on the water, there was some very tight sailing. The ice had swept the buoys off to the north end and needed recovering using the club rib. Dennis and I laid the course, putting the leeward mark quite well out by the lake start line and other marks in more or less normal positions.
The cafe was open, serving delicious food and the clubhouse was cosy and warm. We welcomed new member Tony, who will hopefully join in the sailing soon. Kevin put in an appearance as well but minus his all important boat !
The first race of the year was won by Mike. There wasn't much shouting, all very well behaved! Dennis won the 3rd race by finishing on the first lap (didn't count)! Nice to see we haven't lost our ability to count to two. We managed to complete three races in the morning session. With lunch the chat turned to the upcoming race at Manor Park.
The wind picked up for some of the afternoon session and a further six races were run. Dennis almost missing the finish line on one race on his way to lap 3 of a 2 lap race. Racing finished a bit later than normal - all so keen to get in practice before Manor Park . Everything was packed away by about 15:40 - thanks to all.
Well done to Dave B getting a first and stopping Mike and Steve sharing all the firsts! Also a big welcome to Tony who came to see us and signed up.
Anita
Manor Park - 26 January 2025
Six members of RLSC RC section visited this venue and were met with a cold South Westerly breeze. Whilst you may well see a dozen or more of our RC section sailing on a Wednesday and a smaller number on a Sunday we do sometimes take part in Open races at other clubs and this was the first occasion this year - rescheduled from the 5th January when we had the amber/yellow weather warning.
All were sailing DF95 yachts which have 4 optional rigs ranging from the A rig which you will often see in use at Rudyard but with a B, C or D rig which have correspondingly smaller sail areas.
We all started the day using the large A rigs but the wind speed was around 12 mph, gusting to 16 or so and as the day progressed the wind speed gradually increased so that after lunch everyone switched to B rigs - a fairly quick process - and then finally C rigs by which time the wind speed had increased to around 20mph gusting to 30.
The RLSC contingent - Mike Raine (jib number 773), Steve Thomas (118), Bill Hancock (69) and Simon Cornes (503) plus Dennis Birchenhall and Ian Conway observing - were up against 10 skippers. 5 from the host club plus one each from the clubs at Birkenhead, Birmingham, Market Bosworth, Hollowell (Northampton) and Two Islands (Milton Keynes).
It was a hard day for everyone with rain added to the weather mix and wind chill bringing the temperature close to zero. We sailed 16 races and our positions were Mike - 7th, Simon - 10th, Bill - 11th and Steve - 13th. At 2.20 the skippers were asked if they wanted to carry on sailing because the Notice of Race stated that the last race would not start after 3pm and, as you will know, if one skipper wants to continue then we would have raced on but - thankfully - we had all had enough and 16 races meant that all of us could discard our worst 3 results.
We went home a bit weather beaten with some gear failures to repair but having had a good day in good company and after winning new friends in the wider radio sailing community. As with all sailing, it is better to sail against people from other clubs if you want to progress and RLSC RC section acquitted themselves well on a challenging day. Some of us will be racing again at Blithfield Sailing Club in early March (2 day event) and at Manor Park again later in March.
Radio sailing is open to all ages, sexes and abilities and we sail by exactly the same racing rules, slightly altered to reflect the fact that their are no helm or crew on board. We are always pleased to welcome new members to our group and experienced dinghy sailors have a head start on those without any previous sailing experience so you should give it a go!
Simon
