Tag: Brass Monkey

D-Zero Winter Series Rounds 3 and 4

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On January 2, 2019

In Events, News, Open Meetings

The busy Christmas period saw rounds 3 and 4 of the D-Zero and Selden Sailjuice Winter Series take place at Yorkshire Dales and Grafham Water respectively. A short report for each and the series results update can be found below.

Nick Craig hiking just a little bit. Photo Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

The Brass Monkey

On the 27th December we had 4 entries for this event including a new face in a D-Zero in no other than Nick Craig. Nick had tried the D-Zero when on holiday and liked how the boat sailed and was keen to try the boat out in a competitive environment. Up stepped class chair Paul Jefferies with the offer of his boat for the day. Happily the boat was on the route up and back for Nick so all he had to do was stop, hitch on and go.

Unfortunately the wind decided not to play ball. Combined with fog this meant a long postponement and an early lunch. Luckily Yorkshire Dales SC is set in a very pretty part of the world so once the fog had cleared the competitors had something nice to look at.

The ever consistent Andrew Spencer at the Brass Monkey. Photo Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

After lunch the wind had picked up enough to allow a race to be attempted. Nick showed his pedigree by doing a horizon job on the rest of the single handed fleet and had looked good for the win until the race team spotted they had got his start time wrong. Once the results were recalculated Nick placed second overall. Still a pretty good result for the first competitive sail in a boat he didn’t know.  Combine this with the fact that he was the only boat in his fleet to do 5 laps so combine that with a dying breeze and I think we can all see just how well Nick sailed.

For the other D-Zero sailors Andrew Spencer was second home in his class and a very respectable 13th overall and Mick Green was 3rd overall in class with an equally respectable 21st overall. Unfortunately class perennial traveller and flag flyer Nigel Austin didn’t show due to illness.

The Grafham Grand Prix

Sunday 30th December saw the second of these 2 quick fire events. In all 9 D-Zeros were entered with 5 of those coming from the home club. At Grafham it is all about traffic management with the D-Zero being the slowest boat in the large medium fleet which this year was 74 boats. Some managed this better than others with Grafham local Joel Walker coming out on top of the pile class wise. He was followed home by Gavin Fleming from Hunts SC with series leader Tom Southwell only able to manage 3rd.

Photo Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

The mark roundings were very busy at times with up to 8 wide and the first beat almost a write off unless you got lucky and managed to stay in clean wind. Very difficult when the slower boat in a fleet.

Overall this means there is no real change in the overall results with Tom holding on to 1st overall and the ever consistent Andrew in 2nd and Nigel staying 3rd. There are still 4 events to go though and with only 4 to count someone could come in and shake the order up. The overall results can be found by clicking here.

D-Zero winter series leader Tom Southwell. Photo Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

In the Selden Sailjuice Winter series the D-Zero class is currently sitting 5th overall in the Class rankings. Andrew Spencer is flying the class flag in the Overall rankings sitting just inside the top 10 with Tom Southwell next in 22nd (although Tom has only done 3 events).

The next event on the Winter Series calendar is the Bloody Mary at Queen Mary SC on the 12th January. For more details and a link to online entry see the Events page for 2019.

D-Zero Winter Series Round 1 and 2 roundup

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On December 14, 2018

In Events, News, Open Meetings

Nigel Austin and Andrew Spencer in close proximity. Photo  Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

With 2 rounds of the Winter Series already completed it seems the year is drawing to a close at breakneck speed. So a short roundup of both events and some results seem to be in order.

3 D-Zeros travelled to Draycote in November for the Dash, class poster boy Tom Southwell, ever present Nigel Austin and class newcomer Andrew Spencer. The weekend promised an easterly wind which is never a good direction for Draycote Water. this meant it was variable in both strength and direction. Tom had a superb 5th in race 4 on the Saturday which put some distance between himself and the rest. he duly held it together on Sunday in slightly stronger conditions to take class honours and record 38th overall. Andrew came home 77th overall just pipping Nigel in 82nd out of the 103 boats that took to the water over the weekend.

Tom Southweell on his way to Class honours. Photo  Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

Moving on to the Datchet Flyer. With the wind gods promising a good blow it was with some trepidation that the sailors rigged on the Saturday morning. For this event 5 D-Zeros came to play with Seb Prowse and James Gerwat joining the 3 who had contested round 1. The forecast was definitely correct and even said to be on the conservative side.

Tom enjoying the breeze at the Flyer. Photo  Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

With class stalwart Nigel reporting the conditionals as ‘brutal’ the D-Zeros stuck t out despite the conditions and had fun despite a couple of people being ejected during the huge squalls. Unfortunately for Seb his day was cut short when he was ejected out the boat in a squall which caused some minor damage to his mast.

Sunday dawned and the conditions had moderated somewhat. Seb and James decided to call it a weekend after their adventures the previous day leaving Tom, Nigel and Andrew to battle it out for class honours. tom duly prevailed again posting a 15th in the double points pursuit race to take class honours and 31st overall with Andrew sneaking  ahead of Nigel in the pursuit with them taking 40th and 41st overall with Andrew being a single point ahead of Nigel.

It never looks at windy in a photo… Photo  Copyright Tim Olin/Sailracer

So overall Tom is leading the series with 2 firsts, Andrew second with 2 seconds, Nigel 3rd with 2 thirds followed by James and Seb.

In the Selden Sailjuice.com Winter Series Tom Southwell is flying the class flag in 18th overall after 2 round. More details and full results for this series can be found by clicking here.

From here we move on to the Brass Monkey up at Yorkshire Dales on the 27th December where entry is currently full but they have a waiting list if you are wanting to go. This is followed by the Grafham Grand Prix on the 30th December where we are hoping for a decent turnout given the large home fleet that is there.

More information on the D-Zero Winter Series can be found by clicking here.

D-Zero Winter Series 2018/2019

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On October 22, 2018

In Events, News, Open Meetings

Photo Copyright Tim Olin

People have asked if we will be running the D-Zero Winter Series again this year. The answer is YES. The overall winner of the series gets to carry ‘W’ on their sail to denote that they are the Winter series champion (if they wish). The series this year will encompass all the events on the Selden SailJuice.com Winter Series along with the Steve Nicholson Trophy at Northampton SC.

The series will consist of a total of 8 events with your 4 best scores to count.

Entry for the Selden SailJuice events can be done online by clicking here.

Entry for the Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy will be available by clicking here (when they open it).

The full list of events:

17th/18th November 2018 – Draycote Dash, Draycote Water SC
8th/9th December 2018 – Datchet Flyer, Datchet Water SC
27th December 2018 – Brass Monkey, Yorkshire Dales SC
30th December 2018 – Grafham grand Prix, Grafham Water SC
12th January 2019 – The Bloody Mary, Queen Mary SC
26th January 2019 – Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy, Northampton SC
2nd/3rd February 2019 – Tiger Trophy, Rutland Water SC
16th February 2019 – Oxford Blue, Oxford SC

Brass Monkey 2015 – Report and Results

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On December 30, 2015

In Events, Open Meetings

AH-YDBM2016
Arran Holman is 1st D-Zero at the Brass Monkey 2016 Photo Copyright Paul Hargreaves

Dave Woods GBR175 reports:

Too much water and not enough wind. A combination that sadly reduced the anticipated eight D-Zeros to only four.

Of the four of us present Arran Holman was taking his maiden voyage in a D-Zero. Being a somewhat accomplished young sailor, a youth champion in multiple classes, he is just the sort of person the class wants to see sailing the D-Zero. Or so I’m told. Personally a few more incompetent aging fatties to compete with wouldn’t go amiss… but far be it from me to be contrary.

Having given some thought on how to put a positive spin on the race I find it beyond my creative ability. It was awful. Although one moment of light amusement came as we, the back of the fleet, drifted towards the spreader mark. An RS200 helm providing detailed instructions to his crew on exactly what to do during the roll gybe they would perform. However, it all got very impromptu after the helm dropped the tiller extension before the crew had even moved.

Anyway, in the end Arran Holman was first D-Zero over the line followed by David Summerville, Dave Woods and Mick Green.

Unfortunately the wind dropped off entirely during lunch and the second race was cancelled. Many of us then headed down the A1 to Grafham in hope of better conditions if not in expectation of a better result.

As usual Yorkshire Dales SC proved excellent hosts and, other than the elements, the organisation was everything we’ve come to expect from a great club.

DS-YDBM2016
David Summerville takes 2nd D-Zero at the Brass Monkey 2016 Photo Copyright: Paul Hargreaves

The full results can be found by clicking here.

It’s worth noting that Arran Holman won 3 prizes at the event, 10th overall, 1st singlehander and 1st in the B (Medium handicap) fleet. Very well sailed for his first time in the boat.

From here the fleet moved on to the Grafham Grand Prix on the following day, a full report, results and D-Zero Winter Series positon update are to follow.

The next event on the calendar for the D-Zero fleet is the Oxford Blue which is round 6 of the D-Zero Winter Series 2015/2016 and round 5 of the GJW SailJuice Winter Series 2015/2016.

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