28th May 2026 DF95 Series
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21st May 2026 DF95 Series
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14th May 2026 DF95 Series
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12th May 2026 DF95 Evening Series
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5th May 2026 DF95 Evening Series
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Report of the 2026 Ash Trophy at Littleton Sailing Club
A lot has happened since the 2025 event when Guildford had no lake and hosted the event at Frensham Pond. The link up with Littleton Sailing Club has been a great success and the seven visitors were able to enjoy marvellous facilities at Littleton and a big open lake to sail on. The forecast wind was southerly blowing parallel to the clubhouse. However it was the varying wind speed and direction that that created a big problem for race officer, Roger Stollery.
Ten sailors with seven visitors arrived to what was best described as a flat calm. Despite this twelve races were sailed initially on a course for the southerly wind, however every now and again the wind became more southeasterly and the course was relayed with the beats in that direction. Even during a race in a reasonable breeze the wind would suddenly disappear and make progress difficult if you were in the wrong place.
In Race 1 experienced dinghy sailor Dave Adams from East Kent picked the right shifts and sailed into a good lead from John Darbyshire from Emsworth with local sailor Alan Viney third. John was seen sheeting in and out to prevent his sails stalling on the offwind legs, whilst Alan had the benefit of wind indicator clipped to the backstay crane.
Mike Wilkie took Race 2 after a good start from the port end of the line and finished with a big lead from Jim La Roche from Datchet and John in third place.
The course was then changed to suit the more SE breeze, which brought the start closer to the control area and made it easier for competitors and the race team to see the boats and their sail numbers. Moving the innermost marks closer to the control area caused a problem as the depth of water was shallower and the blue polyprop mooring line floated higher and caught two boats keels in Race 3. Mike and jim were awarded redress, hence the three scores of 3 in that race.
After finishing last in Race 2, Andrew Wigley from Huntingdon got it dead right to win Race 3 from his clubmate, Phil Davenport with John again third.
Race 4 produced another winner, Jim with John second and Peter Townsend from Hampton Court third. The SE breeze was now of reasonable A rig strength and Mike with really good boat speed got his second win in Race 5, from Phil and John. The results of Race 6 predicted the event result, Dave, Mike with John third again.
John had been very consistent all morning and in Race 7 he turned that into a win from Jim and Mike. Local sailor Mike Barnes had been struggling to find a trim, but when he did he turned it into a win in Race 8 in a very tight finish with John with Dave in third.
In Races 9 -12 Dave was only beaten once in Race 11 by Mike’s extra boat speed.
As the wind had dropped to virtually nothing all competitors agreed to do just one more race, which was won by Dave, very pleased with his light weather performance not experienced on his exposed seaside lake at Barton Point.
At the prize giving Roger thanked competitors for their fairness in the racing and providing a marvellous spectacle with incredibly close racing, as only five points separated the first four competitors. Dave thanked Roger and ARO Martin Crysell for setting up this event and giving everyone a good day’s sailing.
Results:
1st Dave Adams, East Kent 22 points, winner of the Ash Trophy
2nd Mike Wilkie, Hampton Court 25
3rd John Darbyshire, Emsworth 25
4th Jim La Roche, Datchet 27
5th Peter Townsend, Hampton Court 57
6th Andrew Wigley, Huntingdon 58
7th Phil Davenport, Huntingdon 58
8th Alan Viney, Guildford & Littleton 60
9th Mike Barnes, Hampton Court 70
10th Andrew Granger, Datchet 72
Ashes match results please click here
Report on DF 95 Summer Series Two 8th May by Martin Crysell
I arrived at the lake at 7.45am to meet our gardener Marcin and his brother who arrive 5 minutes later to spend the day working on clearing the west bank.
After they were sorted and working a few others arrived and we got ready to sail off the south bank in a fluctuating but mainly north easterly of varying strenghts .Initially there was 5 of us but Slieve had to leave after 3 races.
We sailed a total of 8 races all of which were very closely fought and competetive and each of the skippers had a race win.
After the racing we had an impromptu working session Alan and Martin gave the clubhouse a tidy and the two Mikes gave the rubber boat a real good clean,it looks almost brand new again.
Alans final score sheet is attached together with a photo of a very smart looking west bank (no excuse now for not seeing the blue marks)
Please click here for Results Page: 2024-05-8 WWS 2 DF95
Round Two of the DF 95 Southern District Championship. Report by Martin Crysell.
This event was also round two of the DF 95 Southern District Championship. Report by Martin Crysell.
Eleven skippers arrived to find a complete calm with not a single ripple on Guildford’s Abbey Meads lake. Eventually at 10.30 Race Officer Martin Crysell went out and laid 7 marks in hopeful positions should the breeze come in as forecast. Well some of the time it did and other times it didn’t. Anyway we started a race in a very light north easterly and David Cole from Hampton Court found the right shifts and won from Emsworth sailor Richard Calas.
In the next three races the course was changed every time to accommodate the ever changing light fluctuating breeze. These races were won by Dave Adams from East Kent and again by David Cole. In the next two races Dave was showing more of his light wind skills by picking up a first and a second. However it was local skipper Alan Viney who beat Dave in Race 5 after a tight downwind tussle and the short beat to the finish line. We then broke for lunch hoping that by the 1.15 restart that the wind settle in, but of course it didn’t.
Anyway we sailed again with Alan starting from where he left off before lunch as he had a convincing win in Race 6 with Richard in second place. Race 7 was another win for Dave from Richard, but this was in complete drifting conditions.
The skippers were then given three options either to attempt to sail till 3.30 as the NOR, or do one more race to get to two discards or finish where we were. The vote was to stop at the last race number 7.
A disappointing day wind wise, but every body was in good form and had a good day.
Results:
1st Dave Adam, East Kent 11 points
2nd David Cole, Hampton Court 20
3rd Richard Calas, Emsworth 23
4th Adrian Tomlinson, East Kent 27
5th Alan Viney, Guildford 30
6th Mike Brand, East Kent 32
7th Ian Hounsell, East Kent 33
8th Jim La Roche, Coalhouse Fort 40
9th David Coode, Guildford 43
10th Mike Wilkie, Hampton Court 49
11th Colin Honour, Chipstead 49
2023 Ash Trophy Open for DF 95s at Abbey Meads
14 entries from 11 clubs from nearly every MYA District turned out for some excellent racing on a simple windward leeward course. 21 races were sailed in a variable, but basically easterly breeze, which in the afternoon, when the wind went a bit northerly would test the DF 95s off wind in the strongest gusts.
All but 6 competitors won a race and several won more than one, but the results were dominated by Dave Adams from the East Kent Radio Sailing Club, who won 10 races and when he was not winning was always counted podium scores.
By lunchtime 13 races had been completed and the leaderboard was headed by Dave Adams with 20 points ahead of last year’s winner Buzz Coleman with 43 and Shaun Anderson 45.
For the afternoon there were 3 retirements, as Barrie Martin fell into the water getting his boat out and 2 other competitors no longer want to sail and went home. With the wind more from the east north-east and increasing in strength, the afternoon racing was exciting with boats planing offwind for most of the downwind leg and in the dark gusts struggling to keep control with bows underwater, broaching etc.
The afternoon results were predictable with Dave Adams sailing really well, sticking to the rhumb line on the beat and benefiting from the big wind variations to get 4 firsts in a row. Local sailor, Alan Viney having won the very first race of the day carried on improving and won the very last race of the day to take him onto the podium in 3rd place.
Everyone said that they themselves and most of the incidents hailed by observers Martin Crysell and RO Roger Stollery were resolved on the water, with competitors taking advantage of the IRSA Short Penalty, which was in operation to do just a tack or gybe and keep them clear of the rest of the fleet.
At the prize giving the race team were thanked for running another good event at Abbey Meads and particular thanks went to Janet Crix & Slieve McGaliard for ensuring that the scoring system worked OK on the laptop.
Results:
1st Dave Adams, East Kent RSC 27 points
2nd Buzz Coleman, Coalhouse Fort RYC 54
3rd Alan Viney, Guildford MYC 62
4th Shaun Anderson, Whitefriars SC 76
5th Richard Calas, Gosport MYBC 84
6th Martyn Aspinall, Rotherham MYC 97
7th David Coode, Guildford MYC 100
8th Simon Johnson, Hampton Court MYC 110
9th Jay Williamson, Springfield SC 124
10th Barrie Martin, London MYC 149
11th John Crix, Eastbourne & Dist MYC 158
12th Slieve McGalliard, Guildford MYC 172
13th Simon Collyer, Alton RCSC 197
14th Mike Wilkie, Hampton Court MYC 262
Report by Roger Stollery
Wednesday 8th February DF95 WSS 3
WSS 3 report by Roger Stollery
The journey to Chertsey was mainly sunny, but approaching the town the sun disappeared! You could barely see the other side of the lake and that question was asked again, “Are we mad”! It was good to have 8 competitors and especially David Coode with his 21/2 hour drive from Herefordshire. After setting 5 marks for the south south-east wind including 3 windward marks, I tried my BOTTLE boat in what appeared to be no wind, but it sailed off into the mist and I was able to follow its progress down to the 2 blue gate marks, which you could not see from the control area steps! To test whether we could race properly we started a practice race and satisfied ourselves that it might just be OK.
When Race 1 started on the simple windward leeward course, the wind was not cooperative and you could see from the swirling mist that the wind was blowing from every direction, sometimes from the north and sometimes from the south and then sometimes not at all. If you are lucky you might just about be able to see how your boat was reacting to it, but it was extremely difficult. Having done a penalty early in the race, by the time I got to the gate my place was last with the fleet already starting back up the course on the rhumb line with very little wind. The pace of the race was extremely slow indeed there were comments about “paint drying” being uttered in jest.
With nothing to lose I opted to stay near the far bank where the wind was stronger and used the direction of the swirls of the mist to either sheet in or out. With the basically southerly wind my plan was to use this to go some way towards the south bank before reaching back to the windward mark and approach it ‘at speed ‘ from above the normal lay line, whilst the rest of the fleet were struggling in the doldrums. All would have worked well to round the mark first had I not hit the mark with the projecting jib boom of my swing rig! Even a short penalty in next to no wind was not what was anticipated by taking this strange long route. At this point probably after about half an hour there appeared to be no wind and the short leg back to the finishing line was really frustrating, but Mike Wilkie continued to extend his lead and cross the line 1st ahead of myself and Alan Viney, the eventual winner of the event.
The sun had started to burn the mist away, but the lack of wind did not encourage any more racing and we had a long break for lunch before deciding to race again. I had rigged up my new 36″ XITE design, to test the workings of the vane gear on a new pintle plate, which had broken at Gosport on the previous Saturday. The plan was to chase it in the inflatable dinghy, which in little wind should have been no problem. However just as I launched the sun was fully out and the breeze filled in to give me a really hard time on the oars to keep up!
The fleet got back on the water and raced until 2 PM sailing another 4 races, which apart from Race 3 which was won by David Coode, were all won by Alan, as you can see from the results.
