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Strebor IOM Open 2023 – Final Results and Report

With the entry list including no less than 5 past World Champions in either the IOM or other Radio Sailing classes, competition was always going to be strong at this years Strebor Open combined with Round 2 of the Northern District IOM Winter Championships. Coupled with a superb pre-entry of 26 boats, it was going to be a tough days sailing.

The weather forecast for wind was not encouraging for the week prior to the event, a South Westerly forecast, with a possibility of WSW at some point during sailing.  At least the sun shone for most of the day, making it mild for this time of the year.

There was a short briefing by Martin Roberts to explain how we would race as one fleet, with typically 4 boats dropping out per race during the day.  Any dropouts would be scored with average points from their best counting races.  Racing then got underway promptly at 10:30 with a start at the clubhouse end, but unfortunately, the wind had swung more to the East just prior to the start and although the fleet got away cleanly, the course was swapped to a start from the far end for the remainder of races during the morning session.  Graham Elliott had the strongest start in the first seven races completed before lunch, taking 3 wins with Rob Walsh picking up two and Martin Roberts and Alan Bennett one each.  At the halfway stage, this left Graham Elliott on top, followed by Martin Roberts and Rob Walsh in that order.

After a short lunch break and a quick change around of the course (thanks Martin and Neil), once again starting at the clubhouse, a further seven races were completed.  Five were sailed using the same dropout system and then the final two with just the 22 boats that were still able to compete.  This session belonged to Rob Walsh, with three wins compared to two for Brad Gibson (sailing his “pimped” TS2) and one each to Martin Roberts and John Brierley.  The final scores gave first place to Rob Walsh who retained the Strebor Trophy, second to Graham Elliott and third was Martin Roberts.

It was a tricky days sailing at Birkenhead with the wind in a less than favourable direction, with what seemed at times like a “Bermuda Triangle” in the centre of the lake.  If you were unlucky to get stuck there you could find other boats sailing past to windward or leeward of you (or both at the same time!).Well done to everyone who sailed today (all 26 of you) – don’t feel too disheartened if you didn’t finish as high up as you thought you might, it was tricky for everyone including experienced club members, but there were some who always seemed to know the right way to go to find the wind.

Finally, thanks must go to the Race Team of Dave Williams, John Carlin, Neil Westbrook, George Bennett and Judith Baldwin for completing 14 races within less than 4 hours of racing.  Also, we were also very grateful to Jocelyn and Chris in the galley serving hot drinks and free homemade cake and biscuits.  All photos here are courtesy of John Beech.  There are a further 193 photos taken by Malcolm Harvey on our Flikr account here

First Rob Walsh

 

 

Second Graham Elliott

DF95 Social Racing 2023 – 13/12/23

9 helms stayed behind for a competitive afternoons racing and out of those 9 helms, 7 recorded a third place or better showing just how competitive it actually was. The wind was similar to the morning DF65 session so initially the same course was used. With a relatively small fleet albeit one of our best Wednesday afternoon turnouts, we managed the start between ourselves and the first over the finish line recorded the results allowing all helms maximum sailing time.

The wind remained tricky coming over from the factories making the starboard end of the start line very biased and in one race the leaders made the first windward mark in one without having to tack. Having said that it was shifting, picking the right one to tack on was paramount, it was very easy to be headed and being in the right place at the right time helped greatly.

After 2 races the leeward gate was changed to a spreader to give the port boats reaching into the mark less of a target for the starboard close hauled boats heading back up the lake. this proved much better with fewer collisions. The tricky area was the approach to the windward mark where the directional shifts were most pronounced. It was same for all and made for interesting racing with many a place won or lost. It was great to see Dave Williams putting in an appearance, showing that he hasn’t lost his touch of the bigger boat

After 7 races, the sun was getting low and the temperature dropping, so we called it a day. Final results with 1 discard

1  Clive Warren       13pts (2 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third)
2 Dave Williams   17pts (2 seconds, 3 thirds,)
3 Alan Watkinson  18pts (1 win, 2 seconds, 1 third)
4 John Carlin           26pts (2 wins, 1 second)
5 Richard Walker   27pts (1 win)
6 Neil Westbrook   29pts (2 seconds)
7 Dave Howard        37pts
8 Paul Little              38pts (1 win)
9 Malcolm Harvey 45pts

DF65 Social Racing 2023 – 13/12/23

After a break of two weeks, the DF65 fleet were back racing this week.

A chilly Northerly breeze to start with at Gautby road for today’s DF social racing. There were some gusts in the breeze, and a large flat patch along the far side of the lake where a windward mark might have gone.

A+ rigs were agreed, and John went wading to try and get the start line a bit less biased. In the event the breeze went somewhat right at the clubhouse end making the start line very biased even after John’s adjustments, and the beat looked to be pretty much of a starboard tack fetch.

However….as always at Gautby road it wasn’t that simple.The breeze faded and went left further up the beat, and those who tried to sail high initially got caught by the edge of the flat area, but not every time, so it seemed to pay by toughing it out on Starboard and try to get across near the top of the beat.

The start line bias, and the conditions led to quite a bit of close quarters sailing with a few entanglements and the odd bit of contact.  Malcolm very kindly volunteered as RO after the mainsail tack eyelet failed on his rig – many thanks Malcolm.  Mike dsp edged ahead after all this, with the next 8 boats covered by 12 points, so racing was once again very close right across the fleet

1. Mike de St Paer  19 pts 4 wins
2. John Carlin          30 pts 2 wins
3. Andrew Potter    33 pts 1 win
4. Clive Warren       35 pts 2 wins
5. Alan Watkinson 35 pts
6. Neil Westbrook   41 pts
7. Dave Williams     42 pts
8. James Douglas    43 pts
9. Sally Collings      46 pts
10. Richard Walker 49 pts 1 win
11. Frans King           74pts
12. Paul Little            75 pts

New addition in the Boats for Sale Section

Another DF65 has been added to the Boats for Sale Section.  This was owned by Colin Deakin and has all rigs and is ready to get on the water.  Check out the For Sale section via the menu or using the new graphic added to the homepage.

Are there any other boats out there (IOM’s etc) that are languishing in the Garage or Loft and could be added to the For Sale section to get it used again?

No Racing this Saturday (2/12/23) for IOM Winter #2

The lake is currently frozen after several nights of sub zero temperatures and last night being -3C or lower.  With similar temperatures forecast for this evening and barely above freezing today (Friday), I am cancelling racing tomorrow as the lake will still be frozen.

Many thanks to Andrew Peter for checking it out this morning and sending me the above photo.

Peter Baldwin – Sailing Sec