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Jack Turner Trophy IOM Open 2026

The seventeen sailors who turned out for this second Jack Turner Trophy IOM Open, arrived to find a decent westerly breeze nearly straight down the lake and some sunshine starting to show.  Paul Plested was out in the waders getting the “competition marks” in the water with a rough course for the practice session.  These were then tweaked before the briefing to take account of a slight shift and the course remained without any changes for the rest of the day.

After a short briefing (and no questions), by Paul, racing got underway on time under the watchful eye of our RO duo of Neil Westbrook and Dave Williams.  The start line was probably port biased at the start of the day, as long as you had the room to tack off and not get pinned all the way to the bank.  Later on it became more even and occasionally slightly starboard biased, before returning to port.

First blood went to Robbie Mac, closely followed by Paul Plested and Graham Elliott.  Brad Gibson then had a run of three wins, with Roger Crates, Martin Roberts, Graham and Paul Middleton all getting on the podium.  Graham then took the final race before a coffee break, with Peter Baldwin and Brad following behind.  Sailors were treated to a variety of Cakes and biscuits (mostly home made) all served up with free tea and coffee by Joss and Chris in the galley.

Following the break, Graham had three more wins, with Brad and Robbie taking one apiece.  Podium places were gained by Brad, Graham, Martin and Bill Culshaw, who was starting to get to grips with the tricky conditions.  The wind was not easy to manage with some strong gusts barreling down the course at times, usually knocking at least half the fleet over on the run, whilst a few might escape “scott free”.  Lunch was then called, soon after 12:30 with ten races completed.

As the fleet emerged after the lunch break, conditions seemed pretty similar to just before lunch, but a few nasty gusts sent a number of sailors back to the clubhouse to change rigs and a small delay ensued.

As we resumed with about 5 boats on B rig’s Bill put his to great use and rounded the Windward mark well in the lead holding onto this through to the finish, with Graham chasing hard but unable to catch him.  In this next session of five races, Graham took an additional win, Martin had two and Simon Fairman had a great start and picked up a win in Race 14.  Podium spots once again taken by pretty much the same top 5 boats.

So, into the final session of five races and most were back in A rigs as the gusts were not as strong as earlier and having been good straight after lunch, never showed the same promise later in that session.  Peter took the first win after the tea break, with Brad then picking up two and Graham and Robbie one each.

After twenty races, our RO decided to call it a day, a little before time, but useful for those who had travelled some distance.  When the results were entered, the day went to Brad Gibson sailing his Post Punk design, closely followed by Graham Elliott sailing his 2011 BritPOP! with Martin Roberts third also sailing a BritPOP!

At the prizegiving, where Jacks’ daughter Debbie presented the prizes, Brad thanked everyone involved in setting up and running the event, Joss and Chris for running the galley all day, then thanked the six visitors for travelling to the event.  He also wished Graham and Martin every success at the forthcoming World Championship being held at Datchet Water in mid May.

Thanks to Stuart Mearns for the photos in today’s report, with additional photo’s in the event Flikr Album here.

First to sixth place Prizewinners

The next IOM Club racing is on Saturday 9th May, just one week before the World Championship begins.

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2026 – 15/4/26

DF65’s

The forecast suggested that the fleet could be moving down the rigs as the day wore on, but for the 65s in the morning A+ was manageable…just! Whilst the general wind direction was from over the clubhouse, the shifts and gusts were significant, with big gains/losses bringing smiles/tears depending up on how well you coped with them.
The racing throughout the fleet was close, with several four boat close finishes, and with others just pipping competitors on the line. Paul Plested made it a challenge for anyone else to take top spot on the day by winning the first four races. However, John Carlin, after a slow start, found his form posting two 1sts and several podium positions to finish a clear 2nd overall on the day.
Clive Warren was, at one point, closer to the top two than the final result suggests, but gear failure meant he missed three races and also had to count a retired. Andrew also had boat issues, but managed to get back afloat, only missing one race. Charles Legg opted to sit the racing out after the first two races.
James Douglas was joined on the day by his son, Cam, who took turns racing 73, with James hopping over to Dave William’s boat on at least one occasion. Richard Walker, Stuart Mearns and Stuart Trunkfield (first time with his DF65) all featured at or near the front of the fleet in several races, but struggled to hang on through to the finish, apart from Stuart M who did bag a 2nd in race seven. With only five points separating them, Richard came out on top in this mid fleet tussle.
David White and Malcolm Harvey battled on in the challenging conditions, with David edging out Malcolm on the day.
Thanks to Neil Westbrooke for acting as Race Officer for the morning and to Dave Williams for the photos.

DF95’s

Seven boats took to the water for the afternoons 95 racing. The conditions were similar to the morning with strong gusts swirling across the lake from / through the houses causing wind shifts across the full course. The starboard tack was favourite but wouldn’t take you the full length of the lake to the windward mark so the main decision for the skippers was when to tack across and which wind shift could be trusted, pick the wrong one and places were lost.

After 3 races it was clear that the boats were split into 2 groups with Paul picking up 3 bullets and Clive 3 seconds showing the way to the rest of the fleet who were very equally matched, with Stuart T, Charles and Steve all sharing a podium spot each. It was then suggested by Robbie Mac (who popped along to see what was happening) that Clive and Paul take a handicap, and start between the leeward spreader mark buoys, about 20m behind the main start line and located slightly further towards the far bank, a good suggestion that worked really well. Rob also stayed to RO the next 3 races, thank you.

This didn’t deter Paul who was reading the conditions best all day and continued his winning streak, with some very close finishes but finishing with 7 wins in the 8 races sailed, with Clive taking the other win in the last race. Meanwhile the handicapping was working well with Stuart M picking up 3 second places, with Stuart T and Clive picking up the remaining 2. Charles picked up 2 more thirds, along with Paul and Steve. Malcolm kept plugging away and managed a fourth and was closer in many races than the results show.

After 8 races the rain came and brought some really strong squalls across the lake and it was decided to call it a day rather than take a rig change and put the wets on.

A good afternoon and the handicapping worked well to produce much closer racing. Well done to Paul for a stellar morning and afternoon, and to the 3rd to 6th skippers who were covered by 4 points, great racing.

IOM Summer 2026 #1 – 11/4/26

8 boats today, a little down on numbers due to the Easter holidays.
The wind was a lovely top suit from the houses, clubhouse end of the lake which gave everyone a massive challenge, one minute becalmed and the next nosedive, boat handling skills were needed by all.
The gamble today was sheet out and go for speed and risk not making the next mark or sail a little tighter and slower but guaranteeing you could lay the next mark.  At least 8 of the 12 races sailed saw 4 boats finishing within 4 metres of each other.
By far the stand out race of the day was race 10, young Noah who had sailed well all day, finally got a position fitting his efforts, with a 3rd.  Race winners on the day, Brad with 5, Graham with 3, Martin on 2 and Olly and Rob one a piece.
Thanks to Dave and Neil for starting and finishing us today and Dave for the photos and full results as below:
Next Saturday sees us competing for the Jack, “You’re all good skippers” Turner Trophy, its an open IOM race with a 10am start and everyone welcome, members and visitors alike.

DF65 & DF95 Social Racing 2026 – 01/04/26

DF65’s

We arrived today expecting no wind, but in fact there was a gentle NW ish breeze blowing with just enough Northerly in it to miss the clubside housing. Another excellent turnout of 11 skippers started, including ex-Commodore John B, for what turned out to be a really interesting mornings racing very kindly run by Neil who got the racing away promptly.

The start looked to favour a port tack start but the line could be laid on Starboard. James made a couple of port tack flier starts work, but the size of the fleet and the shifts meant most preferred to approach on starboard. Line discipline was surprisingly good, with only one general, so Neil didn’t have to use the threatened black flag.

Initially it appeared to pay to continue on starboard before tacking, but again that changed during the morning, and then at the top of the beat there was a big port tack lift – but not every time – and also an intermittent very flat patch at the far side before the starboard layline tack to the top mark which caught a few out.

The gate was also interesting with successful last beats made from both sides, and a surprising amount of place swapping on this last leg.

John B showed his experience and class by winning 4 of the 9 races sailed to win by two points from James who took a couple of races to get going but thereafter sailed very consistently to a close second place.

Alan was the best of the rest, beating Mike on countback for third and closely followed by John in fifth. Very nice to welcome Martin James back and a well done to Stuart Mearns who is sailing quicker every time and finished the day in sixth.

Very close racing on the water with the usual thanks to Dave for organising us and taking the pictures, and today to Neil for ROing on a really chilly day.

DF95’s

Five keen skippers made it to the start line for a very enjoyable afternoon

Numbers down a tad due to several Skippers away on “Grandad “duties, it being half term week.
For the first two races it was ultra light airs and the consensus was to pack it in, but lo and behold a fickle gentle breeze arrived that slowly settled into something more steady.
The sun came out too and the skippers decided mid race to have a slightly extended mini break to shed clothing as it was too hot ! Spring is in the air at last .
Some very close racing between Alan and Guy with Alan taking overall on the day  by one point.  Charles was a consistent third . Stuart had some flashes of brilliance and Steve had a cracking win.
Post race, several Skippers swapped boats for some tuning and it was decided that Steve’s “Black Pig “ was way over sensitive with too much rudder throw.   It’s no wonder he has been writing his name in the sea on  occasions! Stuart tweaked Steve’s tx so expect more pace from The  “Black Pig “ going forward.

DF95 Winter Series Overall

The DF95 Winter Series 2025/6 concluded on Saturday after six events.

The overall winner was Martin Roberts who secured a six point victory over Clive Warren in second, with John Brierley in third counting just three results out of 4.

There were a total of 26 skippers in this series who completed at least one race.

The series results are in the Overall Standings here

Next week sees the start f the Summer series with the first round of the RG65/DF65 series.  With the clocks changing, we now go back to the Summer Series start time of 13:00.