Wind, sun and enthusiasm by all the entrants for this years Birkenhead Christmas race for the IOM, was evident today at Gautby Road. As this was the first round of the Northern District Winter Series for the IOM, there were 9 club’s represented, including the host club. This produced the 20 entrants and 16 races were achieved by the Race Officer and Commodore John Brierley, before the light finally closed in. Racing was in 2nd suit all day with some viscous but short lived gusts providing testing moments for most of the competitors.
Early front runner by the lunchtime break after 8 races was John Tushingham from Keighley (Vision) but as the day progressed Graham Elliott (Britpop) from the host club came back into contention and eventually proved a worthy winner in the testing conditions. There was a big battle for the final podium position with Peter Baldwin (Lintel MMX) securing it with a fine win in the last race from Derek Priestley (Dead Reckoning).
It was good to see 10 designs of IOM’s ranging form the Asset of Dave Stewart right through to the current range of popular designs. All boats had their moments today which kept everyone on their toes.
As this was the clubs Christmas race there was no entry fee charged by the club, but all competitors gave a wrapped gift and all those at the prizegiving went away with a prize (not there own gift!).
Thanks must go to John Brierley for acting as Race Officer together with Bernie, Jack and Joyce who provided the supporting roles to make this another successful event.
The next Birkenhead IOM race is our 3rd Winter series on 11th January, all visitors as usual are always welcome.
Merry Christmas.
Next Week (Saturday 21/12/19) is Round 2 of the Winter Series for RG65/DF65. Visitors always welcome – Start time 12:00.
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