16 skippers arrived for Round 5 of the IOM winter series to picture perfect sunshine and 6-10 knots of wind from the WNW.
When racing got underway it was visitor Josh King who set the early pace scoring a 1-2-1 after 3 races being pushed hard by Brad, Rob and Martin with Peter taking the win in race 2.
Race 4 had Graham lift his game to join the leading pack taking the race win as there was little betwwen the fleet as shift management and patience in close quarters was all important.Races 5,6 and 7 were won by Brad narrowly from Josh and Ollie Murray who was steadily knocking on the door of the lead group with some accurate starting and first beats.
A refreshment break was taken, boats were tuned, batteries changed and all but Phyl came back out for another 6 races to make up a total of 13 races for the day. Wins were taken by Graham, Brad and Josh with Martin and Alan B and Graham B having better results as the wind eased in strength.
An excellent days racing with Brad taking the win from Josh and Graham rounding off the podium placings in third.With the IOM season building in momentum towards ranking and National events in coming weeks and the UK hosted Worlds in May, it was great to see a number of the countries top skippers racing hard on our club course in preparation.
Thanks once again to our excellent race team of Dave, Neil and soggy Peter B for setting the course.The IOM fleet are away at Southport next weekend for National Ranking 1 & 2 of the season with a chance for followers to catch the coutries best radio sailing skippers in a 50+ boat entry over 2 days. This series continues with the final IOM Winter #6 taking place on Saturday 21st March.
