Following on from the DF95’s in the morning, the IOM’s in the afternoon had very similar conditions, although the breeze was a little more right at times and the sun wasn’t as strong, making it feel cooler.
There were only 4 out this afternoon, with a combination of other jobs, holidays and Open events reducing the fleet somewhat from our recent turnouts.
The four stalwarts started on the same course as the morning under the ever watchful eyes of Dave Williams and Neil Westbrook.
Peter started well and dominated the first four races, with the others fighting for the podium places, although Guy had the better start in these races until Race 5 when Clive took a win even though his mainsheet fairlead had slipped and he ended up reaching around the course. We still couldn’t catch him after the good early lead that he had taken.
We then took an early break for Clive to repair his boat and restarted on Race 6, in which Peter once again took the win, but Alan picked up the second having done a few rigging tweaks during the break. After also winning Race 7. Peter decided to handicap himself by starting at the gate 10m back from the start line. Combined with a number of tactical errors around the course, it proved to be a major handicap and by the finish he was still 20-30m back. However, it did allow Guy to get his first win and after discussion we reverted to starting together and we became setup for an excellent second half, with great close racing and after Alan took a well deserved win in Race 9, Guy had two further wins before Peter took the last race.
Although the wind had been a relatively steady 5 to 8 knots for most of the afternoon, for the last few races we started to see much bigger shifts and holes and it was difficult to judge where the wind might come from next. We certainly had some beats where we might track down the lake on port and next time we would be going in the same direction on Starboard.
As can be seen from the results below, Peter easily took the afternoon, with Guy sailing well and fast for second and Clive third. Thanks to Dave and Neil for acting as RO and Dave for the photos.
