c

IOM Winter 2025 #1 – 22/11/25

With ice covering the lake Friday, there was some trepidation from travelling skippers as to whether racing would go ahead for Round 1 of this seasons IOM Winter series.

Old heads, long schooled in the ways of the ‘Paradise Peninsula’s Micro Climate’ were spot on with skippers arriving to no sign of Ice, the odd spot of liquid sunshine but little to no sign of the predicted Westerly winds.
Racing got underway from the far end beating towards the clubhouse in a faint SE wind with Brad Gibson, Graham Elliott and Martin Roberts fighting a close 3 way battle in race one.  Brad kept the momentum going to take races 2 and 3 before an early halt was called with the land breeze all but dissapearing.
Racing resumed after snacks and warm tea and it was Graham Elliott streaking to an all the way win in race 4. Both Alan Bennett and John Brierley were finding form with the former taking race 5 and the latter being pipped at the post in race 6 by Brad.
As the light slowly faded, sails becoming increasingly more difficult to set in what was left of the wind, time was called following race 7 taken by Graham Elliott.
Overall, a tricky day where precision and concentration were rewarded. Throughout the fleet all skippers had moments of glory with margins covering first to tail end decreasing each week.
Final placings after 7 races with one discard had Brad winning on 8 points, Graham second on 12 and Alan pipping John on counback for third with both on 19 points.
Thank as always to our Race Team of Dave and Neil and Christine in the galley.
  1. Brad Gibson         42  Post Punk  8pts   4 wins
  2. Graham Elliott   09  BritPOP!    12pts  2 wins
  3. Alan Bennett     178  BritPOP!    19pts  1 win
  4. John Brierley       84  Venti           19pts
  5. Martin Roberts   22  BritPOP!    31pts
  6. John Berry          180 BritPOP!     34pts
  7. Clive Warren        86 BritPOP!    46pts
  8. Ian Davies             33  BritPOP!   47pts
  9. Alan Watkinson 23 Corbie5       47pts
  10. Simon Fairman  71  Alioth          55pts
  11. Charles Legg        40  K2               58pts
Next up for the IOM Class is the Christmas Open on the 13th of December with a good entry building and all visitors welcome.
Entry details and skipper list can be found here