Category: iom

With a number of skippers away in Southport representing the club at other events, it was a small but keen group that fronted for Round 4 of the IOM Winter series.

Racing got underway in a steady 5 – 8 knot south easterly wind that gave us a windward return course over the full length of the lake.

Brad took the first 2 races pushed hard by Alan, Robbie and Guy who is fast coming to grips with his new boat. After a delayed start, Martin was fired up and was never headed in races 3 and 4.

Our visitiors John Tideswell (Keighley) and Andrew Backhouse (Birmingham) were fast in coming to grips with the streaky shifts and benefitting from some tuning tips from the lead group. The proof was in a number of races leading up to and following tea break where all boats were finishing within 30 seconds of the leaders.

With tea taken, Alan, Martin and Brad took wins with both Robbie and Graham scoring top 3 places. Races went down to the wire with a duff tack or missed puff being the difference.

In the end after 12 races with 2 discards Brad took the win from Martin in second and Alan rounding out the top 3. An excellent days racing to which we again that Dave and Neil for keeping us in order.

Our next IOM event at the club is Saturday the 28th of February with all welcome to join us for some hot racing in the Northwest!

1. Brad Gibson               42   Post Punk  13pts
2. Martin Roberts         22   BritPOP!     23pts
3. Alan Bennett            178   BritPOP!     27pts
4. Rob Mcintosh            64   Venti           36pts
5. Graham Birkett       133   Widget        45pts
6. Guy Cowper                39   BritPOP!     49pts
7. Andrew Backhouse 70   BritPOP!     65pts
8. John Tideswell          88   BritPOP!     66pts

A chilly New Year’s welcome for 14 IOM skippers for round 2 of this seasons winter series. With the wind gusting down the course (and across the lake at times) from the NNW, decisions were split between A and B rigs.

Of the leading group in B rig, Brad, Peter and Alan B made the most of the stronger upwind conditions early to often lead at the weather mark. It was the bold A rig choices of Martin, Ollie and latterly Graham that had enough control to hunt down the smaller rigs to post good scores during the first session. A tea break was called after 6 races with Martin and Brad having two wins apiece followed by Peter and Ollie with one apiece.

After the break, all skippers were sporting A rigs with Graham hitting form taking a close win over Martin. Remaining race wins were shared between Brad, the consistent Martin and Robbie with recent work to sort sheeting gremlins paying dividends.

The racing throughout the day was closely fought with places constantly changeing throughout the entire fleet in the at times overpowered conditions. Both our visitors Ollie (Fleetwood) and Colin (Tayside) were welcome additions with both enjoying good scores through the day.

Of our junior skippers, George sailed strongly to finish mid field with his best score being a 3rd in race 5 to shadow Noah who had a few pot sealing issues early on.

Thanks to Dave and Malcolm for their efficiency in getting 12 races away in the sunny, yet cold conditions.  Thanks also to Dave and Victoria for providing us with some great photos of the racing.

This years IOM Xmas Open attracted a decent fleet of 18 sailors including 4 of the GBR Team for the 2026 IOM Worlds, so it was always going to be a difficult day to get a good result.

The forecast was for a SSE backing to S around mid-day.  This theoretically might give us a breeze diagonal across the lake, but we were fortunate that the breeze was  nearly straight down the lake from the Clubhouse with a strength that was low to middle of Top suit.

After a short briefing by Peter Baldwin standing in for the Sailing Sec, we got started on time at 10:15 and completed five races before a short drinls break.  This first session was doominated by Brad Gibson (first in every race) and Graham Elliott, who took second in the first three and then a third in Race 5, with Darin Ballington picking up a  couple of thirds,  Josh King two seconds in races 4 and 5, with Peter Baldwin and John Brierley a third each.  There was some close racing throughout the fleet, with errors in the middle bunch being penalised by plenty of lost places it was so tight.

John Tushingham had an unfortunate early bath after gear failure before the start of Race 3 and Robbie Mac lost three races in this early session with gear problems.

In the second session a further four races were completed and it was now Graham’s turn to give a better performance with three win’s to Brad’s single win.  The podium spots were once again filled by similar names as in the first session, with Josh, Darin, Martin and Peter all picking up at least one decent score.  However, by the time we stopped for lunch, the breeze had dropped and also backed, so that it was more over the houses and a little more of a lottery as to who might get the breeze along the race course.

Lunch taken, we sailed an additional seven races, but with only 17 starting as John Brierley also had un-fixable gear failure ending his day.  Starts were interesting as we could be fetching, reaching or running off the line.  Surpisingly considering the conditions, very few General recalls were called and only an occasional single OCS by someone who was well proud and visible to the Start Line Judge.

Unsurprisingly, the same names figured as race winners, with Brad taking four more and then the remainder in the hands of Josh, Graham and for the final race Paul Middleton.  Most of the same names as before figured in the remaining podium spots, with the addition of John Smith taking a well deserved second in Race 15.

Overall a decent days racing with some close competition and some tricky close finishes to call for our Line Judge in training.  Not surpringly, Brad Gibson took the day, with Graham Elliott in second and Josh King in third.

Brad thanked the Race Team (Dave Williams, Steve Miller and Judith Baldwin) and Joss Watkinson who did a sterling job in the galley, keeping everyone supplied with hot drinks and tasty snacks.  More photos to follow in the Gallery tomorrow.  There will be an additional post to provide the link.