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Category: iom

IOM Winter Series 2021 #3 (5/2/22)

Everyone was surprised to see so little wind on the water whilst selecting their No1 rigs after a forecast of winds in the high teens and gusts in the 30’s.  Helped by a WSW breeze giving some shelter from the houses and a spell of rain allowed everyone to stay in No1 rig for all 12 races.  There were some difficult times during the afternoon if you caught the gust in the wrong place, but the gusts were always short lived and the wind could soon abate leaving you almost becalmed for a short while.  There were 9 club sailors and one visitor in Colin McGinnis all the way from Dundee joining us for the afternoon.
John Brierley won the first race and followed it with a second in Race 2, when Martin Roberts took his first of three consecutive wins.  He looked to have the measure of the conditions before John won Race 5, but with Martin 2nd.  Bill Culshaw then had his first win in Race 6 after a slower start, then John had another win in Race 7 before the break.  After the break, it seems that Jack must have given Bill a little something extra in his tea as he scored three wins and two seconds in the final 5 races, with his run spoilt only by wins for John and Peter Baldwin.
This left Bill with an unassailable lead with that final run of form to take the day, with Martin in second three points behind and John two further points back in third.
Thanks must go to Dave Williams and Bernie for running the racing and of course Jack for making a brew at half time.
Bill Culshaw            21   britpop!           20pts   4wins
Martin Roberts      22   vanilla             23pts   3 wins
John Brierley          84   britpop!           25pts   4 wins
Peter Baldwin        63   Lintel mmx     45pts   1 win
Colin McGinnis      45   Buzz 3c             52pts   1 X 2
John Berry              123   Lintel mmx     52pts
Graham Birkett     133  Widget              54pts
Neil Westbrook       03   Widget             58pts
Alan Watkinson      23   britpop!           63pts
Charles Legg             32   Slimtel           125pts (retired race 5)
After 12 races

IOM Winter Series 2021 #2 (15/1/22)

A bright afternoon with the wind from the clubhouse end, met the six competitors in the second IOM Winter series. Alan Watkinson started of strongly with a win and continued to show he had set a perfect trim.

Martin Roberts then got into his stride with 3 wins with the other competitors close behind in the variable but generally stable wind. Charles Legg was having problems with a borrowed boat leaking badly, his new K2 should solve that problem. Bill Culshaw and John Berry were also in the mix at times, then John Brierley managed two wins to round off the six races sailed before tea break. When the competitors came out for the afternoon session, there was – nothing. The wind had disappeared completely and RO Dave Williams after consulting the sailors called time on the days proceedings. Thanks go to Dave and Bernie along with Jack for running the afternoons racing.

  1. Martin Roberts         Vanilla              7 pts    3 wins
  2. John Brierley             Britpop             9 pts    2 wins
  3. Alan Watkinson        Britpop           12 pts    1 win
  4. Bill Culshaw               Britpop           18 pts
  5. John Berry                  Lintel MMX  23 pts
  6. Charles Legg              A2                     30 pts
After 6 races

IOM Xmas Race 2021

14 skippers gathered for our annual Christmas race for IOM’s on the 18th December, with a start at 10.30 to give skippers an extra 30 minutes in bed for this race.  The wind was perfect, straight down the lake from the clubhouse end, middle of top suit, shifts that could make you look like a fool or a hero, shifts that could take you from a decent top 3 to bottom 3 in a blink of an eye, the way to sail in these conditions is not to paint yourself into a corner.

15 races were completed on the day with race winners being Brad Gibson (BritPOP!) with 7 wins, Peter Baldwin (Lintel MMX) with 3 wins, Martin Roberts (Vanilla) with 2 wins and a single race win for Darin Ballington, Bill Culshaw and the hungover Paul Allen.

As normal there was no entry fee for the race but a Secret Santa (wrapped gift but no bottles) but before the gifts were handed out we had a bigger presentation, John Brierley our commodore presented Derek Priestley with the Acersail “Top Club” shield that had been residing at Birkenhead for quite a few years, as Fleetwood had pipped Birkenhead for the trophy in the 2021 season.

Many thanks to all competitors for supporting this serious but fun light hearted race and to John Brierley who gave up his sail to run the race with Bernie and Dave Williams and last but by no means least, Jack who opted to stay in the clubhouse and supply everyone with hot drinks.

Have a great Christmas and all the best for the new year.

Stay Safe

Graham Elliott All photos by Dave Williams

IOM Winter Series 2021 #1 (4/12/21)

With one no show and a couple of dropouts due to the weather, there were only 4 sailors on the starting line for the first race of our IOM Winter Series.  The forecast wind had increased overnight and so we were greeted with a strong 15 gusting 25+ knot breeze almost straight down the lake, but with some large shifts to contend with.  It rained for most of the afternoon and only 8 races were sailed before everyone was getting cold and wet and we called it a day. The last race ended up in a squall and some very  difficult tacking into the finish line, clearly supporting the end of racing.

There were, however, smiling faces from everyone after  some very close and fast racing in the smallest rig.  Martin Roberts was offered the Rubix of Charles Legg, to give it a rare outing in this rig. He proved to be the one to beat and even with a few problems resulting in late starts, he made every race count and ended up with the lions share of 4 wins (out of 8 races sailed) and equal points with Peter Baldwin, sailing a Lintel MMX who had three. Bill Culshaw (Britpop) rounded out the podium with the remaining win and was pushing for the win at the finish of a good number of close races. Big thanks to Bernie who stood in the wind and rain to start and finish the fleet.

  1. ​Martin Roberts     25      Rubix                 9 pts     4 wins
  2. Peter Baldwin       63       Lintel MMX    9 pts     3 wins
  3. Bill Culshaw           21       brit pop          13 pts       1 win
  4.  John Berry             23       Lintel MMX  20 pts

Next week (10/12) is RG/DF65 Winter Series #2 starting at 12:00 and then on 18/12 is the IOM Xmas Race.  Please enter if you plan to attend.

Strebor IOM Race & ND Championships 2021 – Report and Results

Saturday 6th November saw 14 skippers from 5 different clubs competing for The Strebor Trophy and Northern District Championships, the 14 skippers also included 3 IOM World Champions.
The wind direction for the day was not the most favourable, a South West direction with massive holes and gusts to contend with but ‘A’ rig was definitely still the choice of rig for the whole day.
Peter Baldwin kindly wore the waders to set the buoys with a windward, leeward gate course and plenty of bias on the startline and the leeward gate The first five races were dominated by Rob Walsh and Brad Gibson, with them taking the top two positions in each race, something that never happened for the following 11 races. After completing 16 races, we had 5 different race winners, a bit of rain, a bit of sun, plenty of wipeout gusts but most importantly 14 smiling faces.
It was good to see our visitors and mention must be made to Peter Walters who had travelled the furthest from Lincoln to launch his new Venti design. In the end it was Brad Gibson that took the win on countback from Rob Walsh with Darin Ballington rounding off the podium, all sailing the BritPOP! design. Then in 4th was Graham Elliott sailing his Widget design and 5th was Martin Roberts sailing his Vanilla design.
Much thanks must go to Bernie and Dave Williams for starting us, Jack who stood outside all day finishing us at the age of 92, Judith for scoring us and Joyce for the refreshments.
The next ‘Open’ event at Birkenhead is our much loved Xmas race on Saturday 18th December, entries are now open for this by clicking here or following the links on the home page.
Photo’s are from our photographer on the day – Dave Williams.  Compare the image at the start of the report taken when we started with that below from  the middle part of the day when the gusts were at their strongest.  All of the photo’s from the day are held on our Flikr acount here.

IOM Summer Series #1 12/6/21

Once again the weather served up a great afternoons IOM sailing with an 8-10 knot breeze (with some stronger gusts early on) from the WNW giving a beat up the lake from the Clubhouse end.  There some great sun as well, although the temperature at the lakeside caught a few out who arrived in a T shirt having thought that it would be warmer in the sunshine.

Racing got underway soon after 1pm after Peter had shifted the marks around slightly to make the best of the breeze, although start line often proved to be a bit too port biased in the shifting breeze. Bill Culshaw started the day well for the win in Race 1, with Peter Baldwin taking Race 2, before Brad Gibson put together a string of 4 wins before a break for a drink and chat in the sunshine.

Refreshed after the break Andrea Roberts took Race 7, then Brad added another win in Race 8.  Not to be outdone in the friendly family duel that ran all afternoon, Martin Roberts gained an important win in Race 9, before Brad rounded out the afternoon by winning all of the last three races.  This comfortably gave Brad the afternoon, with Peter in second only one point ahead of Andrea in third who won the family duel by 4 points from Martin.

There was some very close racing throughout the fleet with many photo finishes to cope with by our usual finishing team of Jack and Bernie. Thanks to them as usual and to everyone for sailing on a taxing afternoon with good rules observance and some very helpful comments and advice from our top helms.

There is another afternoon of IOM sailing next week starting at 1pm.  If you would like to join in and don’t have a boat, get in touch with Club Captain Andrew Peter (email in Contact Section) and I am sure he will try and sort a loan boat out.

  1. Brad Gibson            62      britpop               12pts   8 wins
  2. Peter Baldwin        63       Lintel MMX     27pts   1 win
  3. Andrea Roberts    122      Vanilla               28pts   1 win
  4. Martin Roberts      22      A2                        32pts   1 win
  5. John Brierley          84      britpop              41pts
  6. Bill Culshaw            21      britpop              49pts   1 win
  7. Alan Watkinson     23      britpop             64pts
  8. Charles    Legg         25      Rubix                77pts
  9. Mike Wlliamson    43      TS2                     96pts

After 12 races