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.
- Martin Roberts 25 Rubix 9 pts 4 wins
- Peter Baldwin 63 Lintel MMX 9 pts 3 wins
- Bill Culshaw 21 brit pop 13 pts 1 win
- 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.
A total of 11 sailors turned out for the third in this series of individual IOM club race days for an afternoon of racing in a good but cool top suit breeze straight down the lake (WNW) and plenty of sunshine. Racing got underway soon after 1pm following some minor course tweaks by the Commodore after last weeks RG65 racing. With plenty of shifts to either make good gains or catch you out, the racing was close with place changes throughout the fleet in most races.
The “re-fuelling” break helped Peter Baldwin gain his first win in race 7, before Martin picked up his third win in race 8. John took race 9 and Dave Burke race 10 having been second in a number of previous races. John then gained his third win in race 11 and Peter rounded out the afternoon with the final win. So the wins were spread over 5 different helms and the final points were very close, with only one point separating Martin in first and John second and then two points between Peter in third and Bill, fourth. Thanks once again to Bernie and Jack for running the afternoon. Photos courtesy of Dave Williams.
A sunny day greeted the 8 IOM sailors for the 2nd Club Racing afternoon series race. Just in time for racing, the wind settled in from the NW but judging the shifts ensured all sailors were kept on their toes all afternoon.
This, the first IOM racing after lockdown 3 proved to be a great re-introduction after more than 3 months of no sailing. The racing started out with a light NE breeze for a couple of races with plenty of shifts and gusts to test the 9 helms. The wind then started to tempt us with a NW breeze starting to fill in then return to NE and we ended up with 2 races that either had three beats plus one run and one with then 2 runs followed by two beats.
