Saturday saw a rescheduled IOM Winter Series Round 2 with a faint Easterly wind over a glassy lake greeting 11 skippers. From the outset it was clear that reading the faintest puffs and keeping momentum would be the key to good results over boat design or setup.
After Race 1 where Alan Bennett took a close win from Graham Birkett, PRO Dave Williams made the smart call in switching the format to ‘sprint’ style one lap racing for compact racing.
With 5 races completed and wins for Alan, Martin Roberts, Graham and Brad a break was called to warm hands in the clubhouse with a hot drink and a bite to eat.
Back to the water minus Charles Legg who suffered winch issues, the wind had not strengthened as predicted it was decided to stick with the one lap ‘sprint’ racing.
As always on any race day there are races within a race where friendly rivalries take place, but this week we witnessed one that had everyone smiling. This was the first meeting of our IOM junior skippers with both George Bennett and Noah Mcintosh negotiating the tricky winds and potholes as though they were years into their craft. What wasn’t missed among keen observers was their ability to apply a simple approach to racing that is so often overlooked through overthinking and over complicating what is, a simple sport.
I mean why would you start low on the line on starboard, heading straight across the lake when you could be on port aiming at where you need to go? Don’t you just have to get around the course quicker than the rest?
While the finer points of rules will come with age and experience, it was refreshing to see how quickly the bigger picture was taken on board with both leading the fleet at certain stages and seperated by a single point at days end. With some boat swapping to help sort setups and encouragement from all skippers we look forward to following the progress of the new Birkenhead RSC breed.
Fresh from recent strong showings at discrict open races, Robert Mcintosh found the go button to record a strong win and a number of second places to chase the focussed Martin Roberts who was purring like a well tuned engine, linking shifts for fun to take out the win. Brad took the final podium place holding off the fast Graham B with his timeless Widget. Thanks go to Dave Williams as our RO for the afternoon (and took the exciting photos) assisted by Malcolm who did the scoring.
Our next race in the Winter Series is Saturday the 22nd of February where another strong turnout is expected with returning DF skippers who were absent in Southport and a number of guests looking to sharpen themselves for upcoming ranking events.
Enter here to join us