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Christmas IOM Open (and ND IOM Winter Champs #1) Report and Results

Wind, sun and enthusiasm by all the entrants for this years Birkenhead Christmas race for the IOM, was evident today at Gautby Road.  As this was the first round of the Northern District Winter Series for the IOM, there were 9 club’s represented, including the host club. This produced the 20 entrants and 16 races were achieved by the Race Officer and Commodore John Brierley, before the light finally closed in. Racing was in 2nd suit all day with some viscous but short lived gusts providing testing moments for most of the competitors.
Early front runner by the lunchtime break after 8 races was John Tushingham from Keighley (Vision) but as the day progressed Graham Elliott (Britpop) from the host club came back into contention and eventually proved a worthy winner in the testing conditions. There was a big battle for the final podium position with Peter Baldwin (Lintel MMX) securing it with a fine win in the last race from Derek Priestley (Dead Reckoning).

It was good to see 10 designs of IOM’s ranging form the Asset of Dave Stewart right through to the current range of popular designs. All boats had their moments today which kept everyone on their toes.

As this was the clubs Christmas race there was no entry fee charged by the club, but all competitors gave a wrapped gift and all those at the prizegiving went away with a prize (not there own gift!).

Thanks must go to John Brierley for acting as Race Officer together with Bernie, Jack and Joyce who provided the supporting roles to make this another successful event.

The next Birkenhead IOM race is our 3rd Winter series on 11th January, all visitors as usual are always welcome.

Merry Christmas.

Next Week (Saturday 21/12/19) is Round 2 of the Winter Series for RG65/DF65.  Visitors always welcome – Start time 12:00.

Click on the Image to resize.

DragonForce Autumn Series #11 11/12/19

There was a light breeze as the 16 sailors started to arrive (including two very welcome visitors in the form of Gary and Mike Benson from Fleetwood). However, by the time 11:00 arrived, it had all but disappeared and there were no ripples on the lake.  The breeze proved to be fitful and from just about any direction accompanied by light rain for the hour that it took to complete the first four races.  At this point, the top 4 were very close as Neil had two wins and sat on 6 points, Peter one win with 7 points, Richard with one win and 8 points and finally John no wins and 8 points

It was then agreed to call a halt and have a warming drink and take stock on conditions.  Another race was run but with only 12 sailors, after a few had decided to call it a day due to minimal wind and the rain.  Conditions had not however improved and as it was now past one o’clock everyone agreed to call it a day at 5 races.  The extra race did however change the results at the top and the final positions were:

  1. Peter Baldwin            63            8pts
  2. John Brierley               84          10pts
  3. Neil Westbrook          03           11pts
  4. Alan Watkinson        23            13pts
  5. Richard Robinson     01            16pts
  6. Dave Williams           233          24pts
  7. John Carling                  11           28pts
  8. Garry Benson                68         33pts
  9. Sally Collings               829        34pts
  10. Andrew Peter                919        37pts   (1x4th)
  11. Colin Deakin                   93         37pts    (0x4th)
  12. Richard Walker              39         39pts
  13. Chris Weston                 194         42pts
  14. Mike St Paer                     35         47pts
  15. Don Mackinnon            933        66pts
  16. Mike Benson                   883       68pts

Next Wednesday (18th December) will be the 12th and last race in the Autumn DF65 series.  We then restart with the Winter series on Wednesday 8th January.

Winter IOM Series #2 Sat 7/12/19

There was a light SSW breeze at the start of this weeks racing for the IOM Winter Series No 2.  Marks were set out for a course that was probably going to be zig-zagging across the lake, but by the time we were ready to race, the wind had straightened enough to set a course over the length of the lake.  Thirteen boats (including 5 visitors with one in his very first IOM race) signed on and were ready to start racing at 12:00.  Unfortunately Chris Chatfield had winch issues soon after putting his boat on the water and had to sit out some of the earlier races until loaned a spare boat by John Berry.

Current IOM National Champion Rob Walsh proved to be the one to beat this week, with good boat speed off the start line and often arriving first at the windward mark.  Although pushed hard by the chasing bunch, he won 6 of the 10 races, with 3 going to Graham Elliott and one to David Potter.

Racing was close throughout the fleet with places often changing right up to the finish line, depending on whether your boat saw a short gust or sat in little or no wind just metres away.

Thanks once again to Bernie and Jack for running the racing, with Bernie busy on the start line at times with something like 6 general recalls in the ten races with sudden gusts spoiling what might have been a clear start.

  1. Rob Walsh                  25        11pts
  2. Graham Elliott           9        17pts
  3. Martin Roberts        22        26pts
  4. John Brierley            84        27pts
  5. David Potter             20        33pts
  6. Peter Baldwin           63       39pts
  7. Alan Watkinson       23       52pts
  8. Neil Westbrook         03      55pts
  9. Dave Williams           33     56pts
  10. John Berry                   23     66pts
  11. Mike Williamson      43     71pts
  12. Tony Woods             195     91pts
  13. Chris Chatfield          12    105pts

Next week (14th December) is the IOM Xmas Open – start time 10:30.  All welcome – more details and entry list here