It was cool and cloudy today at Risdon Brook Dam with a nice Southerly of around 5 knots blowing. The wind direction meant that the surface was particularly smooth and so conditions were set for some quite fast sailing. There were some holes and light spots and significant lifts and knocks and so definitely the passing lanes were open if you kept ahead of the game. 

Before racing today we had a voluntary ‘weigh-in’. It is important that all boats comply to the minimum total weight of 4kg. All boats were found complying today. Later in the season we will have another ‘surprise’ and compulsory weight in. If you did not sail today but would like to check that your boat weighs correctly please contact me or either of the two official measurers Ian Hey or Rod Marshall.

It was good to see Charlie Mansfield again. Charlie was racing less Chienz (#48). I reckon that Les would have had a bit of a smile to see it back on the water today and especially as Charlie sailed it to two race wins.

Andrew Wardrop launched his new yacht - a plastic printed IOM! It was designed in South Africa and called a Proteus. Andrew showed some great boat speed today and it will be extremely interesting to see how this boat goes. Is this the future of IOM sailing?

The rotating PRO system was used with each PRO getting their average points for the race that they missed.

The easy sailing conditions led to good seamanship even on crowded buoy roundings. The conditions also allowed all the boats to complete the full complement of races - apart from the first race all boats finished every race.

The racing was fairly close today with the back-markers often making up good ground as following gusts on the long down-wind leg from buoy 2 to buoy 7 swept them towards the front-markers.

All up however it was the mid-fleeters who performed well today. I took 3rd place with a fairly consistent scorecard. Rod Marshall has opened the handicap season well by coming second today to follow last week’s DF95 event win. Ian Hey took out the day with a race win, two 2nd places and a third. He was a solid 4 pts in front. Congratulations Rod and Bodge.
 
Coming up:
Sunday: 1:00 - 5:00  DF65 and DF95 scratch racing at Montrose. The afternoon haas been extended so that we can hold races for the two classes. The plan is to alternate between 2 races for DF65’s then 2 races for DF95’s. It should be fun so bring both boats if you have them.​

Next Wednesday: 10:30 - 2:00 more IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam.
 
Shorty

​A beaufitful day for a sail today. Just a shame only four could make it. A nice 10-12 knot Nor Wester all day. no sea breeze today. Enough shifts to make it interesting and we all fell on both sides of lady luck throughout the day.

A funny little one was approaching the windward mark on the first lap on one of hte races, and three of us had made mistakes and done our required penalty turns. John Hall wouldn't play the game though, sailing through without causing issue and not doing any penalties - just thought it was unfair that he didn't need to do one....

Anyway, not a real lot to say for the day. Wonderful sailing, although with just the four sailors. Personal lesson today was to make sure th epot lid is secured properly, otherwise water gets in and receivers do not like salt water.......... Quick enough fix, but killed two races because of it.

Ray's consistency stood out today, with a well deserved round win on 18 points.

I came in second, two behind on 20 points.

Stu took third, a further 6 behind on 26 points.

Big thanks to Bodge for running the day so efficiently today. Thankyou also to Grant Wise, who came along again today to take some photos of the action.

The RM Series Competition this year has been reduced form last year to a series of 6 rounds only (Summer and Winter series in the past due to good turnouts). With the reduced enthusiasm with the class, the series may well fall over unless we somehow get some interest back. For such a wonderful class of yacht, it will be very sad if this does indeed happen. We do have three club RM's and happy for any member to sail them, but the offer has yet to be taken up. After round 2, there may be a reconsidering of the viability of running the series. With a 40+ membership in the club, it is hard to justify dedicating a day for a class with just 4 yachts turning up.

Coming up

Wednesday sees IOM Handicap at the Dam, starting at 1030.

Next Sunday will be a bit different, following the committee meeting today.

With the increase in popularity of the DF65 class in the south of the state, we have resolved to run a DF sail day instead of DF95 only day next Sunday.

As such, the sail time will be a little longer. We will be starting at the same 1pm, but sailing to 5pm, hoping to take advantage of an afternoon sea breeze. The format of the day is scratch racing throughout, with races being held in the same fashion that worked so well at the combined IOM Classics and Woodie day in Trevallyn last year. That is we will sail 2 races with DF95's, then swap out to two races of DF65.

Again, next Sunday will be form 1pm to 5pm
We will be sailing both DF65 and DF95 two races at a time, then swapping out to the other class.

After the end of the sail day, the committee are keen to hear feedback on the day and are open to any suggestions as we do believe that the sail days will become a DF day intot he future (both classes) and need to find that right balance for sailing for as many members as possible. 

Kyle

We had a glorious summer’s day, 28 degrees, clear blue skies, and a lovely 8-10 knots of sea breeze at Risdon Brook Dam for our first DF95 handicap event for the year. Seventeen boats was a great fleet especially considering that quite a few skippers are away on holiday. ​

The wind was South Westerly but a steady 5 or 6 knots when we arrived but the sea breeze filled in gradually to provide excellent sailing conditions. Andrew Wardrop was again our PRO for the day and as usual set great courses and kept the day moving well so that we could complete 11 races. Thanks Andrew.

This year we are trialling a group start handicap system. I have colour coded the results below so that each of the starting groups appear as a different colour. If you can’t understand it then at least it looks pretty. 

Some of the finishes were extremely close. Maybe that was good handicapping or maybe it was just that sort of day. One race was so close that  Andrew couldn’t pen the results fast enough. So for race 6 those skippers who finished after position 10 were given their average points for that race.

It was an excellent day for the front markers. 1st to 4th places were taken by skippers starting with a 15 second handicap penalty. Rod Marshall was todays winner after winning three races back-to-back. (Some sort of hat trick?). Rod gave me a wink on the way out and said that the new handicap system has some potential! Alan Short was second overall and he also had back-to-back wins at the end of the day. Malcolm Watson who was visiting from the North of the State enjoyed his day by taking out third place overall with a consistent scorecard. 

Congratulations also go to Simon Delaney who won his first race with the club after a lead all the way around effort. Well done Simon - the first of many wins to come!

Handicap change depends upon a skippers podium appearances. Rod and Alan dominated the podium today and so are promoted to the next start group for our next meet. Jammy and Scott sailed all day without podium success and get relegated to a lower start group for the next event.

All up a great day out and a good start to the year.

Shorty

What a day on the water today for the start of the 2026 season.

Light winds presented early. ESE breeze between 4 and 10 knots for much of the sailing session.

14 skippers turned up for the day - unfortunately, I had some winch issues (anyone know somebody that fixes them......), so carried out PRO duties for the day instead. Such is life.

Thanks to Ted Stevens and Murray Willis, for travelling to sail today. Welcome also to John Penman - who sailed from my understanding - his first Sunday scratch day. Hope you enjoyed it.

Away on time at 1pm, with a single race and then break, followed by stanza's of three races and a break.

Twelve races completed by the end of the day, with three courses used, trying to get the start line as evenly spread as possible.

Some interesting observations today while watching.

As much as you bias the outer mark to be the favoured end, it is interesting to see how many boats still try to hit the start off the closer in start mark. Only changed after Gary got an absolute bolter from 3/4 up the start line and then they started to spread a bit more.

A few occasions, sailors decided to sail against anopther yacht to try to push an advantage, however, in every instance, the result ended up being the fleet gained the advantage, and not the two skippers that had embraced a yacht vs yacht duel.

As usual, close quarters sailing - especially at the marks - only ended up in pain, whereas the skippers in clear air always benefited by not pushing for that 1% gain that often had a big penalty if it went wrong.

That said, almost every penalty was done without being called, and the excellent overall behaviour made it a pleasure to be the PRO for the day. Thankyou to all sailors for keeping things in very good spirits.

Of note, we had 6 skippers taking a win today, one of them a Silver Fleet skipper (that really was a fantastic race Andrew). That said, seocnd place didn't register a win on the day, but was very consistent throughout the day.

Winner today, on 21 points was Lisa Blackwood.
Second place, on 27, was Gary McCarthy
Third place was Rod Jackman, on 35 points.

In Silver Fleet, Ted Stevens took out the day witrh 16 points.
Andrew Wardrop took out second on 20 points.
John Penman (Welcome to Sunday Sailing John) took third, just one point adrift on 21 Points.

Coming up

Wednesday is the start of Mid Week Handicap for the year, with the DF95's taking centre stage at the NEW START TIME of 1030.

Next Sunday is RM Scratch at Montrose, starting at 1300,

Kyle

Good afernoon everyone,

Well, 2025 sailing season has now closed.

We had a social sail day today from 10is this morning, wehere we had 7 A Class boats on the water, with two coming form the North and North West - Thanks Dicko and Ted for coming down to support the day.

Unfortunately, the wind wasn't playing the right tune and we drifted around for a few races until we pulled the pin and went in for our BBQ Lunch and Awards presentations. Big thanks to Bodge, Phil Tunbull and John Short for their work in organisnig and running the BBQ today.

Thanks to the guys who came along for the presentations as well - it was appreciated. It may ahve been a small turnout, but everyone enjoyed the BBQ and laughs.

Ray then came forward and had a chat about the season, gave out a few thankyous and went forward with the presentations. A few surpised looks when a few were called up to accept an award - which was really nice. Well done to all the award winners. Ray has taken some of th eones that will be presented to Wednesday sailors who weren't there today.

I have Linked a copy of the 2025 Season Award Winners document for anyone who wishes to have a look at them.

Bodge had organised a sweep for the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and we still have a few that need to be sold. Please contact Bodge if you would like some tickets - otherwise the club will take the remainder and will be a nice little bonus for the club should the tickets allocated to it wins.

Have a great christmas everyone, and a safe new year period. We understand this time is not such a joyous one for everyone, and if you fit into that space, please take care and look after yourself. Friends are about at the club should you need to have a chat to someone, please reach out if you feel the need.

Best wishes for the new sailing season. Let's all do our best to be better next season than we were last season (as we always strive to be). The club has made some excellent headway into being better overall - in performance and behaviour both on and off the water, and lets hope it continues to build ont he fantastic base we have worked so hard for. It is essential to be so in order for any club to thrive and increase its membership base.

Our next sailing day is on the RBRYC Website calendar, on Sunday, 4th January - IOM Scratch Summer Series Round 1 at MBYC, button press at 1pm.

Kyle

There was a good 15 knots of Northerly blowing when we arrived at the Dam this morning and it was nice and warm too with a forecasted 28 degrees as the maximum. It was our last handicap event for the year and this fact and the good sailing conditions brought out a strong fleet of sixteen skippers. 
 
A couple of skippers dusted off their ‘classics’ to give them a run. They had a great battle amongst themselves. Andrew Wardrop came out as ‘best of the classics’ today. Next year we will designate a couple of Wednesdays as Classics days. We will still have normal fleet racing on these days but just encourage those with the older boats to bring them out for a sail and enjoy a race within a race.
 
Rod Jackman was suffering some leg strain issues today and the thought of running after his boat didn’t fill him with glee. He did however offer to take on PRO responsibilities for the morning. After lunch Sheep and Bodge did the job after both suffering some breakage issues on their boats. Thanks to you Rod, Ian and Dave.

A-rigs were the universal choice for the mornings session. We were pretty much at the upper limit for the big rig though and I think that the wind freshened a little over the lunch break without us noticing - that is until the race after lunch which proved to be a handful with the boats well overpowered. Most skippers suited down in a rig change break and the B-rig did prove a better choice for most of the remaining races.

There was a fair attrition rate today with only 9 skippers finishing the last race. 

The overall winner today was John Hall who was probably also the most consistent skipper today. Jammy Jones continued his run of great results with an overall second today after starting the day as the back marker and John Penman took out third place. It has taken John quite a while to get his V11 sailing fast but over recent weeks he has steadily moved to the top end of the fleet.

Coming Up:

As said that was the last Wednesday Handicap for the season. This Sunday we will have the very last event, BBQ and prize giving. The format for the day will be:

10:00 Sailing - Bring any boat you like but there will definitely be some A class action
12:30 BBQ followed by prize ceremony
After that - more sailing for those that wish.

For those that cannot make the end of your function -  have a wonderful Christmas season and we will see all back on the water in the new year.​

Shorty 

A quite warm and gusty North westerly wind of about 10 - 15 knots greeted us at the dam this morning so all seventeen skippers elected to use their B rig for the mornings session. After lunch the wind settled a little and most skippers rigged the A for the last few races.
 
Over the course of the year our current handicap system has generated some unusual and unrealistic handicaps for the DF95 roster. As today was our last DF95 handicap meet for the year it seemed like a good time to trial a possible alternative system that may be used next year. The new system features grouped starts. Skippers start with a group of others of similar skill at 15 second intervals and sail with that same handicap all day. The skipper that has won the day, and any others who have had frequent podium appearances will be promoted into the next start group for our next meet. Skippers who sail all day but rarely find the podium are demoted and gain more handicap at the next meet. 
 
All up it was a good day for the mid-fleet skippers with Nick Connor taking out overall honours with great consistency after taking discards aside. Congratulations Nick! Scott Brain took out second place and had two race wins in his mix. Other skippers to win two races were John Penman and Phil Jackman. I was pleased with my third overall today as I have been struggling a bit recently with the DF95 in windy conditions.
 
As far as the handicap implications are concerned Nick would be promoted to the 45 sec start group by virtue of his event win. Scott and I would also find that we are promoted to the 45 second group as we were frequent podium attenders. Conversely Rod Jackman, Ray Joyce and Alan Short all had a ‘hard day at the office’ and barely made the podium at all - they would find that they are demoted and get more handicap benefit next time we meet.
 
So did the handicap system work? I think that it might take time before we can tell. I don’t think that we necessarily had skippers in correct groups today. The system did reveal some good features though: 

• It gives skippers valuable practice at starting in a group situations. 
• It gives the PRO the ability to judge the start line.
• It means that you get to race all day with a group of ‘rivals’. A race within a race situation is formed.

I do appreciate any feedback regarding handicaps as I am trying hard to develop a system that is fair to all and encourages skippers to sail well.
 
Shorty

​Well, it has been run and won for 2025 and we have a new State Champion.

After a night of repairs and adjustments for some, all 17 sailors were back on deck today in what looked to a a challenging day. Very light winds early and after the lunch break, it intensified to the interesting stage of whether we needed a B rig or be brave and hold on to A rig a bit longer. About 9 skippers went for the B rig with the remainder bravely holding on. The result was quite stark, with the wind dying right off after the squal had passed, and the A Rigs easily had it.

Given the fact that we had just had our break in between sets of 3 races, it was a make or break decision for the skippers, with some retaining the B Rigs, and others racing to get an A on, with a few retiring from that race (26) to cut losses and change back to the A.

We got another 13 races completed today, which was a fine effort, and there were a lot of really close matchups throughout the day. The excellent sailing and attitude of sailors on the course was a great example the sport would well be proud of. Congratulations to all skippers for their efforts across a very long couple of days.

Quite a few changes on the leaderboards, with both some good luck and horrible luck stories around.

After counting up the scores, we have ourselves a new State Champion in Gary McCarthy. Hardly heard around the course - just letting the sailng do the talking. A well deserved winner on 72 points.

Second place came down to the wire, with a fast finishing John Cole-Cook taking the honours with 97 points.

Third place was Lisa Blackwood, just two behind with 99 Points.

Silver fleet similarly had some leaderboard changes today, however, one thing remained the same.

Winer of Silver Fleet, with his new Orca boat, was Ian Dickinson on 70 points. A very well sailed couple of days while still getting used to his new boat.
Second place went to Andrew Wardrop, on 76 points. Really sailing the Blitz 6 well.
Third place was John Short, just one behind Andrew on 77 points.

Showing how close the Silver fleet was, there was just 8 points in 28 races between 1st and 4th place.

A big thanks and congratulatons goes to John Hall, who ran both days with efficiency, consistency and great sense of humour, especially when the wind was conspiring against him at times. Thanks from all of us for your efforts.

Tristan Price was on site again today and has taken some more fantastic shots of the sailing. He has posted to the RC Sailing Tasmania FB Group, which can also be seen if you do not have a FB account. Big thanks to Tristan for providing some photos from the day's sailing.

For those who don't have FB and cannot work it out, we will be getting some pictures from Tristan at some stage and will post them on our website.

Kyle