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Eleven skippers fronting for the first event of the 2017-18 season, the 2017 Southern Tasmanian IOM Championship. A fine and sunny autumn's day with light and variable winds, mainly from the west to south to around 3 knots, slowly building during the day to maybe 5-6 knots in the afternoon. With the variable wind directions, course setting was a challenge but all races had a windward/leeward component and generally short one lap races in the lighter airs and two laps when the breeze was settled. Despite the efforts of the awesome foursome on Saturday, there were still a few victims to strands of weed, and a few boats getting caught in the weed banks as well. David Jones started his regatta off well taking line honors in Race 1 with Peter Darcey second and Rod Jackman finishing third. Rod stepped it up a notch in Race 2 to take the gun with Chris wood in contention with a second and Ray Joyce showing he was sailing well with a third place, and indeed he was, winning Race 3 with veteran Lisa Blackwood on the podium in second place and David Jones on the podium again, in third place. Lisa took the gun in Race 4, closely pursued by David Jones and Rod Jackman. After the first drop, David Jones led the fleet with 6 points, Lisa Blackwood second on countback from Rod Jackman with 7 points, Ray Joyce in fourth place with 9 points and Peter Darcy rounding out the top five with 12 points. Lisa backed it up with another win in Race 5 with Rod Jackman sailing well into second place and Chris Wood on the podium again in third place. Back to back wins in Races 6 and 7 for Ray Joyce and coincidentally back to back seconds for Lisa Blackwood, and a third place for Peter Sylvester and Rod Jackman respectively. Lunch was called during the usual noon lull. With the resumption of racing, Rod notched up his second win for the day in Race 8 with the Silver Fox up at the pointy end of the fleet and a second place, and Lisa Blackwood sailing consistently well with another podium in third place. After the second drop, Lisa Blackwood led with 11 points from second place Rod Jackman on 13 points, third place was Ray Joyce with 15 points, Peter Darcey in fourth with 22 points and David Jones dropping to fifth place on the leader board with 28 points. Lisa strengthened her lead with another solid win in Race 9, the points gap to second place widening with Chris Wood on the podium again, and Kyle Stewart also in the mix with a third place. Unfortunately, Rod Jackman had to pull out of the regatta after Race 9, however late arrival Stuart Harris announced his presences with a win in Race 10. Lisa still sailed well to take second spot and Andrew Wardrop connecting the dots to take third place. Race 11 saw a solid performance from Chris Wood earn him line honors from Peter Darcey on the podium again in second place and Peter Sylvester with his second visit to the podium in third place. Race 12 saw Lisa take her fourth win for the day with Chris Wood making a late move on the points in second place and Ray Joyce improving from earlier races of the afternoon to take the minor podium. Ray and Lisa battled it out in Race 13 with Ray taking the gun from Lisa, and Darcey also improving with a solid third place. Stu Harris showed that his new hand crafted "woodie" of the Corby design, built in the Byerley workshop, had plenty of pace taking the win in Race 14 with Lisa ever competitive in second place and Darcey also up there again in third place. The final race of the day, Race 15 saw worthy winner Lisa Blackwood finish the day on a high with another solid win, as too Peter Darcy sailing well with another second place and Stu Harris' Corby competitive in third place. Final results and a very comfortable win from veteran sailor Lisa Blackwood with 24 points which included an impressive 5 wins and 12 out of 15 podiums. Second place went to the Silver Fox, Peter Darcy on a rather distant 47 points, Ray Joyce finishing in third place on 50 points, Chris Wood fourth on 57 points and Peter Sylvester rounding out the top 5 with 74 points. A pleasant day's sailing was had by all with good close racing and good spirits. Thanks to Ted and Dave for helping me during racing, and to those that turned up just to have a look. Wet sails, Stuart Dawes, PRO. 
1 Comment
Lisa
28/4/2017 03:34:00 am
Great review Stu well done Leave a Reply. |
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