A Class Scratch Round 2

A cool morning again today (ice had to be removed from the winscreen prior to travelling to the dam....) with a light northerly blowing straight down the dam.

Seven sailors along today, which was promising, with a few builds still happening - so the A Class resurgence in the state is slowly continuing.

Ray graciously gave up his time to day to PRO the day, which was really appreciated. Some good, long courses which were getting us close to 15 minutes in length, allowing the boats to both stretch their legs and competitors to make up for early mistakes, should they have made any.

The last four races were shortened in length as the wind was dying right off, and changed to a challenging Sou' Wester which made it difficult for Ray to make an effective course. Persist he did though, and tried his best at setting a challenging enough course with a good beat and preventing the old "soldiers course" issues

It was great to see Cookie along today with his new (to him) Blister yacht. A lot of teething issues and an under-sized sail plan with his old Venom sails on, but I am sure he enjoyed the day anyway.

In all, very pleasant sailing throughout with very tight finishing margin between 3rd and 5th position (just 1 point). John H still has some work to get his boat going, but has the info needed to get it a bit more competitive, and I am sure it will be much better next time on the water.

Rod had good consistency throughout most of the day, marred on a few occasions with some comms issues between the tx and rx, but very fast through most of the day. A well deserved 3rd today on 19 points.

Lisa helped make numbers today, sailing the club Venom (her new yacht is "in build" as we speak), which was appreciated. Sailing effeciently and finishing in second on 14 points.

Standout for today was Kyle with his new suite of sails looking great. Dropping a 2nd and 5th to finish with a perfect card of 6 points from the 6 counted races. Meticulous preparation and great advice from other skippers helping the boat to become a very polished performer.

On an aside, the committee had a meeting after the sailing today, and it was brougt up that for the A Class to enjoy more sail days, the sailors really need to help lead the way with on-water attendance and support. We do hope to ahve more sail days in the summer, but with a packed Sunday programme, we may need to look at Saturday sail days for the class, so long as the support is there for it.

Coming up

Wednesday sees IOM Handicap at the Dam, starting at 11am.

Next Sunday is the Marblehead State Regatta, at the Dam, button press at 1030. Please get your entries in as soon as possible. Currently with 5 entries, it risks not qualifying as a ranking event (6 minimum).

Kyle