​Sorry, no written report today.

That said, it was great to see thirteen along for the day.

Ray Joyce back in form today, in third place with 28 points.

Second was secured by Phil Jackman, on 23 points.

Winner today, was Andrew Floyd, on 20 points.

Thanks to John Banks, who came along to assist with PRO duties. It's really appreciated.

This coming Sunday is IOM Scratch. We will be emailing further info shortly. There is an issue of access to Montrose on Sunday with an ironman event closing the Brooker Hwy, parts of the East Derwent Hwy and Bowen Bridge.

Kyle

​At last, we got some sailing today.

After cancelletaions on Fridays initial Handicap Shield and then again yestreday with the heavy winds, we got some sailing in today in a solid 14 knot westerley.

We had five IOM's and thee A Class yachts sailing today. Unfortunately, we had a few others turn up but had some issues, so didn't quite make the start line.

It was great to see Murray Willis come today to sail his Cheinz 2. Great to see you at the dam, and hope you come along every chance you get when you are down in the south.

We got in 9 races under a handicap system. IOM's started all together on the first race, with the A Class yachts two minutes later, and then handicap penalties commenced from there according to results.

Very hard to handicap today, with some starts allowing  those that started first a big lead that was hard to chase down, and then the next race being chased down within the first lap, depending on how fortunate you were with the lifts and gusts. The A Class yachts were able to hold their A Rigs, so had a distinct advantage when the breeze lightened off, and powered up beautifully when the gusts came in as well.

At the end of the nine races, one sailor really stood out amongst everyone else. Dropping two 3rd places made for a very consistent perfomance all day, and no surprise with Michael Hickman winning the Australia Day Shield for 2024 with just 13 points.

Second place today was Rod Marshall, on 20 points. His A Class Blister sailing very well, with just the one race missed with some jib issues after a big gust came through.

Four points further behind, was Kyle Stewart. Also had a few races on the shore with a forestay replacement needed. Highest handicap on the day and the boat sailed very well when on the water.

The sailing today was in great spirits, and not once was there a call for someone to do a penalty. Every single case today, any penalties were completed on the skippers own behalf after they saw that they infringed. Fantastic on-water behaviour all round.

Great also to see so many sailors helping each other with various issues. Whether it was Marray needing some help with tuning the yacht or on-water advice, to Cookie needing a third (or fourth) hand in getting some soldering done on his winch, or people checking out their stocks for glue for Stuart - it all shows the comradare and spirit we want to see on a sail day.

Big thanks today, to Les Hanscon, for coming along and running things for us. Always very appreciated/

Coming up

Wednesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap, starting at 11am

Next Sunday is IOM Scratch, starting at 1pm.

A note on IOM Scratch. We did try to make it more interesting for skippers with a handicap system last year. Trawling through the previous 5 results each time we sailed to gather a class ranking and compare that against finished result in an attempt to have all skippers in with a chance to win on handicap. Although statistically, it looked fairly successful, but we didn't really see an increase of numbers to sailing.
This year, after a fantastic suggestion to the committee from within the membership, we are going to try a system where the fleet is separated into two "groups", a gold and silver fleet. Everyone starts and sails as per any scratch day, but the end of day results are split into these two fleets, so those who are not necessarily in a regular running for the top few positions can vie for the silver fleet win/place.
John Short (thanks for all your hard work with this) diligently trawled through our past data to look at final placings each week as well as who finished races in the top three to develop a spreadsheet that will help us sort out placings on a scratch day. We believe we have found a good balance between gold and silver fleet sailors, and hope to implement this from next week. A note on this, a Silver Fleet sailor can certainly win the day if they have a great one and beat everybody in the results - they can win both the scratch day overall and the Silver Fleet.

We hope the introduction of the two fleet system may help increase participation in the scratch days, with sailors feeling like they can hae a good chance at being in the top few of the fleet they are in,

Kyle

The forecast of a sunny day, moderate winds and warm 28oC tempted a good fleet of 16 skippers to the dam for today’s IOM handicap event.  The wind promised much but didn’t really deliver and most of the day was spent sailing in less than 5 knots of Northerly. It often threatened to turn to a sea-breeze but little more than a casual gust arrived from the South West. Still it is always great to be sailing in a good fleet on a nice day.
 
John Banks is always a welcome guest at our events and was able to assist me with official duties. Thanks for your work John.
 
Stuart Dawes took out overall honours today with three race wins and a second in his total. Stuarts win follows up from an overall win in last weekend’s DF95 scratch event and puts him in good stead for both our Australia day DF95 event on Friday and the IOM Statewide event on Saturday.
 
Peter Turner is gaining a reputation as a light wind specialist and made regular podium visits today to secure second place.
 
And it just isn’t Wednesday handicap if Buzzy Behrens doesn’t feature in the results. Today gaining third overall after finishing the afternoon strongly. Congratulations Stuart, Peter and Wayne.
 
There is lots of sailing coming up!

Friday is our annual "Australia Day Handicap Shield" for DF95's. This starts at 11am
Saturday will have A Class Yachts sailing at the dam from 11am. We were hoping to travel up north to sail them for a northern weekend, but will hopefully do that later in the year still.
Sunday is the Tasmanian IOM Travellers Challenge, at Lake Trevallyn. Good luck to all the sailors participating. 
Next Wednesday is again IOM Mid Week handicap at the dam - button press at 11am



Shorty

​A really hard day at the dam today. Very light Southerly for much of the day, not enough even for waves on the water. Only a knot or two in it.

A warm welcome (albeit under grey skies and drizzly conditions) to Peter Ross, freshly arrived from Sydney. Peter has sailed his DF95 back in NSW and we hope to see him regularly at the club into the future.

Rod Marshall had the PRO duties today, and got 10 races completed. John Cole-Cook raced a borrowed DF95 and found things nice and easy by the looks of it with a couple of wins and a second to start the day. 

Although difficult conditions, we did have three sailors who were able to master the conditions.

Stuart Dawes and John Cole-Cook at the head of the three, joined on 20 points, with Stu taking the day's honours on countback with his four race wins to John's 3.

Third place today, was Michael Hickman, 10 behind the leaders on 30 points.

Thankyou today, to Rod Marshall, for effectively setting the courses and keeping us all under control.

Coming up - a big week of sailing for us.

Wednesday is IOM Mid Week handicap at the dam - button press at 11am

Friday is our annual "Australia Day Handicap Shield" for DF95's. This starts at 11am

Saturday will have A Class Yachts sailing at the dam from 11am. We were hoping to travel up north to sail them for a northern weekend, but will hopefully do that later in the year still.

Next Sunday is the Tasmanian IOM Travellers Challenge, at Lake Trevallyn. Good luck to all the sailors participating. It is very encouraging to see 14 entries so far.


Kyle

​A great start to RM Scratch racing today. Fantastic to see nine skippers turn up. Unfortunately, one didn't get off the start line with a blown rudder servo, leaving eight to sail for the day.

Ten races sailed in all, with the first three in A Rig, before we all decided to change down for the B set for the rest of the day. South to South East breeze, from not much at all to around 20 knot gusts proved rather tricky to master, with most of us getting both good luck and bad luck as the day wore on.

It was fantastic to see (and the sailors are to be commended for the sportsmanship) with an amount of infringements being cleared with a prompt penalty turn without the need for any challenging - and on two occasions that I heard, where the skipper called their own infringement and started the turn with the yacht they infringed upon not even aware that the infringement was there. Fantastic level of sportsmanship that is what we want to see consistently when we sail.

After the end of the days racing, Ray Joyce came out on top. Four race wins and a worst counted of 4 showing the consistency that he sails week after week with the RM. Well deserved round winner on 17 points.

Second today, was Kyle Stewart - enjoying that jump up into B rig, reeling off a 1-2-1-1 after the rig change. Also very consistent today, with 4's as the worst counted scores for the day. Finishing 3 behind Ray, on 20 points.

Three points further afield, in third, was Stu Dawes on 23 points. Also 4th as highest counted score. Very consistent amongst the first three today.

In all, a very enjoyable days sailing. Big thanks to Les for doing the Pro work today. Les has been unwell lately and was great to see him up and about today. Your work as Pro is appreciated by all of us.

Coming up

Wenesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap, button press at 11am. We will be having a visit from Minister Nick Street, who will be having a look at our new dinghy and getting a bit of an idea what RC Sailing is all about. Hopefully it might also be the start of some positive communications in to the government with our future plans.

Next Sunday is DF95 Scratch, at the dam. Button press at 1pm.

Reminder also for everyone, that we have the next IOM Ranking Event coming up in a few weeks on 28th January at Lake Trevallyn. Entries can be made either by going direct to the ARYA Events page, or on our own Ranking Events page, which will link you to the same spot. It woul dbe great to get a good turnout to support our Northern friends in their first IOM Ranking event in many years.

Kyle

A strong fleet of fifteen skippers turned up at the dam for our first IOM handicap event for the year and were greeted with a warm and gusty North Westerly of up to 15 knots. Everyone selected their A-rig for the morning and we got underway using a rotating PRO to officiate. Later in the morning Graeme Cooksey had to retire but took on the PRO role. Thanks for your great work today Graeme.
 
I broke a shroud in race 3, took race 4 off but rather than make repairs I chose to change to the B-rig. This was very effective and allowed me to win the next race by a fair margin. Maybe this in part helped convince most skippers to change down over the lunch break. In fact changing down may not have been best as the wind did moderate a bit in the afternoon. Rob Cooney was the only one to stay with the A-rig and he performed nicely in the afternoon session.
 
Overall it was a good day for the experienced hands with Jammy Jones earning overall honours .No race wins for Jammy but all of his results were right at the head of the fleet.
 
The unstoppable Matt Grey took out second place finishing the day with back-to-back race wins.
 
Third was taken by Ray Joyce with three race wins in his tally. Congratulations Jammy, Matt and Ray.
 
Coming up:
Saturday: Marblehead scratch racing at the dam (1:00 button)
 
Next Wednesday: IOM handicap at the dam (11:00 button) and on this day we will have visitors from Minister Nick Street’s Office who have assisted us with the grant for the new rescue boat. They wish to do a ‘photo shoot’ with the boat. It would be great if we have a good turn-out next week to show the excellent value that radio sailing gives their funding. Lets have a big week!
 
Shorty

​Light conditions greeted the 12 sailors who turned up today for the first installment of IOM Summer Scratch for the year.

It was fantastic to see a great field of sailors on the water today.

Wind in every direction except the east, making courses difficult to set and extremely varied.

Without our trusty Pro, Les today who was feeling a bit under the weather, we chose to rotate the Pro's around and thanks to all skippers who quickly volunteered to fill in as pro for a race. Almost everyone had a go at it. The Pro received average points from the rest of their races.

With the light wind, an amount of races were shortened.

Five race winners from the 10 races today, so things were shared about a bit, with everyone getting a rub of the green at times, and just poor luck at others.

Winner today, with a fantastic 14.9pts was Michael Hickman - not venturing below 3rd in his counted races. Well deserved round win.

Second today was Mat Gray on 18.6pts, no lower than 5th.

Third, by less than a point - was Stuart Dawes - on 27.1pts.

With the light, fickle wind, there was quite a lot of congestion at numerous times at marks. Something we need to be a bit more mindful of as we approach them. The Wednesday crew had a real positive talk about that area last week. We just need to be mindful of our places as we near the marks and ensure we keep respectful room for those who have rights over us in order to avoid accidental collisions and ruining the enjoyment of the day for others. Being a self governed sport, we do not need to wait to be called, but are compelled to exonorate ourselves of any infringements as soon as possibe with a penalty turn. Something we also need to be a bit more aware of.

That said though, the large majority of the sailing today was done in great spirit.


Coming up

Wednesday is Mid Week IOM Handicap, button press at 11am

Next Sunday is RM Summer Series Round 1, location tba but currently assuming at the dam if the floating pontoon at Montrose isn't repaired by then.

Kyle

With the Sunday Scratch Racing slots filling up - and not wanting to dilute the amount of sailing for other classes on the Sunday, it was decided that MBYC host an A Class Pennant series for 2024, with sail days approximately monthly on a Saturday.

We will continue to support this series so long as we keep getting enough support from the membership as far as numbers turning up.

Initially to be held at MBYC, but moved to Risdon Brook after the damage to the floating pontoon (we hope to have news of when it may return to service in the next week or so).

Five skippers turned up for the day today, with a warm welcome back to John Cole-Cook, who has been sunning himself in Qld for a number of months.

Initially a light ESE breeze for the first half a dozen races, causing us to start with a downwind start and keeping away from bioys 1 and 2, but the course worked very well for us all.

Lisa got off to a cracking start, winning the first two races, but Rod Marshall soon found his mojo and took out races 3 and 4.

John took out race 5 in a real close one, before Kyle came through with his first win in 6.

Lisa returned with a win in 7 before Kyle found an extra bit of boat speed (or tacked correctly finally) and took out the last two races of the day.

Results are always one thing, but they never really show how close the sailing actually is. We all commented on how pleasurable the conditions were, and how much fun it was with our various tacking duels heading upwind.

In all, it was a fantastic day of A Class sailing.

That said, Kyle came out winner of the day today, with 12 points, one ahead of Lisa on 13 and John in third on 16 points.

Again, the day was very enjoyable, with everyone helping each other to try and extract the best out of all the yachts. Today showed that all the yachts are really evenly matched and competitive, with on-water tactics often being the edge required to get up the placings on that particular race.

We have round 2 of our A Class Pennant on Saturday, 10th February. While there are quite a few owners of the A Class yachts and we hope they are able to make it to round 2, we also have a few other A Class yachts available for anyone who would like to have a sail.

Coming up

Tomorrow is IOM Scratch at the Dam, starting at 1pm, followed by IOM Mid Week Handicap on Wednesday, button press at 11am.

Kyle

It was great to get back to sailing today after a bit of a break over Christmas. We were welcomed by a fine and warm day with a South Easterly sea-breeze brewing. This breeze built throughout the day to about 15 knots in the last race.
 
Kyle brought the new RIB dinghy and electric motor for its maiden voyage. While the ultimate plan is to use this dinghy at Montrose, the new electric motor will be used at the dam with our current rescue boat. This should make it safer to use in windy conditions.
 
A huge thanks to Andrew Wardrop and Rod Marshall who officiated today’s racing. Today they set us a longer challenging course for the DF95’s.
 
This year we are piloting a new feature on Wednesdays. Every fortnight Wayne Behrens will present a short lunchtime talk on one of the racing rules. Today’s talk, rather than being on a specific rule, was on the importance of avoiding collisions. In summary Wayne said: 

• Keep a good distance from other boats.
• Try to keep thinking 5 seconds ahead.
• Talk to other skippers while you are racing and inform them what you are doing. 
• Collisions are very costly in terms of your race position.

 
As if to demonstrate this in the very next race Wayne and I were engaged in a close tacking battle. Tacking too late caused a collision – Wayne went on to come second while I finished last after completing a penalty!
 
Late in the afternoon, with a storm threatening, Andrew asked if we wished to continue racing. He might have known we would say yes! So race we did and we ended up packing up in the rain!
 
Third overall today went to Martin Svensen with two race wins in his tally. Wayne took second place with the consistent results that are his hallmark. Today’s winner was Ian Bailey. It was only Ian’s second sail with the club and he had plenty of podium finishes in the mix. Very well sailed Ian!
 
Coming up: 
 
Saturday - A Class action - originally planned for Montrose Bay, but due to the damage sustained at the floating pontoon, the A Class day will be sailed at Risdon Brook. Button press is at 11am to allow the Risdon Park Runners to finish their event.

Sunday:  IOM Scratch racing NOTE VENUE CHANGE  will now be sailed at Risdon Brook Dam due to the damage sustained to the launching pontoon at Montrose.(1:00 button)

Next Wednesday: Handicap sailing for IOM’s at Risdon Brook Dam. (11:00 button)
 
Shorty