​Given tidal conditions today, the John Emms Memorial for Marblehead class was relocated to Risdon Brook Dam.

Seven keen competitors entered for what was a very close days sailing.

PRO, Mat Gray got eveyone under way nice and promptly, with some good, long courses. The breeze was very light, maybe 6 knots maximum, coming from a bit of an awkward ESE direction.

We got 8 races in, before the rain set in a bit too much for the sailors, who decided unanimously to call the day a bit early.

Winner of the John Emms memorial for 2022, is no stranger to it. Ray Joyce snuck in with 12 points. Three firsts and three thirds as counted races, shows the value of not having a bad counted race. Congrats Ray - well deserved.

Second today, was Kyle Stewart, just one point behind Ray, on 13 points. Again, a worst recorded score of 4 made a big difference.

Third today, was Lisa Blackwood, on 19 points (on countback from John Hall), havig a few issues towards the end of the day, but sailed well enough earlier on to maintain that third place.

Thank you to all the competitors that came today. The forecast was not favourable, and we all still turned up and made the day what we could.

Big thanks to Mat Gray, filling in as PRO for the day. Your help was really appreciated.

Wednesday is back to Risdon Brook for IOM Handicap, with IOM Scratch on next Sunday at MBYC.

Kyle

A fleet of sixteen IOM skippers took to the water for today’s handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam. A light early morning SouthWesterly offered the chance of a sea breeze but it dwindled away and lunch was taken early.

The afternoon’s racing was held in much fresher Northerly conditions and there were plenty of wind shifts and gusts and lulls to test our skills.

Huge thanks go to John Murrell who was our PRO today. John did a great job setting good courses in the changing conditions. Thanks also to Ian Hey who will be filling the PROs position next week.

There were nine different race winners today with Peter Darcy the only skipper to win more than one race. He started the day really well by taking out the first two. Consistency is the key on days when the honors are shared around and this was demonstrated by the three podium place getters today.

John Hall won the day (26 pts) followed by Mat Gray (30 pts) and Ray Joyce (33 pts)

Congratulations to all.

IMPORTANT CALENDAR CHANGES FOR MARCH

With the DF championships coming up in just a few weeks it seemed sensible to make a couple of changes to our racing schedule as detailed below and also now on the website calendar.

Next week Wed 2nd March           IOM handicap at Risdon Brook Dam.
Wed 9th March (afternoon)           DF invitation race at Montrose.
Wed 16th March                            No sailing (to recover from the championships)
Wed 23rd March                            IOM handicap at Risdon Brook Dam.

Sunday’s Sailing will be the John Emms Memorial for Marbleheads starting at 10:30 at Risdon Brook Dam. Currently only 5 entries. If we don't have 6 by close of entry on Friday, the event will lose its ranking status this year.

John S

​Firstly, thanks to those sailors who took up the offer of getting sails measured. Looks like Michae and Rod were kept busy for close to two hours - which is really going to simplify things for the upcoming nationals.

We sailed today out the front of the MBYC clubhouse, one of the three locations at Montrose that we could sail the champs. Please feel free to email back your thoughts on sailing there - bearing in mind the NW breeze did make things a bit more difficult overall. A wonderful day, with 25C throughout.

That said, we had ten competiors today sail twelve races, in around 15 knots of N-NW wind. A bit much for A rig, wit Richard finding out in the first race - leading around the last mark, but too much sideways slip. He quickly corrected that (as we can see in the results).

Runaway winer today was Richard Fisher, on 35 points, with Ray Joyce in second on 29 points and David Jones taking third spot on 37 points.

On handicap today, Richard Fisher took the daily double, with 7 net points. Wayne Behrens took second spot with 2 net points, and David Jones third, with 1 net point.

Kyle

​Our usual Wednesday man was off camping on the west coast today.

Mat Grey kindly stepped in as PRO to conduct todays racing in very light conditions of 0 to 5 knots prior to lunch. Many course changes were necessary to keep things moving.

After lunch a sea breeze appeared for the last 2 of 8 races & then disappeared again as soon as we finished.

An excellent effort by Mat to get 8 races in, many thanks.

Good performances by Phil Jackman recording 2 wins & 2 also to Peter Germein.

The silver fox was always in there so final results will be interesting.

A great days sailing at MBYC today. Northerly breeze all day. Starting with about 4 knots, and increasing to close to 20 by the end of the day.

Ten skippers fronted for the day, one RM, five A's and four IOM's.

The handicapping was pretty much spot on from the star, with most skippers pretty close to each other as they finished. The A Class yachts were all awarded the same handicap on each race compared to the rest of the fleet, in order to also compete on a level basis for their scratch day.

Unfortunately, it was a day of attrition, with the most in one race being 9 yachts, and four by race 4, reducing to just four yachts by the end of the day. That said, a lot of fun was experienced by the skippers on the water. The RM going to C rig, IOM to B rig an A's in between A and B, with the A rig being way over-powered towards the end.

Today, The GothicA was the yacht to beat. Must say, my favourite sailing conditions and the yacht excells in it as well. 

Kyle got the double today, winning the Handicap Round, on 12 points, with Lisa Blackwood's Sweet 6 in second, on 16 points, and Adrew Wardrop's Blitz 6 rouding out the top 3 with 17 points.

A Class Scratch, Kyle got the win with 7 points, with Lisa Blackwood two behind in second, on 9 points, and John Hall 6 further back in third, on 15 points.

Tomorrow will see the Forcett Lakes club hosting their IOM Woodie day from 10am. All with Woodies are welcome to compete, and if you don't ahve one and have the imte, please come down for a look. They have a great sailing location down there.

The following Link is some action from A Class racing yesterday, and I'll try to get some footage from today's sailing out and linked to tomorrows email about the Woodie event.

Wednesday is regular IOM Handicap at the dam, with DF95 Scratch next Sunday.

On a little housekeeping topic. It has become quite a regular occurance where the same 3-4 people have been setting up and packing up the sailing days. It would be really appreciated if we could get some more people asissting where they can on any sail day. We do understand there are an amount of sailors with heart conditions, bad backs etc, and thta is perfectly OK. We don't want someone getting hurt at all, but if you can, please have a look about and see if there is anything you can do to help as well. Tidy up and put stuff in the officials box, roll the scorers trolley to the trailer etc. Every little something, is something someone else doesn't have to do.

Thanks

Kyle

It was a lovely sunny day at Risdon Brook Dam today and the weather brought out a really strong fleet of 18 skippers. We started racing in a Northerly of about 8 knots but it gradually died and we decided that an early lunch would be in order. We were hoping for a good sea breeze in the afternoon but what we got was a poor excuse for a sea breeze which never really exceeded 5 knots. Still it was a nice day and we got to sail ten races!

It was good to see Jammy Jones back to Wednesday IOM handicap with his new K2. Jammy thinks that this boat feels even faster than his last.

Consistency is always the key in points racing as demonstrated by today’s podium place winner’s score sheets. Kim Potter took out the day, with Matt Gray second and John Hall third.  

The club’s committee has decided that in order to maintain best sportsmanship on the course it is important to have a PRO in charge of every club race. I personally do not like the workings of ‘rotating the PRO’ changing every race across an event and think that the day flows much better if there is one PRO assigned for the day. I understand that not everyone would like to volunteer to be PRO for a day and that is OK, but if you think that you could do it, and wouldn’t mind doing it say once every two or three months, then please let me know and we will work out a roster. (My email is below.) Matt Gray has kindly offered to PRO next Wednesday.

On Saturday, Montrose Bay Yacht Club (RC Division) is hosting its first A Class scratch day, starting at 11am. We have four confirmed starters, sot he day is going ahead. If you ahve an A Class and are thinking about sailing, please come along and support the day. MBYC hope to have this as a monthly event. Givent he DF65/95 National Champs are getting closer, you are also welcome to bring a DF to have a sail if you wish as well.

Next Sunday is Long distance and A class racing at Montrose (11:00) and next Wednesday IOM handicap at the dam.

John S

Contact John at:  [email protected]

 ​Looked like an idyllic day at Montrose today.

The first race started with a light ENE breeze, but the sea breeze soon filled in and fantastic conditions were reported from the afternoon.

A bit of a change today, with a designated PRO, that was rotated each race, in order to keep things under control and moving along nicely. After a few weeks with some concerns over some course confusion and a few in-race arguments on the course, the committee have committed to to clamp right down and make sure that on-course behaviour is up to the standard that we all want, which is that which will look favourably to the ever present public exposure and to all potential new sailors. This was intimated in a pre-race day briefing and will also be followed up in the coming days with a communication out to all members, so everone is fuly aware of expectations on course. Nothing big at all, but just a bit of a reset from some past concerns.
Back to today's sailing, and it was great to see 13 sailors on deck today. A nice strong fleet, with a healthy mix of experienced and not-so-experienced sailors on the day.

We had three standout performers today, with Mat Gray, Michael Hickman and Lisa Blackwood duelling for much of the day for the honours. Mat came out n tip after the allotted 11 races, with 19.8 points, with Michael less than 1 point behind in second, on 20.9 points. Taking third was Lisa with 22.9 points.

On handicap, John Hall had a great day, taking out the day with 3 net points, with Lisa Blackwood and Stuart Dawes coming in second, with 2 net points.

Some good positive signs as well, looking through the results, with Andrew Wardrop taking a 3rd place in one of the races today, and Andrew Price an excellent 2nd place as well. Well done guys.

This Wednesday is a return of IOM sailing at the dam for Mid Week Handicap.

On Saturday, 12th February, MBYC is holding an A Class scratch day to guage the interest amongst A Class skippers for a monthly Saturday sail day to be hosted by MBYC. This will start at the same time as RBRYC events, so this Saturday will be a 1pm start. If you think you can make it on the day, please let me know so we can get a feel for how many yachts are likely to turn up. For simplicity, we plan to sail out the front of MBYC clubhouse and then get a feel from skippers about preferred location to sail. We are hoping for this to become a monthly fixture, 4 weeks apart.

We are getting closer to the DF65/DF95 Nationals, and the committee are deep in planning for the events. We are, as always, on the lookout for volunteer help as well still. We have received quite a few responses to date for help, but need a few more, mostly for observer type spots, which is not complex, and will be fully supported by the committee around the exact responsibilities of the task/s. Please contact Kyle or John Hall if you think you might be able to help out for a day or two. It will be very appreciated.

​A shifting Westerly wind made conditions tricky for today’s DF95 Handicap at the Dam. The wind gusted from 0 – 10 knots and shifted from NNW to SSW without warning. A strong fleet of thirteen skippers attended today and A-rigs were the universal choice.

Andrew Wardrop attended to PRO duties and did a great job setting courses in the difficult conditions. Thanks Andrew. Courses which involved the deep water buoy - ‘buoy 9’ were probably the best for the conditions even though the distant mark challenged our eyesight.

Race honours were well shared, with just about all skippers reaching the podium at least once and tight scoring at the top of the tally table. 

Just one point separated the three place-getters. Mat Gray was the overall winner today with race results consistently at the pointy end. Mat was just one point ahead of Pete Darcey and Ray Joyce who were equal on points. Peter Darcey was awarded second on count-back ahead of Ray by virtue of more race wins.

Congratulations to all.

Remember that if you do not intend to sail in the upcoming DF65 and DF95 National Championships but are available to assist in the running of the event then please give Kyle a message.

Back to IOM’s again with Sunday scratch sailing at Montrose starting at 1:00 and also for next week’s Wednesday handicap at the Dam starting at 11:00.


John S