It was a sunny day and with a forecast top of 32 C the best place to be was at Risdon Brook Dam racing IOM yachts. The wind was a fairly consistent 2 - 5 knots and mostly Northerly in direction although a light sea breeze filtered through for the last two races.

All skippers made the podium at some stage today which is a sign of the handicap system working well.
Third overall today was Andrew Floyd with three race wins on his sheet.

I managed second place in a bit of a welcome back sail after a month off. The boat was performing really well. Thanks Kyle who did some work on it.

And today’s winner was Commodore Rod Marshall. A rockstar performance! Rod’s consistent results including five podium finishes to give him the win by a clear margin.
​
Coming up:
Sunday: Long distance racing at Risdon Brook Dam. 11:00 button. Bring any boat.
Next Wednesday: DF95 handicap racing at the dam. 11:00 button.

​Warm, overcast conditions today, with a light breeze from general directions - yup, everywhere.

Unfortunately some weed early on and late in the day, but some great racing in the middle sections.

Ten sailors on deck today, with our regular northern visitor becoming a more permanent northern member with the club. Welcome Ted :)

Just the 8 races completed today with the lighter conditions.

Lisa Blackwood having the best of it with her V12 sailing superbly in the light stuff with 4 wins from the 7 races she completed, coming out a comfortable winner on the day with 9 points.

Stu Dawes took second today, showing outstanding consistency with a worst counted 4th position with just 17 points for the day.

In third place, with a couple of wins today, was the most travelled sailor, Ted Stevens, with 22 points. Those tuning tips early on today helped get some great speed from the trusty Britpop!

In our newly created Silver Fleet, Ted took out top spot with 8 points.
Rod Marshall was just two points behind in second spot on 10 points.
John Hall took out third, two further behind, on 12 points.

Interesting to see in the main draw, that just 4 points separated 3rd spot and 7th spot today, showing just how close again the racing was. The final results really don't show how competitive the fleet as a whole really is.

Coming up

Wednesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap at the Dam, button press at 11am - early volunteers are very welcome

For those interested, Saturday is the Annual DF65 Peter Smith Memorial Regatta at Puddleduck Vinyard, Richmond, commencing at 9am. It's a handicap event and a real good event to watch if you have some time available to come and have a look. Puddleduck Vinyard is an absolute delight as well.

Next Sunday is Long Distance Day at the Dam, 11am button press. Some of us with A Class yachts are bringing them along for a sail.

Kyle

​It was quite hot at the dam, today but a good crew.
In the morning, Andrew Wardrop did the PRO task and did not sail, but had to leave at lunchtime. Thanks Andrew for your help today.
The afternoon a few of us did PRO and those are indicated along the bottom. If we rotate Pro's next week, please be sure to ahve a turn if you have yet to take a turn in the last few weeks to make it fair on everyone.

Winner today on countback was Lisa, on 24 points, to ian hey in Second. by virtue of her three race wins. Great consistency from Bodge - not having secured a race win, but tying up first place showing how truly consistent all his races were, with just one counted race outside the top 4!!!

Third place today was David Jones on 29 points.

Thanks also to those who helped pack up the gear today.

Best Rayza👍


Coming up

Sunday is IOM Scratch at MBYC, button press is at 1pm

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

​A welcome change to the last few weeks today. Ten DF95's made it along for the scratch day - a great turnout, as we knew there were four that could not make it in advance.

A stiff West Nor Westerley blowing. Stu was the first one on the water with his B Rig, and was off the water very soon after, changing up to the C. Everyone else followed suit, except for poor Cookie. His new boat had two rigs only. He tried to stick it out but pulled the plug after a few races. C rigs was the minimum for the entire day.

Tacking and picking the right shifts was the order of the day, and none were better than Stu today, an absolute masterclass. Eleven races completed for the day with some close racing in amongst the fleet and some interesting tactics. Sailing in close or further out - choose your poison with the anticipated wind shift that may come.

Apart from the high standard of racing, an absolute highlight was the absolute lack of calling out or extended "discussion" over incidents. There was no shortage of incidenats about the race course, but penaltes were completed quickly and without fuss, and very often accompanied with an apology to the affected skipper. A great exapmple of the sailing we strive to have as the example at the club. And I don't think our Pro had to call one of them.

On that, a big thanks to Les, coming out to officiate the day today. Although you were tired at the end of the day, your health seems to be improving every week. Let's hope it continues for you on your recvery back to normal.

Today, it was no surprise that Stu was our winner, with 13 points after the 11 races. Just the 7 wins for the day. Very well deserved Stu.

Second place today, on countback, was Kyle Stewart, 10 points behind Stu, on 23 points - with two wins.

Third place today was Michael Hickman with one win.

With the size of the DF95 fleet, we will instigate a Silver Fleet as we have done with the IOM Scratch, and with that in Mind, Silver Fleet winner would ahve been Ian Hey, with Peter Sylvester in second, and Phil Jackman third.

Coming up

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

Next Sunday is IOM Scratch, at Montrose, Button press at 1pm


Kyle

Another great day at the dam today. A bit light early, but the wind increased to the top of A rig towards the end of the day and some good sailing was had by all.

An excellent turnout again by the members, with 18 yachts on the water. An excellent display for Minister Nic Street, who came along to have a look at the club, its acivities and what sort of service we provided to the community. A very productive session with him, and hopefully we might be able to get some favourable discussions in the future in regards to some upgrades to facilities we so desperately need. A massive thanks to Rod Marshall (as well as Ray and Les for proof reading and input with the documentation), who has worked very hard behind the scenes to make this happen and has also provided an excellent set of documentation that was presented to the Minister for further reference. If anyone would like to see a copy of the documentation given to the Minister, let me know and I will email a copy to you.

Upgrades we are looking at now for the club are quite expensive, so if any members have any ideas for fundraising or money sourcing options, please contact someone on the committee. Our next priorities are improved  launching access at both Risdon Brook and Montrose Bay and are not cheap. 

To date, the club has sourced internally - or sourced external funding for our Defib, Solar Panel, new Outboard Motor at Montrose Bay, Electric Motor at Risdon, and Rib/Trailer package that is transported between Montrose and Risdon Brook - as well as our regular maintenance to both sets of buoys at Montrose and Risdon, so we have come a long way in the last few years with our upgrades so far. All of this has stemmed from the original strategy drawn up from the sessions from within the membership by Rob Gavin back in 2018, and a lot of the results has got to be attributed as well to the members input back then as well as Rob's fantastic organisational and communicational abilities.

But - back to sailing....

Ten races completed today, and with 18 competitors - 16 in one race, 15 in a few others, then 13 in a few more - there was quite a lot of close sailing in around the marks. A few collisions about the place, but from what I observed, penalties were taken when required, and the day stayed quite calm throughout. A pleasant day on the water.

One person particularly kept his nose clean and found that sailing out in clear air and often sailing the long way around a pack of sailors had a distinct advantage. Rewards came thick and fast, with two wins, a second and a third. A worst counted score of just 5th was fantastic amongst such a big fleet. A great round win to Ricky Price with 17.1 Points today. Congrats Ricky.

In second place, also very consistent with three podiums (and two wins) was Ian Hey. 12.9 points behind on 30 points. That Wooden Corby 5 is absolutely flying. The guy controlling the thumbs is doing pretty good too.

Third place today, five points behind is Peter Sylvester, on 35 points. Pretty sure Peter believes you are only ever as good as your last race with a fine win in that last one.

Thank you to everyone who came along today, to show such great support to the club while we had Minister Street in attendance. We really hope the support shown has raised the profile of the club in a really good way for us into the future.

Coming up

Sunday is DF95 Scratch at the Dam, button press is at 1pm

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

Kyle

​A difficult days sailing today at the dam - for us mere mortals anyway. Relocated due to the very low tide and the potential impellor issue with the rescue boat motor at Montrose.

Very light wind, from all directions of the compass, up to 10 knots, appearing on the water randomly and disappearing just as random, which made things interesting or difficult - depending on which end of the stick you were on at the time.

Seven skippers on site today, and just eight races completed. Some taking ten mnutes, and others 25, with same length of race.

Stu Dawes, Ray Joyce and Lisa Blackwood each sailed well in the conditions, being the only ones to have won a race. Ray and Lisa three each and Stu with two.


Winner today, was Stu on 10 points. Least wins of the top three, but most consistent, with throw outs of just a 2 and 3 for the day. Very well sailed.

A single point behind was Ray, on 11. He shared in difficulties on the water, but seemed to always find a way to get back to the pointy end of the fiele.

Three points further afield in third was Lisa, on 14. When the Skalpel was on, it was really on. Could have dominated the day save for a soft patch in the middle of the day when the boat seemed to lose its mojo for some reason, but soon regained it and came back with a few bullets to finish the day off.

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. For those coming, please come along with your RBRYC shirt if you have one. It will be great to see us all in our club shirts on the day to amke a good show for the club.

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

Kyle

A wonderful sunny day today, with a light and variable breeze from the south east direction. Quite light early on, but building a little as the afternoon wore on for some absolute champagne sailing conditions. Spring tides have hit though, with some of the lowest tides I have seen at Montrose. The floating jetty not quite so floating today and we had to really struggle to pull the rescue boat off the weed and in to the water at the end of the day.

Unfortunately, we only recored 5 races today. We had another 6 or so "practice" races prior, but a gust of wind came and took our results sheet with it, so our earlier evidence went missing - not that my results would have complained too much about that...

Anyway, we had a nice fleet of six sailors today, with a couple of apologies call in for the day - thanks for letting us know you couldn't make it.

Back to the races, and today was dominated by Lisa, podiums in every race today. Very well sailed and well deserved round win on 5 points.

Second today was Rod Marshall, on countback, four adrift on nine points. Also sailing very well.

The more we are sailing these yachts, the closer they are getting to each other in competitiveness and it is great to see.

The results today do not show the speed that was there with both Peter and Andrews yachts. They were very fast earlier in the day, and were badly disadvantaged by the missing score sheet, and Andrew had a mast crane  failure which dropped him off at the end of the day, which was otherwise a very fast and competitive days sailing for him - in the top two for much of the first half of the day.

Next A Class Scratch is on Saturday 9th March. We will be starting at 11am on this day to have a lunch in the middle of it. We'll provide a BBQ for those who come along - there is a club yacht and we have two members with fully functioning "second" yachts as well for those who wish to give the A Classes a run.

Coming up

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

Kyle

Another great turnout today with 14 yachts on the water for the second installment of our DF95 Mid Week Handicap for the year.

A fine North to north Westerly for much of the day, albeit a little bit flukey. It got tot he top end of A rig towards lunch time with a few pullig the B rigs out for the last few before lunch, but returned to A rigs after the break.

Big thanks to Andrew Wardrop for coming along to Pro the day today. Volunteering your time was truly appreciated.

In third place today, was Wayne Behrens, on 23 points. Looks like he may have found a few flat spots out there, but was able to throw those couple away at least.

In second, just three ahead, was Ray Joyce, on 20 points. A good consistent day. Ray is often finding the right places to be at the dam and using it to his full advantage.

In first place this week, on just 1 point, is Stuart Dawes. The DF95 dam master in his element in the flukey airs. Described to me this evening as "on fire, picked everything which was clever because the wind was very flukey". A good round win to cap off the birthday week Stu -  but the guys may be happy to know you'll be back at work after this week......

It was also extremely appreciated by the orgainsers, with the amount of help offered today in the setup and pack up of the equipment and ramp etc today. It really makes the workload so much easier and has everyone leaving the day so much happier and energised to return for the next sail day. Thanks again all.
 
Coming up: 
 
Saturday - A Class action at Montrose, button press at 1pm. There are spare yachts available, so if you're interested in having a sail, contact me and we will make sure one is ready to go. I am fairly sure we can get up to 3 unused yachts up and running for the day - the club Venom, my GothicA and I think Rod Marshall may have a Blister that could be ready to sail.

Sunday:  RM Scratch at Montrose, buttn press at 1pm. There is also the possibility of a spare indie to sail for an interested sailor (my original red one), so contact me if you'd like to try it out for the day.

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

Dreich conditions today for the second round of IOM Scratch at montrose today, but luckily for us, the rain stayed away for the duration of the day.

Thankyou to those who turned up nice and early today as well - and hwlped with getting the new rescue boat ready for launch, testing on the old dinghy cradle (nearly fitted) and back to the trailer and put to water. Many hands certainly made for easy work. We certainly are hoping this continues into the future.

Fourteen skippers made it to the water today, which was a fantastic turnout, given the conditions, but we were rewarded with a wondeful breeze to sail in, albeit with a little bit of weed here and there - but you can't have everything.

With Les wisely keeping warm and dry at home, we rotated the Pro duties today, which was done successfully without fuss, and commenced with Ray running a skippers briefing before the first race for us. The Pro for the race was given average points for that race.

We used a new system today - suggested from within the membership to the committee, where we separate out a "silver division" from the fleet for those skippers who aren't necessarily competing for the top places to compete for something as well amongst skippers of similar abilities as well. We hope to have separated the abilities respectfully and correctly, but if any skippers feel particularly aggrieved with their allocation, please don't sit in silence with it. Please contact me to discuss it and I am sure we can reach a meaningful and happy aggreement. It is envisaged that this will also mean that there will be a Silver Division winner/place for Summer/Winter/Overall Scratch within the IOM Scratch Series as well.

A massive thank you to John Short, who has put a massive amount of time and effort into a wonderful spreadsheet that saves me a mountain of time in sorting these scores out. Your efforts in doing this is really appreciated.

Back to todays results.

We had a few small groups of sailors consistently at the top of the leaderboard for much of the day today. Rod Jackmana nd Michael Hickman figting it out for much of the day for the top honours, with Lisa Blackwood, Stuart Dawes, Ray Joyce and Ted Stevens all close for the third spot.

At the end of the nine races, Rod edged out Mike for the round win on 15.1 points, with Michael in seocnd on 16.5 points.
Lisa took third with 28.5 points, with Stu just a few behind on 31.

In Silver Division, Ted Stevens took the Inaugural win on 13 points, with Rod Marshall in second on 17.4 points and Ian Hey rounding out the top 3 with 18.9 points.

Coming up

Wednesday is DF95 Mid Week Handicap at the Dam, button press at 11am - early volunteers are very welcome

Saturday is the next round of a Class Scratch at Montrose, 1300 button press

Next Sunday is RM Scratch at Montrose, 1300 button press

Kyle