The forecast was for good sailing conditions and a maximum of 25 degrees but it didn’t look that way last night with heavy rain falling and even this morning at start time it was jackets and jumpers on and the expected maximum looked like wishful thinking on behalf of the BOM. Never-the-less the steady North-Wester of about 5 knots made for good racing conditions and a fleet of 14 skippers turned out for todays event. 
Phil Jackman was suffering back issues and took on PRO duties for the day. Thanks to his efficiency we were able to complete a seven race handicap series in the morning. 
Peter Turner won this event with two race wins, a second and a third on his score card. Gary McCarthy finished second - consistent as always - and John Hall took third place finishing the morning strongly with a 2nd place and a win in the last two races. Congratulations John, Gary and Peter.
Timing the day nicely, just as Phil called for lunch the wind died to nothing but then it returned from the South-West at 3 or 4 knots for the afternoon session.
Being the last Wednesday of the month it was a Super Wednesday for IOM sailing meaning a slightly longer day and the opportunity to try something a bit different in the afternoon. Today we organised a teams racing event. The fleet was divided into three teams:
Ray’s Ratpack - Ray Joyce, Peter Sylvester, John Penman and John Short.
Bodge’s Brave-hearts - Ian Hey, Andrew Wardrop, Jammy Jones and John Hall.
Gary’s Giants - Gary McCarthy, Buzzy Behrens, Alan Short and David Woolley.
We then sailed what was basically a scratch series. The first three boats home from each team had their positions counted and the team with the lowest points was said to have won that race. 
Unfortunately Gary had transmitter issues and could not even make the first race, and Buzzy also succumbed to electrical issues before the day’s end leaving the Giants down on personnel. The format did make for some interesting sailing and good camaraderie though. In one race Andrew was engaging Bodge in a luffing duel until Bodge convinced him that they were on the same team! 
Bodge’s Brave-hearts came out on top after the five race series. Having won three of the races they finished a point ahead of Ray’s team. I did (somewhat selfishly) try to see if I could swing the result by seeing what would happen if we allowed a team discard race, or if the result would be different if it was decided on total points accumulated, but no matter what I tried it was Bodge’s team who came out on top. Congratulations Ian, Andrew, Jammy and John. Not at all despondent about his team’s performance Sheep was bragging how his team still claimed a podium finish!
I have already had some positive feedback on the event and some suggestions of how we could improve it if we run another later in the year.
While the afternoon was primarily a teams race we were all starting off the same line and so we did keep the raw data so we could have a scratch series result as well. Ray Joyce won the series a good 6 points ahead of Jammy who took second place in a count back tied with Bodge.
Our next Super Wednesday event to be held at the end of April will be long distance sailing.
Gary McCarthy leaves on Friday to compete in the South Australian State IOM Championships. We hope that you do well Gary and have a good time too! 

Gary also has a few boats that have come up for sale. His IOM Classic TS-2 is now for sale and  a good friend of his is selling a pretty new V12 boat. Both are on the RBRYC For Sale page for anyone interested. Contact Gary for more deatil on either boat.
Coming up:
Sunday: IOM Scratch Racing at Risdon Brook Dam. NOTE WINTER START TIME - 10:00 button press
Next Wednesday: DF95 Handicap Racing at Risdon Brook Dam - 10:30 button press.


Shorty 

​A slow day today unfortunately. The wind was a spredicted with a lot of East in it and about 2 knots if it was lucky.

We had four skippers turn up today, and unfortunately Stu had some technical issues (Smart Switch failure) and could not participate, so the three remaining (Kyle, Liusa and John H) got away in the very light conditions. A rare direct off-shore start after the second race, but that was the best we could do with the very unusual wind.

After 5 races, we all agreed to wait it out on shore for the expected sea breeze to come in, and after about an hour twiddling our thubs, we decided to pack up. About 15 minutes after we brought the rescue boat in and cleaned it out, a nice northerrly of about 10 knots came in. Oh well, too late. 

While we were waiting, Kyle decided to test out the new RC Buoy that he built from Robin Gray's plans/design. Worked very well, although there were a few small things to tend to with it over the next week. Here are some Links to the Pictures and video of it.

A few of us stuck it out and watched the MBYC afternoon races, which was  quite exciting in the fresher breeze. It was fantastic to see the club with 14 yachts on the water today.

Back to the A Class, and after the 5 races, it was just one point the difference between Lisa and Kyle, with Kyle takingt he day out on 5 points to Lisa's 6, with John in 3rd on 11 points.


Coming up

Wednesday sees IOM Handicap "Super Wednesday" at the Dam, starting at 1030.

Next Sunday is IOM Winter Scratch Round 1, at the Dam. Button press at 10am

Kyle

The summery weather continues and today’s conditions with blue sky, 26 degrees and a lovely Northerly of 8 knots or there abouts were perfect for the sailing of IOM yachts. Today’s event counted as a Handicap Shield event as last week’s was cancelled due to heavy rain. 
There were some significant shifts in the breeze, both to the West and to the East and picking them well was a good recipe for success today. 
A weigh-in was held during the lunch break and although the wind was making accuracy difficult all boats were considered compliant.
Third place today went to Phil Jackman who took the podium spot on count back. Bodge also finished the day on 44 points but Phil had a nice race win on his sheet. In fact count back decisions were a bit of a feature of the results with ties for 3rd and 4th, 5th and 6th, and 7th and 8th.
Gary McCarthy took second place and regularly seems to grab a podium spot on Wednesdays. Gary’s result today is particularly noteworthy as most usually it is the mid-fleeters who tend to dominate handicap racing when the conditions are moderate and fairly steady.
Peter Sylvester was a clear winner, 11 points ahead of Gary. On a day when no other skipper won multiple races Peter took out three and thoroughly deserved the victory.
Congratulations Peter, Gary and Phil.
Next Wednesday, being the last in the month will be another Super Wednesday. The plan for this one will be to have our normal (but shortened) handicap series in the morning then have some teams racing in the afternoon.


Coming up:
Sunday: A Class scratch racing at Montrose. 1:00 button press
Next Wednesday:IOM Super Wednesday at Risdon Brook Dam. 10:30 button press


Shorty

A mixed day today with the wind. Early on, it was 2 knots maximum fromt he West, then moved through North and across to the East on us, befor a brief lull and then a nice steady sea breeze settled in for the second half of hte day, getting up to around 12 knots in gusts, which had a few move to B Rig, but most stayed on A's for the duration of the day.

The club welcomed visitor Shane Beyer, who came down from Queensland and was quite competitive in the fleet with our club boat (Mojo).

With the rescheduled Scratch day today - replacing the John Emms Memorial for Marbleheads (to be rescheduled) with unavailable boats and skippers dropping the entries below the required 6 boats - we had a great fleet of 14 yachts on the water.

Unfortunately, some weed got in the way early on, but when the tide shifted and sea breeze came in, it all went away except for the last race. Overall a very pleasant days sailing.

We used the Rotational Pro system for much of the day today, with Stu taking the role on after he had a wire break on his battery circuit. The rotational Pro worked wuite well, with boats called over coming back witout any fuss. The advantage of the Rotational Pro is that evreyone gets a go at the role, which in turn gives an appreciation on what the organisers of a race have to do, hopefully attracting more volunteers in tot he future when we host events. One thing noted though is that some of the more experienced skippers probably need to hold back a little bit on advice to allow the Pro to consider the course that needs to be set (especially in fluctuating conditions) so they can themselves learn both from observation and experience. Newer skippers doing teh Pro function don't learn from being told what to do, no matter how well intentioned the advice may be.

Ten races were completed for the day, which was pretty good considering the expected gaps between races with a skipper coming off the water to Pro the next race ald allowing the current Pro to finish recording boats and then getting theirs back on the water.

We had a fairly dominant top four today, and some great sailing throughout. Advantage of a 14 boat field is that there is great racing throughout. You may not be in the lead group at a particular point in time, but you still get some really good racing with those around you.

Garry McCarthy had a great day today. Some very consistent scores with only one 6th counted outside of podium finishes. The GC24 in ominous form under his control. Having been close to him in a few races, it was amazing how well the boat hunted those down in front on a run, how high the boat pointed while still under very good pace, and how he was able to power out of tacks so proficiently, leaving those of us behind (yes, me) who tacked in similar time and place, but simply could not match the GC24 for its explosive acceleration after tacking. Garry finished in first place with just 17 points.

Second place today was Lisa Blackwood in her V12. Again, very consistent in both the light airs and the medium level sea breeze. A worst counted 5th position was easily consistent enough to take the 2nd overall with 22.6 points.

Third place today was Ricky Price, also in a V12. Great pace through most of the day and taking two wins in a row when the wind came up a bit. Some great tacking duels throughout the day, and a very well deserved 3rd on 26 pooints.

In Silver Fleet, it was visitor, Shane Beyer showing the way. Sailing the club Mojo brilliantly to win the fleet on 17 points.
John Hall took out second, just two behind on 19 points, with his Panko showing some real good speed the last few times on the water.
Andrew Wardrop took out third place with his 3D Printed Proteus. Well and truly on track to win the fleet score on the day, but a broken jib attachment cruelled his day, with the last three races not sailed. The Proteus was sailing very fast, and Andrew reported it is one of the easiest boats he has had to sail. He is certainly a big fan of the new boat.

Coming Up

Wednesday sees us back at the Dam for IOM Handicap, button press at the usual 1030

Next Sunday is A Class Scratch Round 2 at Montrose, starting at 1pm

A second go at the Combined DF Scratch Series after the success of Round 1 in January and the clb benefited from the change to "normal" programming with healthy fleets of DF65's and DF95's.

Starting a bit slow due to a real lack of breeze, but we got under way with 11 DF65's on the water for the first stanza of three races. A shortened course, with the further out lanes benefiting the most with Lisa and Kyle getting quite the advantage ont he outer side of the course. With the initial races being quite slow, there was quite an amount of good hearted banter, especially at the windward mark, which really lightened things up and added to the enjoyment of the day.
At the end of the first three races, Lisa was the leader, with Kyle and Phil Jackman rounding out the top three.

A short break and then the DF95's came out for a stanza of three races as well. An extended course given the slight increase of wind and extra pace of the 95's, with an excellent fleet of 17 on the water - how good is sailing in bigger fleets.
Three races were completed in good time, with Kyle also enjoying the conditions, leading on 13, with John Hall in Second (15) followed by Nick Connor (17) in 3rd. Silver Fleet had John Hall in front on countback from John Short, both on 10 points and Peter Ross in 3rd (11pts) on countback to Rod Marshall. So very close in Silver with just two points separating the top 5.

Back to the final stanza of three DF65 races. The breeze had come up and most were now in A Rigs, with a few taking on B Rigs.
Stu dawes found some for, taking wins in races 4 and 5 and Peter Ross was very consistent with two podiums, but Lisa was too consistent today, with podiums on every race, streaking away to the round win on just 7 Points. Top effort Lisa.
Second place went to Kyle, on 16 points, one ahead of Peter Ross in third, on 17 points.

The extra breeze was welcomed, but the DF95's retained their A Rigs for the duration still, and with a slightly shortened course for races 4 and 5, then lengthened on race 6 a little, the action resumed with some extremely close racing and plenty of position changes throughout.
Kyle maintained good form with two podiums in the last three, which was enough to take out the round win on 16 points.
Nick Connor was three behind in Second place on 19 points, with Stuart Dawes rounding out the top three on 22 points.

In Silver, Peter Ross had an initial scrae in race 4, before regaining his form , finishing on top in the fleet on 15 points.
The two John's sailed very close to each other to again finish the day the same as after race three, tied on points for second and third places. Both had a fleet win, and both had two seconds, so were separated by John Hall having a next best 5th place, while John Short's next best was a 6th - how close was that.

In all, it was a fantastic days sailing with a fantastic amount of boats on the water. 

Big thanks to Gary McCarthy, who stood in as PRO for us today. Your efforts was appreciated by every single one of us. Thank you.

The format of todays sailing is fairly new to us, but looks to have been a great success across both rounds to date. If there are any suggestions or comments tot he committee regarding this format, please let me know and I'll pass it on tot he Committee for consideration. We do represent you, so we are all very keen on input when there is some.

Coming Up:

• Wednesday, 11th March: IOM Mid-Week Handicap, button press at 1030.
• Next Sunday, 15th March: John Emms Memorial (Marblehgeads), button press at 1030. Only 1 entry in at the moment. Please get your entry in asap as less than 6 total will not qualify it as a ranking event.

Kyle