Nice conditions at the dam today.
Gentle N-NW breeze througout with A Rigs worn for the entire day. A slightly different, but well laid out course with start at 3/4 out to 8 to 7 and back to 4 to 3 (which became a gate after a few races), back to 5 and 4, then to 1/2 gate and to the finish at 3/4. A good amount of time to separate the fleet, make mistakes, make up from mistakes and choose your poison as far as sailing close to shore, up the middle or further out. The eleven skippers got in eleven races in all, and sailed with great spirit - a great representation of the club in a public space. At the end of the eleven races, it came as no surprise with John Cole-Cook coming out as round winner on 17 points. Sailing his Venti very well in the conditions. The break in Queensland doing him very well. Second today was Ray Joyce, on 24 points - the Britpop! in fine tune and Ray in fine form with it. Well deserved. Third place today was Michael Hickman on 30 points - never far off the lead pack in his V11. Highlights today were the performances of some of the Silver fleet sailors. Ian Hey taking out race 5, with a great start and leading the race from first mark right through to the finish. Rod Marshall also taking a few second places and a third, showing that when things are right, the skipper/boat cominations are very hard to beat. On that, first place in Silver fleet today was Ian Hey, on 14 points. Rod Marshall, was one point away on 15 points in second place, with Ricky Price taking third place on 21 points. Coming up Wednesday is a return to Mid Week DF95 Handicap at the Dam, button press at 11am Saturday, is the Herb Tyson Memorial Regatta, at Risdon Brook Dam, Button Press at 1100 to allow the Park Runners to finish their weekly activity. We can come in from 10am. Sunday is the DF95 42 Degrees South Regatta at the Dam, Button Press at 1030. Entries for both events at the Club Ranking Events page. Please get your entry in asap if you haven't done so already. Kyle
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It was a cool 13 C at Risdon Brook Dam. This combined with an unfriendly ‘not much’ to about 15 knots of wind swirling from all points of the compass kept our numbers down to 13 skippers for today’s IOM handicap.
Welcome again to Paul Matthews - this time his first outing with an IOM. Paul will be using the club boat throughout the winter. Great to have you racing with us Paul! The fashion news: Rod Marshall was looking really dappa in his new beanie – bright yellow to match the colour of the Rockstar. Rod spent last week bagging out Pete Sylvester for having a lurid orange beanie to match his boat so Pete thought it only fitting that he ask Veronica to make one for Rod. Actually they are very nice hats and so totally suitable for today’s chilly conditions. And maybe a secret to success too as both made the overall placings today. I reckon that Veronica could well start a small business with custom colour beanies for the skippers. The wind gradually picked up throughout the day but all skippers stayed with A-rigs as they were needed in the light patches. In race 8, however, the breeze strengthened exponentially to possibly 30 knots leaving boats uncontrollable. No-one saw it coming! Only three skippers were able to manage the hostile conditions and finish the race. We were probably fortunate that damage was limited to a couple of shredded sails and that everyone was able to get their boat ashore. We decided to end the day at this point both for safety and to limit further damage. Today’s overall winner was Pete Sylvester finishing a couple of points clear of Wayne Behrens and Rod Marshall. Congratulations to all. It was, in fact, a fairly tight scoreboard featuring a three way points tie for 5th 6th and 7th place which caused me to check that the programme had correctly sorted out the positions on count-back. As far as next week’s handicaps are concerned you may notice that there is little change. This is because the podium was well shared around today. Pete Sylvester and Wayne Behrens had the most frequent visits to the podium and are each dealt a 5 second penalty for next week. Most other skippers got to the podium about twice indicating that their current handicap is fair. Lisa gets a 5 second benefit for the next event having sailed all day for one 3rd place. There are no benefits for Rod Jackman and John Banks as it is necessary to complete a substantial majority of races for a handicap review. On leaving the dam today Pete Sylvester found a vehicle number-plate on the Dam track (No: L 64 NM). Contact Pete if it is yours! COMING UP: CANCELLATION: The DF65 State championships that were to be held in Launceston have now been cancelled. So; Sunday: IOM Scratch at the Dam, button press at 10am Next Wednedsay: DF95 handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam. (11:00 button) Saturday 4th May - Herb Tyson Memorial for A Class. Enter on-line through our site ASAP. Sunday 5th May - 42o South Regatta for DF95. Enter on-line through our site ASAP. Shorty Unfortunately, our scheduled John Emms Memorial Regatta for Marbleheads was deferred today due to absences and will be reschedulled later in the year.
In its place, the four skippers who could sail today contested round two of the RM Scratch Winter Series in some nice B rig conditions early and changing to A rig later in the day. Unfortunately, not much more to report, as I was away myself with man flu. Results all looked quite close with not much separating the four skippers. In the end, Ray came away round winner, on 13 points. Lisa came in second with her Walicki, on 15 points John rounded out the three on 17 points Coming up Wenesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap, button press at 11am. Next weekend is the DF65 State Championship at Lake Trevallyn. Please get your entries in if you are considering coming along Kyle A sparkling sunny autumn day gave perfect conditions for this week’s Wednesday Handicap at Risdon Brook Dam. Thirteen skippers turned up and a 5-knot Northerly made for excellent racing conditions. The wind held its strength and direction for the whole day allowing us to complete a full compliment of 10 races.
The day was started using the rotating PRO system. Lisa arrived after a couple of races and took the PRO’s position and kept the day moving well and gave coaching tips and encouragement to those in need. Thanks for your work today Lisa. We started using a new handicap system today. The system awards handicap penalties from one race to the next of 10 seconds for first and now 5 seconds for second. The race-to-race handicap is independent of the weekly starting handicap which now depends upon the number of times that a skipper has visited the podium. An explanation of exactly how the new system works follows below – both in brief and in more detail. It will be interesting to see if over a period of time it leads to fairer handicaps. Special mention today goes to David Woolley who finished the day with two wins and a third place. ‘Sheep’ came to radio sailing with no former yachting experience and so it is great to see his efforts rewarded. Applause to you Sheep! Third overall today went to Phil Jackman with trademark consistency. Our first and second place getters were a long way ahead of the rest of the fleet on points but tied for the honors. Rod Marshal gets the nod on count-back by virtue of more race wins. Congratulations Rod, Rob and Phil. For those who are interested in understanding the nuts and bolts behind the new handicap system, the document explaining it is linked here for it Coming up: Saturday: An IOM Woodies invitation race at Forcett Lakes. 1015 Briefing for 1030 start Sunday: The John Emms Memorial for Marblehead’s at Risdon Brook Dam. (10:30 button-press). Spare RM's available to sail - contact Kyle if you're interested. Next Wednesday: More IOM handicap at the dam. (11:00 button-press.) Shorty First Winter scratch event for the year for us at the dam, with the Marblehead under way today.
Just six on the water with skippers away with family duties etc. From the very small time I was able to be there, the wind looked ideal, with mid to top end of B rig northerlies presenting an ideal race course for the skippers. Nine races completed, with Ray having a great day - having sorted out his gremlins from the previous race day. A fabulous day, coming away with the round win on 8 points. Second place was Stu Dawes, who looked to challenge Ray consistently and took out two races as well, on 12 points. Third place was John Hall - a welcome return to great form, with 23 points. Coming up Wenesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap, button press at 11am. Next Sunday is the RM John Emms Memorial at the Dam. We currenlty only have 4 entries for the event, so if you are intending on competing, please get your entry in. We need 6 to make it an official ranking event. If you would like to sail, but do not have an RM, let me know as we have some boats without skippers at the moment, so we might be able to get you in to a boat should you wish to sail the event. Kyle There was a quite breezy North-Wester of about 15-18 knots and definite whitecaps on the surface of Risdon Brook dam when we first arrived. Those that rigged at home chose A-rigs on the strength of the forecast but there was no doubt that the B-rig would be the best choice and by start time all skippers had suited up in their B’s. The wind backed to the West and softened during the morning causing PRO John Banks to vigilantly change the course and a general change to A-rigs. During lunch break it intensified again from the North and so it was back to the B’s for the afternoon. Pretty much all the skippers made the same changes throughout the day and so consistent rig choice made for a level playing field.
We sailed right to the cut-off time to get our 10 races in today. Thanks John for keeping the day moving well. The score tally was tight today with no-one appearing to have shown a real dominance. Consistency was as usual a real factor in determining the placings. Rick Price took out 3rd place on a count-back tie with Andrew Wardrop. Rick got the nod by virtue of more second places I managed second today. I think that my boat is always at its best with the B-rig. Buzzy Behrens took out the day with lots of valuable 3rd places on his sheet! Congratulations and well sailed Wayne! NEW HANDICAP SYSTEM Quite a few people have made comments on the handicap system lately. After reviewing the current system I have decided that it would be worth trialling a new system to start next Wednesday. There are several minor problems with the current system. Currently skippers are awarded more handicap if they finish in the bottom third of the fleet. One problem with this is that a good skipper can find that they can be assigned a handicap where they cannot win races but yet they do not perform badly enough to finish at the back of the fleet overall and so they get stuck with a high handicap. We also find that on sometimes skippers can finish in the back third of the fleet even after winning a couple of races - and so they are awarded additional handicap even though they proved successful on their current handicap. I think that most skippers don’t judge their day out on their overall position anyway but most are happy with their day if they have had a couple of good races and got to the podium a couple of times. This seemed to me to be a good starting place to build a handicap system. So the way the new system will work is as follows: On a day where we sail 10 races there are 30 opportunities to get to the podium (1st, 2nd and 3rd in each of the races). So if there were 15 boats sailing that would mean that every skipper should get to the podium twice. If a skipper does get to the podium twice they have had a fair day’s sailing and they are probably on the right handicap. If a skipper has been to the podium four or five times then they have had a great day but their handicap is probably too generous and it will will be trimmed for the following week. If a skipper sails all day but does not get to the podium at all then they have had a bad day and will be given more handicap the following week. There are other factors to bring in which make the situation more complex. It is harder to get to the podium if their are more boats racing and harder to get to the podium if we sail less than 10 races so the system will have to allow for this. And winning a race is better than coming third and so the system will also recognise and accomodate this too. Yep, maths will be involved but the system will be computer driven which will take the work out of the computations and will also eliminate administrative errors. The new system will be like the current in that we will still have progressive race-to-race adjustment of handicap (the magnetic board) which will operate independently of the weekly starting handicap. I have done some simulation of the new system using previous handicap data and I am confident that it should lead to a fairer system overall. The handicaps for next Wednesday have been generated using the current system. I will give greater explanation after we start with the new system. I am always open to feedback and questions. COMING UP Sunday: Marblehead scratch racing at Risdon Brook Dam (10:00 button) Next Wednesday: IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam (11:00 button) Shorty Very light conditions today, with constant drizzle throughout much of the day. An excellent field of 15 sailors turned up, including two from the big island (NSW) and three from the north of the state. We felt privileged to have so many travel so far for this event. Thanks to all who travelled to compete with us today.
We got started after a quick weigh in and briefing from Les and John, and unfortunately had just two races compleed before we called a quick meeting amongst the competitors with a possible call to relocate to Risdon with the high level of weed about. A quick decision and turnaround soon had us packed up at Montrose and set up Risdon Dam for the continuation of the days sailing - all we needed was wind...... After an extended lunch break, a small northerly did fill in, and we got some races under way, with just four more races completed until the wind gave out completely and we called the day - just six races for the day in all. At least the breaks allowed us to acquaint ourselves with Paul Morrish and Peter Newman, who travelled from NSW to sail with us today. It was great to get to know you guys. At the end of the six races, we had a real close fight for the top three places, with just one point separating the top 3. Can't get much closer. Winner of the IOM Southern Tasmanian Regatta for 2024 was Lisa Blackwood, on just 11 points. Second place - on countback - also on 11 points, was Chris Wood. Third place today, just one behind our first two, was Michael Hickman, on 12 points. In our Silver Fleet, our winner today was Richard Fisher on 10 points. Richard came along today to help with a volunteer role, but was soon givent he club IOM to sail in the event instead. Great effort in a hastily prepared and unfamiliar yacht. Second place was Ted Stevens on 12 points Rod Marshall rounded out the top three on 13 points. Today would not have come together without our volunteers. In the first instance, our buoy maintenance crew from last week - thank you for pulling all the buoys and cleaning them up fror the regatta. Seeing how barnacled they were really shows how warm the water has been here this summer as well as the elevated nutrient levels. Pro today, John Hall, who pulled out of sailing to run the event today. Your efforts are really appreciated. Inspection team and observers, Les Hanson, Ken Dobbie, Mat Gray, Phil Jackman - your assistance helped the rest of us to do what we enjoy so much, race these yachts. Otherwise, we'd have had to get people to pull out (voluntarilary of course) to assist the Pro. Coming up Wednesday is IOM MId Week Handicap at the Dam - Button press at 11am Saturday is A Class Scratch - details to be confirmed Next Sunday is RM Scracth at Risdon Brook - Button press at 10am Kyle There was a light 2-5 knot Westerly blowing across Risdon Brook dam where a strong fleet of sixteen DF95 skippers lined up for today’s handicap racing. The wind held its strength and direction for the whole day and while Westerly conditions are not ideal for the dam we were able to have challenging and close races.
Before racing today buoy-9 was moved about 10 meters closer towards the shore. This seemed to make a big difference to being able to get clear vision of the mark and this was particularly useful when sailing in such a large fleet. Our usual DF95 PRO Andrew Wardrop was ably assisted today by both Rod Marshall and Peter Germein. A huge thanks to you all. We welcomed guest Paul Matthews to racing today. Paul is a sailor at the Montrose club but today borrowed Kyle’s boat to check out radio sailing. We hope that you enjoyed your day Paul. Third place overall was taken by John Hall who brings out his best when sailing the DF95. Countback had to be used to separate first and second places today with Jammy Jones taking the day from Phil Turnbull. Lots of podium finishes to each of the skippers. Well sailed Jammy, Phil and John! I did think that Jammy has done his dash after a disaster in the last race where, thinking that he had finished in second place he called out his number only to find out that he had been ‘sailing’ Phil Turnbull’s boat for nearly two legs while his own boat was floundering at the back of the course. In his defence Phil’s boat is not only the same colour but its sail number starts with ’23-‘ the same as his own. And I reckon that we have all made that mistake ourselves whether or not we admit it! Some photos today from Ray Joyce and Colin Whitton below Coming up: Sunday: There is an impressive entry list for the Southern Tasmania IOM Championship. Late entries can still be made on-line. Briefing will be at 10:15 for a 10:30 button-press. Next Wednesday: IOM Handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam 11:00 button-press. Shorty |
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