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RBRYC Results - IOM Mid Week Long Distance Handicap Today we had our first Wednesday Long Distance event. Blue skies and light winds prevailed with a Northerly of 0-3 knots for the morning session of three races. After a BBQ lunch the wind had changed to the South and was perhaps a knot lighter and so all up, testing conditions for the skippers on the big course. We did have some great sailing though and improvised handicaps lead to some very close racing. We were not informed that there would be inter-school cross country running on today but the organisers were very happy to have us sail as usual and neither of the sports caused any trouble to the other. Today’s results will count towards the Handicap Trophy presented at the end of the season. We hope to have at least one more of these events during the year. The trophy winner will be decided by combining the races from both days as if they were one event. So the results from the five races today will be added to the results from the races from the next event to determine the annual winner – even though that day will have its own ‘published’ winner. John Cole-cook took out third place today after arriving late and missing the first race. John and Ricky Price spent last week on a sailing trip to Port Davey and their return trip was in 8 metres of South Westerly swell. Much calmer on the dam today! Ray Joyce took second place overall. Ray’s effort in the first race was particularly memorable. He rounded the final gate mid fleet but in a tight pack then snatched a race victory by passing plenty of skippers on the last short beat to the finish. The day belonged to Phil Jackman though a who completed the event with an ‘all podium’ scorecard after discarding a 4th place. The rest of the feet was very close on points with the next 8 competitors separated by just 7 points and three tied results in that mix too. All up it was an enjoyable day with some great racing. Quite a few skippers commented about how the format of a single class and the Risdon Brook venue being much better for long distance racing. Coming Up Saturday and Sunday. The State A-Class Championships at Trevallyn. Good luck to all competitors Next Wednesday: DF95 Handicap Racing at Risdon Brook Dam. (11:00 button-press) Shorty  
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Nine skippers took to the water for the opening round of the Winter Scratch Series, greeted by a shifty 10-knot NW breeze that left sailors debating their rig choice. Most began the day in A rigs, but after four races, the majority switched to B as conditions evolved. The racing was tight, with plenty of overtaking opportunities for those willing to take risks. A special shout-out to Jammy Jones, who sailed impressively with his A rig all day despite a broken B rig—securing some fantastic results shoreside. Top Finishers🥇 Lisa – 16 points (4 wins in the first 5 races sealed a dominant, consistent day) 🥈 Jammy Jones – 20 points (A stellar performance with his A rig) 🥉 Ray – 26 points (A strong showing, always in the mix at the front) Silver Fleet Results🥇 Jammy Jones – 10 points 🥈 Ian Hey – 15 points 🥉 Rod Marshall – 23 points Thanks today to Andrew Wardrop, who came along to PRO the day for us. Upcoming Events
– Kyle  There was a steady 5 or 6 knots of Northerly blowing straight down the dam this morning making perfect conditions for today’s IOM handicap racing. It was perhaps a knot lighter in the afternoon but it stayed around until we had completed the day’s racing. Ricky Price was today’s volunteer PRO and did the job excellently. Thanks Ricky. If you have not had opportunity to act as PRO this year and would be happy to volunteer then please let me know. There did not seem to be much shifting it the wind today but generally those who went wide to the west side seemed to get more pressure and most times came off the better. We have not seen Peter Webberley at Wednesday sailing for quite a while (due to work commitments) but it was good to see him today. Peter has bought Gerald Stephens V9 and sails it regularly at Forcett Lakes. And he sails it well too – Peter was today’s overall winner putting on a real clinic in the afternoon session with a hat-trick of race wins back-to-back. Second today was Rob Cooney. Rob was always in the top five for most of the day’s racing. And Phil Jackman took the third podium spot doing particularly well in a couple of races on the last little leg from the gate to the finish. Congratulations Peter, Rob and Phil. Coming up: No sailing Sunday due to being Easter Sunday. Next Wednesday Risdon Brook Park will be closed for some maintenance and we are not able to sail. Our friends at Forcett Lakes have offered an invitation to anyone with the itch to sail to join with their IOM group next Thursday (That’s Thursday 24th April and button press is at 10:00.) Thanks so much for this Ricky and Peter. Our next Wednesday sail is on 30th April and will be a long-distance event. We hope to have two or three of these over the course of the year and each event will contribute towards the Long-Distance trophy. It may be that we will be sailing a little later on that day but we would hope to finish up by say 3:30. The club will be putting on a BBQ lunch on the day so all up it should be an enjoyable day. The A Class State Championships is on the horizon - just a few weeks away and there are just two entries in at the moment. In fairness to the northern organising team, we really need to get entries in as they need to organise catering and trophies etc for the event (no use having a trophy with a date on it if it gets deferred/cancelled), so they really need entries in and at least 6 on the list before next Friday 25th April otherwise the event risks being cancelled. Wishing all skippers a joyful Easter. Shorty  Five skippers competed in today’s racing, which began in A rig for the first four races before switching to B rig for the next four. The final two races were sailed in C rigs as squalls picked up.The early races were incredibly close, with four different winners in the first four races. The fifth skipper, though without a win, secured two seconds and a third in those four races - highlighting the tight competition. Shifty winds kept everyone on their toes, with all skippers experiencing both strong moments and the frustration of unfavorable shifts. Results
Racing wrapped up at 1 PM, and the team efficiently packed up just before the rain arrived. A big thanks to everyone who helped with the rescue boat and equipment. However, we should ensure more hands assist in returning gear to the shed—today, Ray was left to handle this alone in the rain, which isn’t ideal. Let’s all chip in to the end next time! Given the small number of regular participants (just five skippers today out of 40+ members), the Scratch Series will be a 2025 series instead of separate Summer and Winter events due to the continued lack of numbers to support these scratch days. The next scheduled round is on 28th September. This adjustment accounts for the busy schedule of Ranking Events and the challenge of dedicating a full sail day to such a small fleet. Hopefully, participation will grow in the future! Upcoming Events
In preparation for the A-Class State Championships (3rd–4th May), I’d like to organize an afternoon tuning and racing session at Montrose Bay, starting at 1 PM. If at least four other sailors are interested, we’ll go ahead—please let me know if you’d like to join! Kyle  A gorgeous Autumn day today – sunny and with a North westerly of about 10 knots. Absolutely perfect conditions for racing IOM yachts at Risdon Brook Dam. So, putting the great conditions with the fact that today’s sailing was a handicap shield round it was not surprising that nineteen skippers turned up for racing. It was unfortunate that John Hall and Rod Jackman could not make the start line due to boat issues as it would have been a record fleet for recent times. A big thanks though to the forementioned gentlemen who stayed on to officiate the racing today. The wind was kind to us by holding its strength throughout the whole day allowing us to complete the complement of ten races. What was rather surprising given the moderate conditions was the high attrition rate today. 17 competed in the first race but only 11 in the final race. Close racing, podium positions from all skippers that completed the race complement, winners from across the handicap spectrum and a tight scoreboard are all indicators that the handicap system is working well and these were all evident in today’s racing. There was only a single point separating the top three today with Buzzy Behrens and Ricky Price tying for second and third. Buzzy got the nod for second with back-to-back wins in the final two races of the day. Just one point ahead, John Cole-Cook was today’s winner. John played the shifts well on the up-wind legs often working the centre of the course and finding clear air away from other competitors. Congratulations John, Wayne and Ricky. COMING UP: Something to mark on your calendar! We have decided to bring back long-distance racing – but on a Wednesday, at Risdon Brook dam, and for IOM boats only. Wednesday 30th April will be the first of two or three that we will be sailing during this year. They will be handicap races and each day’s racing will contribute points towards a season winner who will be awarded the Long-distance Champions trophy. The club will put on a BBQ lunch for the first of these days to make it extra special. More details will be given as we get closer to the event. Sunday: Marblehead scratch racing at Risdon Brook Dam. (10:00 button-press). Note the venue: This event will be at the dam NOT Montrose as the calendar previously stated. Next Wednesday: IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam (11:00 button-press) Shorty  We had eight sailors along today for the 2025 installment of the Southern Tasmanian Championship. Unfortunately the field was reduced fue to some illnesses, but the small field was keen to make the most of the conditions today. An initial briefing by Kyle, who took on PRO duties today laid out the standards required for the day. Particular emphasis on sportsmanship and sailing amongst others in a way that you would like others to sail against you. The grey area between sailing in a certain way "because you can" and sailing in a sportsmanlike manner clearly explained as well as the expectations for the day. On that note, the conduct of the skippers on the courses was very good, with the PRO not having to make calls for buoy contacts etc and sailors doing their penalties as expected without being called for it - the example to set for the sport. Unfortunately, the conditions had other ideas for us today and gave us a pretty dire time. Squalls ranging up to around 30 knots, driving rain at times and some pretty unfavourable directions also, but we did manage to get 5 races in prior to an early lunch break, which was called after a wind direction change and onset of some large chunks of weed. By this stage, Lisa had broken out to a substantial lead, but there were four others in the hunt for the two other podium positions. To add to the unfortunate conditions today, we lost both John Short and Marcus Inches at lunch with some rigging and electrical issues, and Rod decided to not sail after lunch with the weed about. We got the first race in after lunch (race 6) and the weed worsened on us, so a call of skippers wishes to continue at that point was given, and a unanimous call was made to abandon th esailing for the day at race 6. Lisa came out a convincing winner of the Southern Tasmanian Championship on just 7 points. Ray took out second place today on 16 points and Stuart rounded out the top three on 18 points. Not the best of conditions by any stretch with the rain, wind and weed today, but hopefully our return to Montrose in October will yield much better conditions with the bridge construction then finished and return to normal flows (hopefully) in the Derwent. Coming up:
 A rotating PRO was used today in the absence of our usual DF95 PRO Andrew Wardrop who is having cataract surgery. We wish you well Andrew and hope for a speedy recovery. When a rotating PRO is used the PRO is awarded their ‘average points before discards’ for the race that they missed. It was great to see Kim Potter again after quite a break from racing. Unfortunately however, Kim had some boat troubles today and could not complete a race. We do hope that you will be able to make it regularly Kim. The computer algorithm that we have been using to generate handicaps has recently issued some unrepresentative DF95 handicaps. The system, on the whole, is very fair and our weekly IOM handicaps remains fair and representative. There are two reasons which can explain why this has happened to the DF95 handicaps. One is that the fleet is not consistent. From month to month we get different skippers turning up. In recent events we have had a couple of ‘handicap spill-overs’ where a scratch boat (70 handicap) dominated the podium. When this happens that skipper’s handicap penalty cannot increase beyond 70, and so every skipper who sailed that day has their handicap reduced. But only those who were there that day – so depending on which days you attended or missed your handicap might benefit or not. The other thing that happened is that Stuart Dawes sailed a few Wednesdays recently, and in DF95’s, Stuart is something special. His recent form was so good that most of the fleet had their penalty reduced to close to zero. So we had good ‘mid-fleet’ skippers assigned handicaps of 10 and 15 seconds which is totally unfair to our front-markers. So, as a result, I decided to enlist the assistance of a couple of senior members and reassign the handicaps manually so that they more accurately represent the fleet. I do not intend to override the computer regularly, and this is the first time that I have done it in three years of managing Wednesday handicaps. The racing was close today which I think shows that we were close to getting it right. If, however, you think that you have been assigned an unfair handicap then please feel free to talk to me about it. As said, there was some close racing today and the PRO frequently needed to be quick with the pen as there were many photo-finishes. Wayne Behrens took out third place. There is no-one better than Wayne at reading the dam when the wind is shifting around. (On day’s like today when I am in doubt I like to check out what Buzzy is doing because it will often turn out right.) Second place went to Chris Wood. We haven’t seen much of Chris lately and he has recently sold his IOM, but great to see you today Chris and in excellent form too. Today’s winner was Alan Short - a clear 8 points ahead of the rest. This win follows a win in last week’s IOM handicap. It is fair to say that he has found some form! Coming Up: Saturday: Our friends from Forcett have organised an IOM Woodies invitation. 10:30 button-press. Sunday: IOM Southern Tasmania Championships at Montrose. 10:15 briefing for a 10:30 button. Enter on-line. Next Wednesday: IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam. 11:00 button-press Shorty  |