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Sunny skies greeted twelve skippers for the next round of the Long-Distance Series held at Risdon Brook Dam. There was a gentle northerly breeze blowing down the dam between 0-6 knts and sometimes depending where you were on the course it briefly came in from the south to occasionally make things interesting out on the water. Choosing where to sail was a bit of a lottery with those skippers choosing to stay close to shore paying off in some instances but also finding themselves becalmed. The same was happening further out where skippers were looking really good at times, only to see their advantage disappear. We only managed a total of six races today (with one drop) with close racing results being the order of the day throughout the fleet. John Penman (JP) sailed his V11 to victory today by the narrowest of margins finishing on 14 pts, with Pete Sylvester only one point adrift on 15 pts with his bright orange K2. Gary McCarthy finished a credible third place with his orange GC26 on 19pts. Well sailed to all skippers. Gary is off to the IOM Worlds in coming days, and we wish him the best of luck. Goodluck ! Ian (aka Bodge) Coming up:- Sunday 3/5/26 – John Emms Marblehead Regatta - Entries close Friday so get them in if you're intending on sailing Wednesday 6/5/26 – Mid week DF95 Handicap Day 
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Well, today was a mix for us. Light airs and shifty breeze making things “interesting”. Rewards aplenty for those daring enough to chase the wind for a potential passing lane, but equally so, it provided a big hole that the sailor was not going to recover from. One of the great things with the class locally is that everyone is very closely matched – which unfortunately means that a mistake on the course often put you back with no real way to recover as the ones in front hardly made an error for the race. Showing the competitiveness, all five skippers scored a race win today. At the end of the nine races today, Ray proved to be way too consistent, winning with 12 points overall. Three race wins and three seconds showing the consistency throughout the day. Second place went to Lisa, two points adrift on 14. Third place went to John Hall, who showed impressive bursts of speed, especially down wind and was gutsy enough to go out on his own a few times to catch some great lifts. John finished 3 further adrift on 17 points. In all, a difficult and sometimes frustrating day, but a great tune up for next weeks John Emms Memorial. Big thanks to Bodge for his efforts as PRO today. We have been used to running ourselves in the RM Scratch days but it was fantastic to not need to worry about that and have someone there for the day to look after starts, finishes and keeping us efficient between races to maximise our races for the day. Coming Up Wednesday is Super Wednesday with long distance sailing. For those who are a bit unsure of the physical demands of the day we have put an 8 race limit on the event so all up the walking requirement might not be too much more than today’s 12 race event. Button press at 1030. Next Sunday is the Marblehead John Emms Memorial Regatta. Button press at 1030. Entries for this event close Friday afternoon, so please get your entries and payments in as soon as possible. Kyle  There were some good 15 knot gusts coming from the North when we arrived at Risdon Brook Dam for todays handicap event. The wind did moderate throughout the day and the last race was held in about 5 knots. It was a fairly consistent wind as far as not having calm patches and the shifts were generally slight meaning skilful choice was a greater factor than just being lucky. Quick turn around between races allowed us to complete 12 races today. This week was a Woodies and Classics special and it was really great to see some of these boats out and about again. We started the two classics on handicap zero, the five woodies on handicap 20 then the rest of the fleet (the speed boats!) on handicap 40. Penalties of 10 and 5 were applied throughout the day. The honourable mention today goes to John Hall who put a bit of work in to get his Rage ready for the day and managed to win two races. Peter Webberley was the clear winner overall as well as taking out the Classics division. He had three race wins on his scorecard. It may be that I am a bit nostalgic because I was a Cherub boy but I do love the skiff lines of Peter’s TS2 and that unique gold paint job makes his yacht look quite superb. Peter was so keen to sail today that he rigged two yachts yesterday night and got to work early so that he could do a couple of hours there and still make it to sailing. Phil Jackman took out second place with 6 podium finishes. He was also the winner of the Woodies division. Rick Price was takeout the third podium spot as well as winning the ‘Speed-boat’ division. Congratulations Ricky, Phil and Peter. Next week will be a Super Wednesday with long distance sailing. For those who are a bit unsure of the physical demands of the day we have put an 8 race limit on the event so all up the walking requirement might not be too much more than today’s 12 race event. Coming up: Sunday: Marblehead scratch racing at Risdon Brook Dam. 10:00 button press Next Wednesday: IOM Long Distance Handicap at Risdon Brook Dam. 10:30 button press Shorty  A wonderful Katabatic this morning, with close to 10 knots of breeze coming from the N-NW direction. After initial weighing and inspections, we all went to the point for setup and were away right on the 1030am start. Chris Wood and Phil Jackman teamed up today for the PRO duties and kept us all going nice and quick between races. 16 races in all today, with the wind remaining steady in direction, but slowed as the day went, to only a knot or so at the end of the day. As I left the bar, the Derwent was dead still, so I think we got everything possible out of the wind today A very consistent day today from Lisa, taking 6 wins and only two counted races that were not podium finishes. A well-deserved winner for the day with 25 points. Gary McCarthy was also very consistent, with 3 race wins and also just the two counted races that were not on the podium. Gary finished in second, with 29 points. Third place was a little further back from our top two place getters, but very solid throughout the day. Stu Dawes taking the third seat on the podium with 43 points. Interestingly, at lunch there was just two points between the top three sailors Lisa, Gary and Stu. Silver Fleet was very competitive today, with Peter Sylvester taking out the top spot on 26 points – podiums in every race for the fleet after drops. Very well sailed. Second and place was decided on a countback, with John Short and Andrew Wardrop tied on 36 points. John taking second with 5 wins to Andrews 4. A very good day sailing today. Coming up Wednesday sees IOM Handicap at the Dam, starting at 1030 Next Sunday is Marblehead Scratch at the Dam, button press at 10am.  It certainly feels like someone has hit the ‘off switch’ as far as summer is concerned. A very cool and blustery North Wester of 15 -18 knots set a challenge to skippers for todays IOM handicap event at Risdon Brook Dam. While the A-rig looked tempting for some very light patches early in the day the B-Rig was the universal choice and a good choice too as the wind did freshen a couple of knots after lunch. It has been a fair while since we have had the B-rigs out on a Wednesday and it was great to watch the IOM’s fly downwind right on the limits of the rig. With my boat currently in pieces undergoing some refurbishing I took on PRO duties today. Wayne Behrens brought his boat with A rig only but decided that it would be better to assist with official duties rather than battling the conditions with the wrong equipment. Thanks for your help today Buzzy. Wind shifts were frequent and decisive today. I felt that those who worked the shifts as they were presented did better than those who went way wide banking on a bigger change. On tough days it is not unusual to see the cream rise and that is what happened today. Gary McCarthy took out the day with five podiums in his mix including two race wins. Two other skippers to win two races were Ray Joyce and Andrew Wardrop. Second and third overall were taken by Ricky Price and Jammy Jones who tied on points with Ricky getting the nod by virtue of four second places. Congratulations Gary, Ricky, Jammy, Ray and Andrew! Next week is designated a Woodies and Classics day to give an opportunity for those who have an older boat to get them out of the shed and give them a day out. Special handicap arrangements will be in place for those who bring them and there will be racing for those with modern boats too. Coming Up: Sunday: Southern IOM regatta. Late entries can be made online. 10:30 button press. PLEASE NOTE - while this event is currently scheduled for Risdon Brook Dam, the committee have decided to change location to Montrose with the expected Easterly conditions forecast on Sunday, which will prove to be very fickle and frustrating at the dam. A very fortunate benefit we have with the ability to sail at multiple locations. Emails will also go out to all competitors about this. Next Wednesday: IOM handicap at Risdon Brook Dam (Classics and Woodies welcome) 10:30 button press. Shorty  There was a good strong Northerly blowing down the dam when we arrived for todays Handicap Shield IOM round. The wind did settle before the start and we were left with about 5 or 6 knots mixed with some very light patches and some shifts to the North East. If there is any Easterly in the wind at the dam then it is, in my opinion, a wind which is not to be trusted! Many skippers today found themselves on the wrong side of a change in the breeze. I had electronics issues before the start of the event and didn’t even make the first race but was able to take on PRO duties for the day. We were without a suitable start box for the mornings racing. Andrew Wardrop made a quick dash home at lunchtime returning with his for the afternoon’s sailing. Thank you for that Andrew - a good start box certainly makes a difference. A lot of the racing was quite close today. In several races the leaders run out of wind on the long down wind run to the gate while the rest of the fleet brought fresh wind from behind condensing the fleet and making for a tight finish. Ray Joyce took out the day with some great sailing from a back marker start. He and Wayne Behrens were the only two skippers to win two races. Wayne took second place (by virtue of that second win) on count back from Charlie Mansfield who had to settle for third. Congratulations Ray, Buzzy and Charlie. Coming up: Plenty of great racing! Saturday: Woodies regatta - David Murfett Memorial at Risdon Brook Dam (11:00 button press) Sunday: Herb Tyson Trophy for A Class at Montrose (10:15 briefing for a 10:30 button press) We currently only have 4 entries and require 6 for it to be classified as a ranking event. Please get your entries in if you are intending on sailing, otherwise the event will need to be put into abeyance this year. Next Wednesday: IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam (10:30 button press) And don’t forget to enter for the IOM Southern Tasmanian Regatta on Sunday 19th April. Enter online - there is a link from out website. Shorty  A warm day for the first day in April but looking at the long range forecast that appears to be the last day that we can expect with the temperature in the ‘twenties’. Still a lovely day for sailing and with a persistent 2 - 5 knot Northerly and smooth water on Risdon Brook Dam pretty much perfect conditions for racing DF95’s. Fifteen skippers turned up and PRO Andrew Wardrop got us racing promptly at 10:30 and did a great job officiating as usual. Thanks Andrew. I have been concerned that the DF95 handicap system was not working as well as we hoped. In particular having fixed handicaps all day means that some skippers are finding that if they are in the wrong handicap group they can sail all day and not see the front end of a race. I do regret having to ‘change horses in mid-stream’ but I also think it necessary to try something different. The new system is very similar to that used at Puddleduck - that is all skippers start the day on handicap zero then handicap penalties of 15 seconds, 10 seconds and 5 seconds are applied each race to the winner, second and third place getter. The problem with that system is that the best skippers have a strong advantage early in the day before the handicaps have sorted themselves out and so it is found that it is pretty much always that one of the better skippers will win the day. To rectify this situation what we are trying is giving our best skippers an immediate 15 second penalty while all others start the day on zero handicap. Then the 5,10 and 15 second penalties are applied each race. If a skipper who starts the day on handicap zero ends up winning the day then they are promoted to the ‘all-star’ division for the following race meeting and will start the day on 15 seconds. And if a skipper from the ‘all-star’ division sails all day without reaching the podium then they are relegated to the zero handicap starting group for the next meeting. So how did it go today? Fairly well judging by the results as we had a variety of race winners from across the ability range, a very close points table (featuring a three way tie in the middle of the table), a different winner in each race and all skippers who finished the majority of the races managed to get to the podium at some stage. It does look promising and so lets give this a try and I welcome any feedback you might have. Ian Hey took out the day in remarkable fashion after retiring from the first race with electrical issues. Bodge borrowed a spare boat from Al Short and spent the second race ashore re-rigging it with his own rig. So with those two races to count as discards Bodge needed to be consistently good for the rest of the day - which he was and so a very well deserved victory today. Stuart Dawes on leave from work today was able to join us for a rare Wednesday appearance. His second place overall was very impressive as he had consecutive podiums in races #2, #3 and #4 sending his handicap right out early in the day. Being able to salvage any sort of decent finish starting well behind the fleet is always remarkable. And Phil Jackman completed the podium with a win and a second place in his race mix. Congratulations Phil Stuart and Bodge. Coming Up: No Sailing on Easter Sunday! Next Wednesday: IOM Handicap Shield at Risdon Brook Dam (10:30 button press) Shorty  |