What a day today. Leaving home, I thought only the A Swing Rig was going to come out - if there was any wind at all. Turn up at Montrose, and we weren't sure whether to use a C1 or C2 rig. The northerly Katabatic at its best.

We all got started on our C1 rigs, except for Lisa, who elected to use a new B3 rig with her brand new F-6 yacht. We didn't get much of a look at it today - the only thing we did see was the stern of the yacht.....

Our PRO, Les set a good windward/leeward course for us, but after timing a few races, we found that they were a little short in time, so extended the last few out to the long distance mark on the first lap, which was a really good change.

It soon showed that the real difference between most of us was not boat speed, but how many mistakes we made, and how we recovered. Yours truly had real issues getting stuck in irons while taking in the choppy conditions. The elite skippers in the club did not make those mistakes. Something for us to learn from.

Unfortunately, as the day wore on, we lost skippers through electrical and sheet failure issues, and finished the last few races with five competing. Still  very enjoyable though.

As mentioned earlier, Lisa had a real good day with her new F-6, winning 10 of the 13 races, so no surprise that she easily won the day, on 12 points. In second, was Kyle Stewart, on 25 points and Rod Marshall rounded out the top 3 on 39 points.

Of some note, the top three were also the only ones to complete every race.

On handicap today, the winner was Kyle Stewart, with a score of 4 (seeded 7 and finished 2nd), Rod Marshall (Seeded 5, finishing 3), Andrew Wardrop (seeded 6, finishing 4) and John Hall (seeded 8, finishing 6) all sharing second place on the handicap podium with a score of 2

Results at mysailingresults website

This coming Wednesday is DF95 Handicap, at Risdon Brook Dam. Handicap racing will start at 11am, but if there are enough there earlier, some scratch warmups may commence earlier.

Today the fleet was greeted by a blustery wind which frequently swirled from Northerly to South-Westerly and gusted between 0 and 25 knots. The choice of B rig was universal and made for good racing.

Rob Cooney returned to the club today after a break of about 18 months. Welcome back Rob.

It was great to see that many skippers were keen and organised to get some casual scratch racing going at 10:00 before the handicap event. These races are deliberately very short so that plenty of races can be held and they provide skippers with invaluable experience at starting in a fleet situation.

The course set for the handicap racing was initially an up-wind beat to buoy 8 followed by a figure-8 around the top four buoys then down to a leeward gate before heading to the finish. After lunch the wind was tending more to the West and so a course involving buoy 9 was used. PRO duties were shared between myself, Mike Hickman and Andrew Wardrop who suffered some gear failure during the day.

Well done to Lisa Blackwood who consistently placed at the head of the fleet and took out the day. Lisa was just a single point ahead of Matt Grey with Wayne Berhens taking out third spot.

It is really pleasing scanning the results to see that even though many skippers succumbed to gear failure, every skipper had at least one race where they featured on the podium. Looking at result sheets from previous weeks this is not unusual. I believe that this is a sign of a handicap system that is working very well.

Next sailing is Sunday’s RM Scratch round 10:00 at Montrose. Next week our Wednesday handicap will be for DF 95’s
​
 John Short

​Thirteen sailors came along for the second round of the winter series scratch today.

A very light NW breeze to start with, falling back to almost nothing at all by the end of the 9th race, calling the day a little short, which helped the set up for the AGM today.

Welcome today, to John Murrell and John Short, both sailing their first IOM Scratch day today. We do hope that you enjoyed the day and look forward to seeing you much more on Sundays.

Mathew Gray was dominant today, the Venti really sailing well under his control. A well deserved win today with just 11 points. Sailing almost equally as well,was Lisa Blackwood, in Second with 13 points.
Ray Joyce rounded out the top three with yet another great days sailing, with 22 points.

Thanks, as always to Les Hanson, doing the Pro work again for us.

Results at mysailingresults website

Handicap results today, resulted i a double for Mathew Gray, with a net 6pts on handicap. That will soon push his ranking to where it truly belongs. Second on handicap, was John Short, with a net 2pt differential. Well done, John. Third place was a three way tie, with Chris Wood, Kyle Stewart and John Hall all sharing a 1pt differential.

Well done to all competitors today. The light conditions can be a bit trying at times, and overall, I think the competition on the day was really competitive.

We also held our AGM today. Minutes will be out to members very soon. I'd firstly like to thank our outgoing committee members for their service to the club, not only over the last year, but over their time on the committee. So many would not know the amount of time and effort you have all put in over your tenure on the committee, and the club is in a better position because of these efforts.

Welcome also, to the committee for 2021/22. Office bearers are as below, but will also be in the minutes to be emailed out soon.
Commodore - Michael Hickman
Vice Commodore - John Hall
Rear Commodore - Andrew Wardrop
Secretary - Kyle Stewart
Treasurer - Les Hanson
Mid Week Co-ordinator - John Short
Property Officer - Ray Joyce
Committee - Rod Jackman
Committee - Jeff Byerley
Committee - Mathew Gray

Today started with a top of A rig breeze, but eased as the day went on with varying wind directions, making decisions on what side of the dam to sail difficult.

Andrew started the day as PRO But had to leave at lunch time. Thanks to the sailors who volunteered after lunch to do PRO Duties.

Winner today, is Chris Woods, on 25.2pts. Close behind in second, was Peter Darcey, on 28 points, with Mat Gray just one point further behind in third.

This weekend, we have IOM Scratch, starting at 10am. Following this, we have our AGM at MBYC (2pm start). We have had few nomination forms in to date, so if you are thinking of joining the committee in any sort of capacity, feel free to contact me. If positions are not nominated by the start of the AGM, nominations can be accepted at the meeting as per the constitution, but a vote for a position cannot be considered if there is just one nomination prior and someone else decides to nominate on the day.

Apologies can also be emailed to me if you cannot make it, and I'll ensure it is recorded appropriately.

​Day 2 of the A Class Championship certainly delivered. More skippers shared the glory, ensuring overnight leader, Lisa, was not going to have it as easy as yesterday. Saying that, she still only recorded a worst 3rd counted for the day.

Wind was variable to say the least. Consistent at least from the NNW to WNW direction, however ranging from 6 knots to over 30 knots at times, causing a few rushes to the lawn for rig changes. Personally, I changed three times throughout the day.

Unfortunately, we did have a level of attrition throughout the day with gear failure. The heavy weather always finds the weaknesses in the yachts. That said though, it was positive that the rescue dinghy, although deployed in case, wasn't required on either day across the 24 races.

In the end, as expected after yesterdays performance, Lisa came out on top to win the 2021 A Class Championship, with 29 points. John Cole-Cook got his Venom running great today and shot up into second place, on 58 points, with Ted Stevens also enjoying a nice rise up the field, to take home his first podium, in 3rd on 70 points.

Well done to all sailors for two days of fantastic sailing. Enjoyed also by quite a number of members, who turned up across both days to watch these graceful yachts strutting their stuff.

Special thanks must go to our support crew. Without the help provided, events such as these will never get off the ground. Thanks to Les Hanson, for his Pro duties, Anne Cole-Cook for the scoring, Ken Dobbie for also coming to help on the start/finish lines, and John Hall for also helping out after his day was finished early. Andrew Price and Ray Joyce also took some photos across the two days, so we will endeavour to get some published as son as we can.

Afterwards, five of us retired to Anna Purna for a "debrief session" which was enjoyed a lot. In future, we will advertise more obviously, rather than be an informal, on the spot decision, to see if we can get more sailors and partners along to enjoy some great company and the inevitable story afterwards.

Results at mysailingresults website

Wednesday is IOM Handicap racing at Risdon Brook, with handicap racing starting at 11am. This is getting extremely popular, and there is limited parking on the concrete apron. We need to give priority of parking to those that have mobility issues, so if fit and healthy, please use the overflow parking if possible, so that those that are a little more unsteady can park and comfortably set up their yachts for the race day.

Sorry, not much to report today as I was not there at the sailing.

It was A Rig weather thoughout though, and Lisa has certainly laid the base for a championship win if she continues her remarkable run of wins.

​Mike is not far behind though, ready to pounce if given the opportunity.

Championship to be concluded tomorrow. Racing starts at 1030

A good fleet of 15 boats today, but unfortunately the breeze was in a capricious mood with lots of shifts, holes and calm patches.
Nevertheless, we got in a full 10 races.
John Short started impressively with 2 line honours and Jammy also won two. 
Well done to David Jones, with a win on 32 points.
Second place was Rod Jackman, on 28 points, squeezing out Rod Marshall, in third,  on countback.
It is good seeing the handicap system doing a nice job, with 2nd to 9th place all within 10 points
 
Thanks to John Murrell who efficiently carried out the PRO duties for the day. 

This weekend, we have the State RA Championships, starting on Saturday at 1030. Entries are promising it to be a great weekend. If you have the time and are not sailing, come down to MBYC to see these graceful yachts racing against each other.

​Expecting a smaller field today, given the day was Mothers Day. That said, I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout of ten sailors, including brand new member, Andrew Price - Welcome to RBRYC, Andrew.

Unfortunately, Andrew's DF95 had just the A Rig, the Club IOM failed Justin with a receiver issue, and Jeremy's A Class had a self tensioning drum failure.

Jeremy hung around with his young family for a few races, while Andrew and Justin filled in the PRO duties for the day. Thanks for the help there guys. It was really appreciated.

That left seven for the remainder of the day. We had quite heavy conditions today, with Lisa's A Class winning the first race before pulling out due tot he wind. Kyle's GothicA finally made it to water on race 3 after a long delay setting up the B rig, but that was in vain, with the yacht very hard to control - almost finding the sea wall. 

All was good though, Kyle and Lisa swapped their A Classes out with their Marbleheads, and by race 5, we had 7 yachts racing again.

Races 2-6 were dominated by John Cole-Cook and Ray Joyce, combining for the first two positions, with Andrew Wardrop not far behind them, taking out four 3rd positions.

Races 7-10 had a changing of the dominant sailors, with Kyle winning the next four and Lisa taking second on each occasion. Ray and Andrew sharing third spot in those races as well.

Even though there was a late charge for the win on the day, it was too little, too late, with John Cole-Cook being way too consistent throughout, with two 4th spots as the lowest scores - winning with 17 points.

Ray Joyce was also similarly consistent, with two wins, three 2nds and two 3rd giving 19 points overall.

Andrew Wardrop finished third, the Indie loving the heavy C2 conditions, with 26 points.

Although not mentioned, John and Stu were also in C2 rigs, and were significantly smaller than the C2's of the other RM's. Although not in the places, they did sail very competitively, but the yachts needed a few more knots of breeze to fully unleash their potential.

A very enjoyable days sailing overall by everyone. Fantastic conditions for long distance sailing.
 
Results at mysailingresults website

Wednesday is the regular IOM Handicap, starting at 11, followed by the RA State Championship next Saturday and Sunday. Please get entries in as soon as possible for this event. It looks to be a well represented weekend.

A fleet of 15 fronted today in northerly conditions that swung between A and B rigs for most of the morning.

Peter Sylvester suffered a winch issue, so didn't sail but assisted with PRO duties up to lunch.

Prior to the handicap series a number of scratch races were held to shake out the cobwebs.

Courses before lunch were one & a half laps with a change in course after lunch when the breeze lightened and tended more westerly.

Nine races were completed before the breeze faded.
 
Kim Potter gained line honours in 3 races with Jammy with 3 seconds and some constantly good results.

Noticed that one of our newer members, John Murrell is starting to sail quite well. A potential new member Richard has indicated that he will be ordering a 95 so the fleet continues to grow, no doubt spurred on by the Nationals later in the year.

This Sunday, we have Long Distance Series Round 4, starting at 11am at MBYC.

Eleven sailors enjoyed fantastic sailing conditions today.

A Rigs were the call of the day, with the breeze staying light throughout - magically, at 1pm, it died completely, right on script.

Ray Joyce jumped out of the blocks early, taking bullets from the first two races, with Rod Jackman right behind. The first two were a good tune up for Lisa, with nice new sails fitted, who then proceeded to take out the next four races. John Hall and Andrew Wardrop also enjoyed some real good, consistent results in the middle stanza.

The last part of the day had Rod, Ray, Kyle, and Lisa enjoying some really good wins in the increasingly light conditions.

In the end, Lisa's consistency was simply too good, rounding out a great birthday week for her - finishing on 13 points. Rod Jackman took out second with a very consistent day, on 18 points, with Ray Joyce taking third, on 26 points.

I put in todays results into our magic handicap spreadsheet, built to rules conceived by yours truly, and made possible by John Short. On handicap today, we had three winners. Well done to John Hall, Andrew Wardrop and myself, tying for first place on 3pt differential, and Rod Marshall in fourth place with a .2pt differential.

For those wishing to know how the handicap is developed, the last five completed rounds are tallied for each skipper. A weighting is applied to each race (ie 3rd out of 15 is weighted higher than 3rd out of 6) and these weightings are averaged over the last 5 rounds completed. The skippers are then ranked according to their combined weighting. Skippers on a race day are ranked according to their weighting and then the handicap differential is the difference between the skippers weighted rank on the day and their actual finish placing.

Of note also today, it was great seeing so many sailors helping each other out in the breaks, and offering advice. The sharing of knowledge is really appreciated and will only enhance us further as a club as the differential between the established and newer skippers gets closer. It's great to see not only a club sailing together, but a community of like minded people, sailing and enjoying each others company.

Thanks, as always to our officials. Les Hanson, doing the Pro work again for us and Anne Cole-Cook, for helping with the scores

Results at mysailingresults website

Wednesday is our  DF95 Monthly Handicap, from 11am. If skippers are ready at 10, there quite possibly will be a few scratch races to warm up. 
Next Sunday is Mothers Day, and as such, there is no scratch racing. However, we will be running our Long Distance Handicap on Sunday for those able to make it. By the sounds of it, there will be an eclectic mix of IOM, RM and A Class coming along. Sunday will start at the normal 11am Long Distance start time.