​It was a delightful winter’s day at Risdon Brook for handicap racing. Fourteen skippers took to the water in a steady Northerly wind which was up to 10 knots for the first races but gradually calmed throughout the day. A rigs were the order of the day.
 
The course was a beat to buoy 8 then a figure eight around the top 4 buoys then back to the bottom gate before finishing. This course was perfect for the conditions and led to many races in which the entire fleet finished very closely.
 
The final race of the day was a long distance course to buoy 9 and return.
 
Many thanks to John Banks for volunteering as PRO today and also to John Murrell who assisted. The two kept things very tight and moving well.
 
Congratulations to Peter Sylvester who won the day with some excellent sailing. (3 wins, 2 seconds, and a total of 11 points today, but a big handicap hit for next week!) Ray Joyce and myself took out the minor podium positions.
 
Our next sailing is a DF double header! Sunday scratch racing at Montrose (10:00 start) and then Wednesday handicap DF racing at the dam.
 
John Short

A wonderful winters day greeted the seven sailors today. A good northerly blowing. Mostly mid A rig, but at times, gusts pushed well in to B territory, which made downwind sailing very interesting and really penalized those who were unable to get their tacks in at the right moment in space and time.

Our trusty PRO, Les, got the sailors off nicely on time, and soon settled into stanzas of three races back to back. Some very good starts and great sportsmanship on the water were clear highlights, as well as some extremely close finishes - Les unable to make the call on one race, giving a dead heat to two yachts in race 9.

Of some note, six of the seven skippers scored a win today, showing the sailing was a bit closer than the results showed.

Unfortunately, we lost two skipers by the end of the day, but nothing major, so will be lining up again next time in a fortnight for the Marblehead Southern Championship.

Clear winner today, with a fantastically consistent day, was John Cole-Cook, on 14 points. Second today, was Ray Joyce - also a real consistent day today - with 30 points. Stalking close behind in third, was Rod Marshall, on 33 points.

On handicap today, the winner was also John Cole-Cook, with a score of 5 (seeded 6 and finished 1st), John Hall came in second, with a score of 1 (seeded 7 and finished 6th), with Ray Joyce (seeded 1, finishing 2), Rod Marshall (Seeded 2, finishing 3), and Kyle Stewart (seeded 3, finishing 4) all sharing third place on the handicap podium with a score of -1.

For those wondering with the handicap system. The rankings are so close in the top 7, that a real good day can move you right up the placings. John fell down the rankings somewhat with some teething and tuning in the last few rounds, which dropped him down a bit (to 7th in the rankings), but after his stellar performance today, his actual ranking is now 2, so will be difficult to figure in the handicap reaults should he maintain his current form.

This coming Wednesday is IOM Handicap, at Risdon Brook Dam, and next Sunday is DF95 scratch racing at MBYC.

This coming Friday (2nd July) is also the close for entries in the Marblehead Southern Championship on the 11th July. Entry fees to be paid, as per NoR, by bank transfer if at all possible.

Memberships for 2021/22 are now due. Please get your membership payments in to Les as soon as possible. As a reminder to those yet to pay, I will send invoices out by the end of the week. We need this paid to continue our insurance cover for our sail days. Thank you to all those who have paid to date. It is really appreciated.

Kyle

It was good to get back to handicap racing at the dam after the last two Wednesdays had been cancelled due to poor wind and weather conditions.

The first race today was started in mirror calm conditions but eventually a steady Northerly of about 5 knots filled in and persisted fairly well for the whole day.

We used a rotating PRO system today with duties being undertaken by a different skipper each race. When this system is used the skipper’s who sits out a race are awarded the average points of their other races for the race that they missed. Thanks to all skippers who volunteered today.

Congratulations to Andrew Wardrop  who won the day with had three wins amongst many podium finishes. Consistently good sailing. Rod Marshall and Peter Turner finished second and third respectively.

Sunday’s sailing will be Round 3 of the Marblehead Scratch series at Montrose. Next Wednesday will be IOM’s again at Risdon Brook.
​
John

Twelve skippers turned up today, in gloomy conditions and very light wind. Luckily the sky stayed gloomy, and did not rain on us, so we will take that as a win.

Four classes were represented, with the DF95's, IOM's, RM's and a 10R on the water throughout the day.

Welcome to Sunday racing to both Richard Fisher and Andrew Price. It looks like you both really enkoyed the day. Hopefully, we will be seeing much more of you both on the water in the weeks to come.

The handicapping today was a very difficult task, but our Pro, Les Hanson did a sterling job with it and getting us away for 11 races - especially since our lunch break was a bit extended with the hot savouries and scintillating conversation on offer.

We had regular groupings passing the finish line today. The DF's were given a reduced length course, but fought closely together as the larger classes tried to catch up to them a second time. The DF's did one full circuit of the long distance wcourse , and the other yachts had another smaller circuit added on. The larger classes got past them on the first circuit, but could not quite catch again while doing the second loop.

The IOM's all left fairly close together with their handicaps, with the RM's and 10R 1:40-2:00 behind at the start.

The final results don't do true justice to Les' handicap work but the people on site saw that it was regularly just 50m or so between the first and last yacht on many of the races, with the eception of the odd bonehead (yes, I am talking about me) hitting marks and getting stuck at times.

Winner today, with just 9 points from the 11 races (yes, he had to drop his two 2nd places....) was Richard Fisher. Close behind was our other new SUnday Sailor, Andrew Price, on 16 points. Third - the first IOM placing - was Peter Sylvester, on 40 points, Phil Turnbull 4th overall (2nd IOM) on 47 points. First of the RM's was Lisa Blackwood, 9th overall, on 63 points
 
Wednesday is the regular IOM Handicap, starting at 10 with some scratch racing, and the Handicap racing at 11am.

Sunday is the IOM MId Winter Challenge. We have some entries in so far, but are keen on getting as many as we can for the day. If you intend on sailing, please get your entry in as soon as possible. They close on Friday, however, for ranking events beyone next weekend, the entry close will be a week out from the event day.

Next Saturday, weather depending, we are intending on opening up MBYC for a DF sail day, from 10am. This is intended to give some extra sailing for the DF's in the leadup to the Nationals later in the year as well as get some good information back on possible courses, since we are gifted with three possible sail areas for the event.

Ten sailors came along for the third round of the winter series scratch today. Unfortunalely, we lost one for the day prior to the first race with burned out electrical connections. Easily fixed, just not at the water side.

An almost non-existant northerly for the first race made things very difficult, but it slowly increased as the morning wore on, to its maximum of around 8 knots by race 9. The tenth and final race, going around the long distance course saw the wind drop right off again.

Some wonderfully consistent sailors today, none more so than Rod Jackman, who won the day with 18 points. Not far behind, in second, was Lisa Blackwood, on 21 points and Mathew Gray rounded out the top three, on 25 points.

Thanks, as always to Les Hanson, doing the Pro work again for us along with Michael Hickman also helping with the observer duties.

Handicap results today saw John Hall enjoy a very well deserved first place (seeded 8, finish 5 for a Net of 3), with Rod Jackman coming in second (seeded 3, finish 1 for a Net of 2), tied with Mathew Gray (seeded 5, finishing 3rd for a Net also of 2).

Wednesday is the return of IOM Mid Week Handicap, starting at 10am for an hours scratch racing and then handicap racing from 11am

A cool northerly was blowing down the dam all day.

It was fresh at first - perhaps around 20 knots, and most skippers chose their C rig.

By lunch the wind had settled a little and the B rigs came out for the afternoon.

A couple of skippers were game enough to try A rigs after lunch but were a little overpowered for most of the afternoon’s racing.  The last race finished in much lighter conditions and the A rigged boats got some reward.

There were 11 skippers for today’s event with most enjoying some scratch racing before the start.

Visitor, Andrew Price also sailed a couple of races. A warm welcome to you Andrew.

Congratulations to Wayne Behrens for taking out today’s sailing with consistent high place finishes. Chris Wood and Michael Hickman claimed second and third respectively.

Again all skippers were able to reach the podium in at least one race showing that the handicap system is working well.

Huge thanks to Andrew Wardrop who did the job of PRO all day in some pretty cool conditions.
 
John Short

This Sunday, we have IOM Winter Scratch Series Round 3, starting at 10am at MBYC.

The new committee will meet for the first time this weekend, so if you have any issues or suggestions to bring up for the new committee to discuss, please email Kyle with them and he will ensure they are discussed.