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There was very little wind at all when we arrived at Risdon Brook Dam for today’s IOM handicap racing. But a good Northerly draught of about 5 knots established itself just before starting time and we sailed it all morning completing six races in the session. It was dead calm over lunch and we were again wondering if the day had finished but a light Southerly of one or two knots saw us back on the water. Completing 9 races today was a good achievement and really made the most of the wind on offer. The rotating PRO system worked well and efficiently too with PRO’s quick to take their position and get racing underway promptly. We welcomed new member Charlie Mansfield to Wednesday sailing. Charlie has been a past member of the club and has recently bought Les’s Chienz design IOM. Charlie had a few issues with the boat today but we do hope that you can get it straightened out quickly and racing with the fleet. Lisa brought her Nighthawk in preparation for Saturday’s Woody regatta at Forcett. A good workout saw Lisa finish the day with two second places. Alan Short claimed third place overall today with two race wins and two third places in the mix. Andrew Wardrop took out second. Andrew told me how he has regained much more confidence in his sailing since his eye surgery. It is definitely showing on the results sheet too. The winner was the ‘Sheep’, David Woolley. David well deserves victory as over the last few weeks he as shown all the potential but often spoiling a good morning with an ordinary afternoon - not today though - good consistency results. Congratulations Sheep, Andrew and Alan. Coming up: Saturday: Invitation to Woody’s Regatta at Forget Lakes. $2 registration. 10:30 button-press . Sunday: IOM Scratch racing at Risdon Brook Dam. 10-:00 button-press. Next Wednesday: DF95 handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam. 11:00 button-press. Shorty 
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Ten sailors on site today, and we elected to go with a rotating Pro system again - thanks to all those who took a turn in the Pro function. A light N-NW breeze today up to around 7 knots, but mostly under 4 had the skippers working frantically, trying to find the right lanes and shifts. We had the same course throughout, slightly longer than normal for the DF class, but quite enjoyable. Starting at 3/4 start to 8-7-6-5-1/2 gate-3/4 finish. Six of the ten skippers took home a win and nine on the podium at some stage. It was great to see three of our newer members along as well in Nick Connor, Scott Brain and Simon Delaney. Hope you all enjoyed the day and are just as keen next time. An email is coming to you Scott to help in boat setup. We'll have you mixing it with the top end of the field in no time. A lot fo close racing, and in saying so, it was fantastic again to see not one harsh word spoken all day. With the pedestrian traffic at the dam, it was a great example to show the culture we aspire to in such a public area. Stu Dawes had a bit of an uncharacteristic day today. He struccgled to find pace with the boat, but still turned out some really good results, managing to finish in 3rd place on 18.3 points. Pretty good for a "bad" day at the office. Kyle had a really consistent day, having to discard a third place. Just edging out Stu bya few points with 17 points overall. Winner today, on a fantastic score of 12.6pts was Chris Wood. You hardly hear him on the course, but he is always there at the front of the pack. Fantastic sailing today Chris, and a well deserved round win. In Silver Fleet today, Nick Connor took the chocolates with 10.8 from the 9 races. A very close one for second, with Scott Brain taking the second spot on 12 points, just 0.1pt ahead of Ian Hey on 12.1. In all, a challenging sail day today, but equally enjoyed by all. Thatnks also to the set up and pack up crews today. No fuss and finished nice and quickly which was great to see. Photos below kindly taken by Ray. Coming Up:
   Cool conditions and a less than encouraging forecast kept skippers away for today’s IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam. While the day was cool the wind did not disappoint with a solid 10 - 15 knots of Northerly with its usual shifts and gusts. A-rigs were the universal choice for the morning session. Phil Jackman filled the PRO’s position and did an excellent job as you would expect. Thanks so much Trout. David Woolley sailed really well in the morning session and won two races but some heavier gusts during the lunch break tempted him to change to the B-rig. That didn’t work out all that well as, if anything, the wind lightened a knot or two as the afternoon proceeded. Andrew Wardrop earns the honourable mention today. After some servo issues in the third race Andrew went home and returned after lunch with his other boat. The blitz was flying in the afternoon session and Andrew took out back-to-back wins in races 8 and 9. He could have easily taken a hat trick too as he was well ahead in the last race of the day but sailed the wrong course, - still finishing the race second though. Well sailed Andrew. And I can’t speak too loudly about sailing the wrong course as I did exactly the same thing - not once, but twice! And my own fault too as I thought that it would be a good idea to set a slightly different course today as we had been doing the same old course for quite a few weeks. Obviously too many weeks as by force of habit I was assuming that buoy 8 was always the windward mark. Ricky Price took out third place overall after starting the day as the backmarker and finishing it on an 85 second handicap. Well sailed Ricky! Martin Svensen took second place with a 3rd place two 2nd places and a race win in his mix. A really good day’s sailing Martin. And todays winner was John Hall. It has been a while since we have seen John on the winners dais for IOM’s. So congratulations John on a well deserved victory. The handicaps were interesting too as all skippers reached the podium a couple of times and no-one either dominated so much or sailed so poorly that they needed handicap penalty or benefit for next week. No adjustment in handicap for anyone! I guess that means that the system is generating appropriate handicaps. Coming up: Sunday: DF95 Scratch sailing at Risdon Brook Dam. 10:00 button-press. Next Wednesday: There is an extra Wednesday in July so next week will be IOM handicap at Risdon Brook Dam. 11:00 button-press. Shorty  Much nicer breeze than the 100km/hr winds we experienced yesterday, causing the cancellation of the Southern Tasmanian RM Regatta for the second time - ultimately passing in that event for this year. PRO for the day, Ian Hey got us away right on the scheduled start time with the standard course 3/4 - 7, 8, 3, 4, 7, 8, 1-2 Gate and 3/4 finish. Ray jumped right out of the blocks from the first race - keen to regain the coveted memorial this year - and thoroughly dominated most of the day, racking up a very impressive 9 wins from the 15 races. Some of htem by an extraordinary margin. The rest of the fleet had a real tough contest amongst themselves, with many races decided within th efinal beat to the finish line. Some very interesting racing with many possible racing lines used, and heaps of opportunity to make up ground if you were in synch with the wind patterns and likewise to lose ground when you have found a not-so-good spot to sail in to. The mantra was to never give up as opportunity could come knocking. Although earlier said that Ray was dominant, there were still 5 skippers taking a race win during the day, so we all had good opportunities and made a good go of if when presented. After lunch, the breeze seemed to drop a bit, and Lisa decided to go for the swing rig, while everyone else kept the B on. Didn;t seem to make too much difference to start with, but on her second A Rig race, she comfortably won by a good 100m to second place. This brought about a rig change call, but half way though the change, the wind picked right up again, damaging Stuart's rig and causing all but Lisa to go back to their B Rigs. Unfortunately, we had lost Stuart and John Cole-Cook a few races early, but the final four battled out the last few races to finish with 15 completed by the close of play. In the end, Ray was a well deserved winner of the 2025 John Emms Memorial with just 18 points from the 15 races. Congratulations Ray. Second place went to Kyle Stewart on 37 points. Might be a bit more dangerous if he got that first beat sorted out better and relied less on catching up throughout the races. Third place was the very consistent John Hall on 44 points. The F-6 was flying today and well deserved with his consistency throughout the day. Big thanks to Bodge for his excellent PRO work today. It's really appreciated when you get tot he dam in cold conditions just to officiate our race day. Also, well done to the competitors for some very close, exciting and extremely well mannered sailing. Upcoming Events
  Although the sun was shining fully it was a very cool day for IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam. Although the temperature did apparently make it to 12 degrees there was a severe wind chill factor which made it seem much colder. The cool North Wester of about 15 knots (perhaps more in the gusts) which caused the chilly conditions did however lend itself to great sailing. After a good amount of discussion the skippers unanimously opted for the B rig which proved suitable for the gusts and we all kept with that rig throughout the day. We had decided to use a rotating PRO for the day’s racing but John Cole-Cook turned up after the first two races and offered to do the job. It was a great offer particularly considering the conditions. Thanks for your work today John. The close points table again reflected the closeness of the racing. Four skippers were within two points of taking third place overall. Ray Joyce managed to take that honour. Ray always does well in heavy conditions. David Woolley took second spot after starting the day with back-to back wins in the first two races. And he very nearly made it a hat trick just giving away a third win in race three in the last metres to the finishing line. Great sailing today Sheep! Speaking of back-to-back results Trout started the day with consecutive 6th places in the first four races and finished up with six 6ths overall. A couple of race wins though spoiled the consistency! It was Ricky Price who won today’s event with plenty of the podium today. While one of Ricky’s races was a sail away victory mostly he showed awesome ability as a back-marker by making sure that he had attached himself to the fleet by the time we reached the final gate then making something of every race by striking on the final leg. Congratulations Ricky! Coming up - A double header for Marbleheads! Saturday: Southern State Regatta for Marbleheads at Risdon Brook Dam (10:15 briefing for a 10:30 button press) - only 5 entries so far. The event will be cancelled if we cannot get 6 entries by Friday afternoon Sunday: John Emms Memorial Regatta for Marbleheads at Risdon Brook Dam (10:15 briefing for a 10:30 button press) - 6 entries so far, so the event will be happening. Next Wednesday: More IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam (11:00 button Press) Shorty  A broad range of conditions for the sailors today in the IOM Southern State RegattaWeather predictions looked bleak today. Seemed to be B Rig throughout and rain increasing as the day wore on. Not sure where the wind was, but we started with around 4 knots of wind, which did slowly increase as the morning wore on. As we got started, some drizzle did come and sailors geared up for a wet day, but it disappeared after the first race, not to be seen again until after the close of the days sailing. Our PRO for the day, John Hall, got the eleven skippers away nicely on time, with our standard go-to course for the dam with the wind generally being kid to us, with the exception of the occasional 90 degree shift and the odd hole of nothing combined with others rotating the wind vane 360 degrees at times. Some very close racing as the day wore on. We completed six by lunch with Lisa and Ricky fighting it out for the half-day lead. During lunch, the wind came up and there was close to a 50/50 split amongst the sailors, some went to the safety of B rig, while the others took the punt on A rig for the next few. The A Rig boats took a big advantage for the following two races before a change to ahve everyone on B again. A few more races and then a change for most to C Rigs, with some others retiring for the day with a lack of C rig and some gear damage reducing the fleet down to 8 for the last few races. Kyle had a good, but also mixed day today, either sailing really well and right up with the leaders, or forgetting what phase the wind was in and doing everything possible to stay out of phase. Fortunately there was more good than bad, and finished in third place toda on 41 points. Ray was one of the few who elected to remain in B Rig for the last few races, and benefited greatly from his decision. Storming home with four wins and a second in the last five races. Really shooting up the leaderboard into second place on 37 points. Lisa had a consistent day, with 5 places being the worst counted on the day. A very deserving winner of the Regatta on 31 points. In Silver Fleet, Ian Hay took out third place on 29 points. Wont be long and consistency will be there with the new boat. Second place went to Andrew Wardrop, on 21 points, and the winner today in Silver Fleet was John Short on 19 points. Well done John. In some very tricky conditions with a few occasions having a lot of yachts very close at the first windward mark, the on-water behaviour was excellent, and this should be applauded by all as we all got our fair share of frustrations on the day, but simply sailed on with it. Not completely clean but penalties done when required with an absolute minimum of fuss. Well done everyone. Big thanks today goes to John Hall, who missed the sailing today, so we could have a dedicated PRO for the day. It was really appreciated John, and great work on that trigger finger to get us all ready quickly in between races. Upcoming Events
Kyle   There were just ten starters for today's IOM handicap event at Risdon Brook Dam where a 5-10 knot Northerly offered perfect conditions for racing. Martin Svensen brought the wrong boat today but decided to stay on and officiate as PRO. Good courses, definitive boat contact calls, and swift progression of races were features a really impressive job today. Thanks so much Martin. Thanks also to Phil Jackman who arrived a bit late today but gave Martin assistance with duties as well as scoring up a third place race finish in a borrowed boat. The racing was close again today. In many of the races only about 25 m separated the entire fleet as we approached the final gate and races were frequently won or lost in the final short leg to the finish. An honourable mention goes to David Woolley who started as front marker but was really hard to hunt down today. Sheep finished the day with three 2nd places and a 3rd on his score sheet. All skippers found the podium at some stage today. I managed to nudge out Ian Hey for third place overall by virtue of count-back. Bodges efforts today included his first race win with the V12. Ricky Price came second and earned the nice feeling of winning the last race of the day. Ray Joyce was today's winner a clear 5 points ahead of Ricky and with enough dominance that he had to discard a 4th place. Well done Ray and Ricky! All up it was a really enjoyable day's sail. Coming up: Sunday: The Mid-Winter IOM challenge at Risdon Brook Dam. (10:15 briefing for a 10:30 button-press) Late entries may be made on-line. Next Wednesday: IOM handicap sailing at Risdon Brook Dam. (11:00 button-press) Shorty   A very cold and still morning this morning. Temperature around 6C for the ten sailors who came along for the resumption of Scratch Racing after a month layoff. Looking rather sad to start with - a complete lack of wind, but a few little zephyrs did come along and we got started pretty much on time. Chris Woods came along to officiate procedings today - big thanks Chris for taking the time away from home life to do so. It's really appreciated. Andrew Wardrop stormed out of the blocks early. The Wooden V8 IOM with the home made sails showed us his stern for most of the first race, to record a very well sailed win. Not satisfied with a "lucky win", Andrew proved that his latest build was every bit as good as any of the pro built boats, recording a further 5 podium finishes in the next 7 races. That story soon developed for all of our top three today, Lisa winning the day on 8 points (7 podiums), with Andrew taking second on 15, edging out Ray on 17 points (4 podiums). A few other sailors that struggled in the conditions, but as light as it was, the top three showed that it was enough still to be consistent and the right on-water decisions and clean air sailing paid out in the end. In Silver Division today, it was unsurprising to see Andrew at the head of the fleet, dominating with a win in every race - perhaps the first time I have seen that..... Andrew finishing on 6 points. Ian Hey took out second in his lovely new V12 on 13 points, with Rod Marshall taking third on 15 points. Coming up Wednesday sees the resumption of IOM Mid Week sailing at the Dam, starting at 11am. Next Sunday is the IOM Mid Winter Regatta. Button press will be 1030 and depending on conditions, we may be weighing yachts as well. We would like all feed paid prior to the bank account so we do not have to chase up money on the day. Our treasurer will be competing and have things to se up himself, so will not chase any up, so if not paid by button press, results will not be recorded. If not entered tonight (entries do close today as we have advertised on multiple occasions), a late entry fee of an additional $10 will apply for late entries. We also put out a call for interested sailors for getting together with transport options to NSW for hte A Class Nationals next February as we have to beook the boat in the next week or so. There have not been many putting their hands up for joining in with this, so it currently looks like the trailer will not be going with us. It is an extra $1200 to carry the trailer on the boat so we needed enough interested to make it worthwhile. That said, if someone chooses to come over, there are options such as one of us taking the bulk of the weight in the car and you can transport the hull etc as oversized baggage by plane. We currently have three pretty much confirmed for the trip, with two taking cars, and one heading further to the Marblehead Nationals at Paradise on the Gold Coast straight after the A Nationals. Kyle  It was a very cool morning for our return to racing at Risdon Brook Dam and what welcomed us was a photographer’s reflection paradise. I think that most of us were expecting that we would have to cancel sailing and I reckon that we probably would have apart from the fact that 15 skippers had turned up, (a strong fleet for DF95’s), and we were all chomping at the bit for a race after our mid-season lay-up. And so our usual DF95 PRO Andrew Wardrop called for ‘boats on the water’ and we did our best. The morning’s racing turned out to be drifting matches in the glassy conditions. Both of the two morning races were taken out by guest skipper Scott Brain. Many would put down a race win under such conditions to luck. But you can’t be that lucky twice in succession. Scott peeled off back to back wins in the morning and a solid forth in one of the afternoon races and won today’s event overall. Now that is a great welcome to the club! Congratulations Scott! There was a bit more wind in the afternoon - well enough to break the reflections - perhaps one knot. It seemed that the DF95’s were flying relative to their speeds of the morning session. Buzzy Behrens always seems to find some breeze when there is not too much about and he came second overall. Phil Jackman took third place with his usual consistent scorecard. In all just four races today (and so one discard was allowed) but I think given the day we did well to complete a series and it was good to get back to sailing at the dam. Upcoming events and info This Sunday sees the return of IOM Scratch at the dam, button press at 10am. Any volunteers for Pro would also be welcome. In the absence of a PRO, we will be utilising a rotating Pro system, so be prepared for your turn. The following Sunday, 13th July is IOM Mid Winter Regatta. Big thanks to John Hall for volunteering as Pro for the event. It's really appreciated. Entries for this close this coming Sunday, so get those entries in. Late enty fee will apply after Sunday. We also have a double RM ranking coming up, on 19/20 July. Ricky Price has generously volunteered his time to Pro the Saturday, but we are looking for someone on the Sunday. If you are available, please let either Ray or Kyle know and we'll book you in for it. Shorty   |