​There was a really nice Nor-westerly for today’s handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam. All the skippers chose the B-rig and we all stuck with that rig throughout the day which made for a level playing field for the skippers. There was just a note of warmth in the breeze too for the last day of winter.
 
Mat Gray was unfortunately sidelined even before the first race due to winch problems which left just nine skippers competing today.
 
Our PRO was Kim Potter who kept the racing rolling throughout the day. Huge thanks for your work today Kim.
 
The wind was just a bit on the shifty side and quite hard to pick and the skippers who did thisthe best were rewarded with results. That said all skippers did reach the podium at some stage today.
 
Third place today went to John Hall with 3 race wins in his total.
 
Ray did really well taking second place especially as he blew his handicap to 90 with a win and a second in the first two races.
 
And today’s winner was Pete Sylvester whose race tally included seven podium finishes. He was well ahead of everyone on points. Congratulations and well sailed Pete.
 
A couple of weeks ago we had an interested spectator - Andrew Floyd. Andrew has just purchased Ted Stevens IOM and will be joining our club as soon as he recovers from hip surgery. Welcome Andrew!
 
Sunday’s scratch racing will be for Marbleheads - 10:00 button at the dam.
Next Wednesday’s handicap will be for DF95’s - 11:00 button at the dam.
 
John S

​What a wonderful sunny day at the dam today. A bit ligh on the wind, with up to maybe 6 knots at the maximum, but nice to be able to get out in some nice warmth for the last Sunday of Winter.

Wind direction from all points of the compass, and the occasional wind bomb from above kept the nine skippers on ther toes, but the trend today was the breakout skipper or front group of sailors who got a break from the rest of the field often got to stay out the front.

It was really interesting watching so many varied strategies and how some paid off on some occasions, but not on others. In the end, I think targetting the middle of the course was the best bet of the day.

We had a clear winner today, with Mat Gray really showing how to sail the light, fickle winds. Taking 7 wins from the 10 races today. Clearly a standout with just 10 points.

Secnd place was John Cole-Cook, on 20 points. Another very consistent day from John.

Stu Dawes rounded out the top 3 in third, with 28 points.

On handicap, John Cole-Cook was a clear winner, his yacht sorted nicely and soon will be shooting back up the rankings again after a few weeks of below average results. John finished the day with 5 rank differential points (seeded 7th, finishing 2nd).

Stu Dawes took second on handicap, with 1 rank diff point.

Mat Gray, Kyle Stewart, John Hall and Andrew Wardrop tied for third today by sailing to their handicap.

Wednesday will be IOM Handicap at the dam, button press at 11am.

Kyle

Sorry, no official report today, but from the results posted in, we had nine turn up today to sail. Unfortunately, looks like Kim had some issues ending his day.

Mat sailed very well today, running away an easy winner on 0 points. Lisa took out second today, on 16 points, with Wayne as consistent as ever. Taking third with 22 points.

Interesting to see that it was quite close with much of the pack today, with 4th through to 7th separated by just 4 points.

Sunday is the return of IOM Scratch, which will be at the dam this week, starting at 10am.

Your committee had a meeting tonight, and coming out from that for members interest is that we are resuming all winter sailing at the dam. Winter sailing to be regarded as Eastern standard time, with Summer sailing being Eastern Daylight Savings time. We have had quite an issue with glare at Montrose of late, and the dam gets trid of this issue with us having our backs to the sun, rather than facing straight at it,

A second change for members benefit, is that our Sunday sail days will remain scratch sail days as scheduled, but we are making very welcome any sailor with any registered class yacht to sail on any Sunday. The cratch series will still run and results will befor all sailors on the day for the day's "bragging rights", however, the scratch results will be extracted from the "overall results" for the end of series results.

Example if my wording is a bit ambiguous is that this Sunday is IOM Scratch, but if I decide to sail my A Class and come second overall for the day. with an IOM in 3rd, then the IOM in 3rd takes out 2nd place in the IOM Scratch results.

The committee sees this as a way of making every Sunday sail day available to all members, regardless of the yacht/s they have and the member who has one class of yacht only is then not restricted to sailing on average once or twice a month (if Long Distance is in that month as well).

Lastly, we also considered the inclusion of DF65 sailing on DF95 days and resolved to seek input from the members on this. Suggestions to date have been to run two 8 rscratch ace events on a day, one for each class or separate it out a bit maybe with a longer day, and have two hours of one class, followed by a half hour break and two hours of the other class. If you have an opinion that you'd like to share, please email me and I'll collate the comments to help guide future direction.

Thanks, and see you at the dam on Sunday for IOM Scratch (and any other class).

Kyle

​Pretty standard turnout today with 8 skippers at the dam to contest round 5 (we have had between 8 and 10 skippers for DF events this year to date).

Ten races were completed and by the looks of the results, Rod Jackman and Michael Hickman had a real close fight throughout, with Rod winning today with 14 points from Mike on 16.

Similarly, Lisa Blackwood and Richard Fisher were also very close throughout, with Lisa taking third on 21 points, with Richard just one behind.

On handicap, Michael Hickman took out first place with a net result of 2 rank differential points, with Martin Svensen taking second place with 1 point - well done Martin.

Third place was shared between Rod Jackman, Lisa Blackwood, Mathew Gray and John Hall.

Wednesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap at the dam, from 11am and next Sunday is IOM Scratch at MBYC, button press there at 10am.

Todays sailing was at first relocated to Montrose as Tas Water had closed the dam, but when we arrived at Montrose we found out that the dam had in fact reopened - even though the web site said it to be closed. General consensus was that skippers would rather sail at the dam and so that was where we moved for today's sailing. My apologies to anyone if this has caused you inconvenience today.
 
There was a brisk Northerly of about 10 knots blowing down the dam and while it did lighten after lunch it didn’t stop us getting the full quota of 10 races completed. Unfortunately the weekend rains did mean that there was more weed and flotsam on the dam than usual. Most skippers found some at some stage today.
 
Martin Svensen sailed well today scoring a couple of race wins. One of these was especially noteworthy as he had to recover positions on the last beat from the gate to the finish to gain the win.
 
All skippers got to the podium at least once today.
 
Third place today went to Andrew Wardrop who has worked his starting handicap up from 30 a couple of weeks ago to 60 for next week. John Hall took second place with a more obedient boat today! And Lisa was today’s winner with all podium finishes (after discards) and a total of 2 points. Well done to all.
 
Next Wednesday’s handicap at the dam will again be for IOM’s  (button at 11:00) And Sunday’s scratch sailing will be for DF95’s also at the dam (button at 10:00)
 
John S

It was a full blue sky day at the Dam. Frosty and cool early but warming to a lovely sunny day with the promise of summer ahead - well at least spring. A northerly of between 2 and 10 knots kept us entertained throughout the day.

We still hadn’t done the necessary maintenance to the missing buoy 5 but maybe that was a good thing because it meant that we had to think of some different courses to suit this wind. I thought that the last course that we were using today worked quite well:
3/4 (start) - 8 - 7- 3/4 (gate) - 8 - 7 - 1/2 (gate) - 3/4 (finish)
 
This course gave plenty enough windward work and the extra gates and the decision making that goes along with them provided extra interest.
 
John Hall won race 4 by making a really deep tack out to the western side. So effective was it that he tried the same tactic in the following race but this time he sailed beyond the limits of the range of his receiver (there may also have been a low battery involved). Anyway John learnt that his boat is set up perfectly to sail by itself as it did not deviate in its course straight to the other side of the dam.
 
The handicaps seamed to work well today with pretty well everyone getting to the podium at least once and a good spread of race winners from across the handicap spectrum.
 
Third place today went to Andrew Wardrop who was always close to the head of the fleet. Mat Grey took second place with six podium finishes in his tally. And Phil Jackman was the winner with very consistent results. Congratulations to all.
 
Next Sunday is the RM State Regatta. Registrations from 0900, briefing 1015 and button press at 1030 sharp. Please get entries in if you haven't already.

And IOM’s again for next Wednesday’s handicap at the dam. Button Press at 11:00.

oWasn't there for long today, so don't have too much to report.

Initially to be sailed at montrose, but the glare was too arsh for the skippers, so t was agreed to decamp to Risdon Brook dam.

Very light breeze there (as it was also at MBYC). Just the five races sailed before the wind gave out completely.

Mathew Gray continued his hot form, winning the day on 6 points.

Rod Jackman took out second place on countback with 9 points, with Lisa Blackwood third on the same 9 points.

On handicap today, Rod Jackman took the honours, wit 1 net point.

Second place was shared by Mathew Gray, Rod Marshall, John Hall, Andrew Wardrop and Martin Svenson - who all sailed to their handicap today - 0 net points.

Big thanks - as always - t Les Hanson for his PRO work today.

Wednesday this week is IOM Handicap at the dam, starting at 11am.

Next Sunday is RM State Regatta. We only have four entries in so far, so please get them in as soon as you know that you can make it.

Two more notes.

Rod Jackman is selling his IOM V10. It will shortly be on both the RBRYC webiste in the for sale area, as well as on the ARYA site if you are interested.

Lastly, our friends at Forcett lakes are holding their next IOM Classics Day on Saturday 3rd September, from 11am to 1430. Mark it down on your calendar. It is a very enjoyable sail day out there.

Kyle

​It was great to get another windy day at the dam - but only six skippers fronted for the start. Due to the limited numbers we decided to shelve regular handicap sailing and instead have a casual scratch series.
 
We all started the day with our A-rigs and had launched and were awaiting Andrew to press the button when there was a significant increase in the wind and so it was decide to have a rig change break even before we started. B-rigs proved the order of the day though those that had a C-rig in their quiver were able to change down again for the last two races. With the strong and quite biting wind today we decided to sail the ten races straight and then finish the day early.
 
Tight racing as always with the DF’s, and with just the six starters everyone got a share of the podium. But it was Wayne Behrens who handled the conditions best of all and deserved series honours. Lisa, fresh from winning the DF65 state title, took second with her usual consistency. John Hall is always super-competitive in the DF’s and took third with two race wins in his total.
 
Big thanks to Andrew Wardrop who generously gives his time to keep the racing happening with DF95’s.
 
And a couple of points concerning bonus points:
Firstly we do not use bonus points in a scratch series like today, and, secondly, after some discussion with Wayne, for handicap races we will now be using bonus points of 3,  2 and 1 for 1st 2nd and 3rd respectively. Its gold, silver and bronze rewards!
 
Next Wednesday’s handicap is for IOM’s - button press at 11:00 And Sunday’s scratch racing will also be for IOM’s at Montrose - button press at 10:00
 
John S