​Thirteen skippers were at the dam today in sunny pleasant conditions but with very little wind, and as a consequence, racing was slow and a bit painful at times. However, we did manage to complete seven handicap races using the Kawana Waters handicap system that David Jones bought back from Qld. This system uses a designed spreadsheet to calculate results, and seemed to work quite well today and should settle down after a few weeks - we shall see.
Good to see Graham Lane sailing today in his new Blitz which is certainly different from the previous model and seemed to be very quick.

​Nine skippers braved a very average forecast this morning. BOM’s forecast of northerly through westerly & a sudden SW change at midday with rain & hail was spot on. By the time our racing started the top of A rig northerly had started to slowly fade. Stu Harris was the PRO & had boats starting off one of 4 handicaps with little change during the morning - the system worked well.
 
Chris Wood opted to sail Stu’s woody(Corby 5) in place of his injured BP & was rewarded for his consistent sailing with a resounding win, no doubt the Britpop will now be consigned to the bin.
 
When the SW thumped in Wayne Behren’s Trojan lit the afterburners & took off taking him into a tight tussle with Wayne Turner, who came away with second place. Kim Potter was just one point further back, with rod Jackman, just one point behind Kim.
 
One race after lunch & then racing was abandoned. An enjoyable day’s sailing

​A solid A rig top end breeze today, mostly from the north, however a few times it went west and then for want of anything better to say, it went awol!  A good time was had by all, with the weed again having some input into the finish positions. Les and Chris hooked up at the start of race 4 and sadly 19 sustained a damaged mast so was a spectator thereafter.
David Murfet took on the PRO duties today and we thank you kindly for keeping the day rolling. Ten races were held with six different skippers getting the gong.  At times the finishing was very tight with places lost or gained after passing the gate buoys and the beat to the finish.  Noticeable performance was Andrew with his 112 woody Corbie 5.
Overall it was most enjoyable close IOM racing at its best, and I’m sure the results will indicate just how close the racing was.
Thank you all for making the day.
 
Next Sunday it is the Long Distance Day, with Rod Jackman managing you all in my absence. Remember we are trialing set handicaps for the day, and Roddy (his call) can make an adjustment should a boat clearly require an adjustment after a number of races.
 
As no member has offered to take on the Rear Commodore role there will be no BBQ happening on the day, so please bring your own lunch.
 
Ray.

​What a great day for sailing today. Good breeze, mostly from the north, with B though to C2 rigs used on the day.
As previously emailed to the RM skippers, we had two rounds today. The normal scheduled round 7 for the first half of the day, and then a re-run of the cancelled (due to severe weather warning) round 6.
Given that it was a much longer sail day, there was some attrition with the skippers, but on all accounts, we had some very good, close racing.
 
Round 7 was taken out be ever-consistent Ray Joyce, winning an impressive 7 out of 10 races. The Grunge was on rails. A very hard yacht to beat. The downwind performance of the Grunge is something to behold, and it certainly shows the difference in design thoughts in comparison to the older yachts (Boogie for example – by the same designer). John Cole-Cook comfortably took out second place, with Lisa Blackwood coming in third.

​Round 6 commenced after a lunch break, in rather difficult conditions. The wind didn’t know if it was northerly, westerly or southerly – and if that didn’t make things hard enough, we also went from C2 conditions to close enough to A conditions within the same race. It was real interesting seeing which tactics came to the fore during the races. The winner of the round was Lisa Blackwood, getting the F-5 going nicely, on countback from Ray Joyce, with John Cole-Cook not far off in third.

I'd also like to personally acknowledge the efforts of our PRO today. As many of us know, David isn't too mobile at the moment, and to run the day for its entirety is a big effort for someone who can get about easily, but even more so when still recovering from an injury. Your efforts today are really appreciated. The way you kept us going was a big reason why we managed to get 19 races in for the day

Well the RO was left with egg on his face today. BOM promised 19 deg & a nice northerly breeze as promoted by the RO but what we got was certainly more like 7 deg & only an intermittent light southerly. Nevertheless about 18 DF95's turned up & we commenced a series of teams races made up of teams of 3 boats. Due to the very light conditions only 4 teams races were completed plus one scratch race before we pulled the pin just after lunch. The good thing about the light weight 95's is their ability to keep moving in very light airs.
Chris Wood removed the cob webs from sn 40 & showed he has lost none of his sailing skills also the newest DF95 owner Stuart Harris was sailing his newly acquired sn 58 & actually seemed to be enjoying himself.
In the end team 2 consisting of Kim Potter, Cliff Eaves & Stuart Harris took away the wine.
The DF95 fleet will continue their monthly Wednesday sailing at the dam until Christmas when the venue choice will again be discussed with the owners. In the meantime don't forget to have a sail on Tuesdays at Puddle-duck dam, added incentive is coffee served on site.
Thanks for the support of participating skippers & we will try & supply better weather next month  
​Andrew