DF95 Mid Week Handicap

A rotating PRO was used today in the absence of our usual DF95 PRO Andrew Wardrop who is having cataract surgery. We wish you well Andrew and hope for a speedy recovery. When a rotating PRO is used the PRO is awarded their ‘average points before discards’ for the race that they missed. 
It was great to see Kim Potter again after quite a break from racing. Unfortunately however, Kim had some boat troubles today and could not complete a race. We do hope that you will be able to make it regularly Kim.
The computer algorithm that we have been using to generate handicaps has recently issued some unrepresentative DF95 handicaps. The system, on the whole, is very fair and our weekly IOM handicaps remains fair and representative. There are two reasons which can explain why this has happened to the DF95 handicaps. 
One is that the fleet is not consistent. From month to month we get different skippers turning up. In recent events we have had a couple of ‘handicap spill-overs’ where a scratch boat (70 handicap) dominated the podium. When this happens that skipper’s handicap penalty cannot increase beyond 70, and so every skipper who sailed that day has their handicap reduced. But only those who were there that day – so depending on which days you attended or missed your handicap might benefit or not. 
The other thing that happened is that Stuart Dawes sailed a few Wednesdays recently, and in DF95’s, Stuart is something special. His recent form was so good that most of the fleet had their penalty reduced to close to zero. So we had good ‘mid-fleet’ skippers assigned handicaps of 10 and 15 seconds which is totally unfair to our front-markers.
So, as a result, I decided to enlist the assistance of a couple of senior members and reassign the handicaps manually so that they more accurately represent the fleet. I do not intend to override the computer regularly, and this is the first time that I have done it in three years of managing Wednesday handicaps. The racing was close today which I think shows that we were close to getting it right. If, however, you think that you have been assigned an unfair handicap then please feel free to talk to me about it. 
As said, there was some close racing today and the PRO frequently needed to be quick with the pen as there were many photo-finishes. Wayne Behrens took out third place. There is no-one better than Wayne at reading the dam when the wind is shifting around. (On day’s like today when I am in doubt I like to check out what Buzzy is doing because it will often turn out right.) Second place went to Chris Wood. We haven’t seen much of Chris lately and he has recently sold his IOM, but great to see you today Chris and in excellent form too. Today’s winner was Alan Short - a clear 8 points ahead of the rest. This win follows a win in last week’s IOM handicap. It is fair to say that he has found some form!
Coming Up:
Saturday: Our friends from Forcett have organised an IOM Woodies invitation. 10:30 button-press.
Sunday: IOM Southern Tasmania Championships at Montrose. 10:15 briefing for a 10:30 button. Enter on-line.
Next Wednesday: IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam. 11:00 button-press
Shorty