End of Season Sail Day and Seasons Greetings

A very chilled/relaxed day today for the six skippers who turned up to have a sail today.

Initially, the Derwent was glassed out and we were waiting for some semblance of a breeze to fill in. This happened a bit after 1pm and we soon had boats on the water. The first race had all the IOM's change up to a B Rig, with Lisa going back to change her sails and Kyle opting to keep his full rig on the A Class Blister. Unfortunately, we lost Phil with a broken stay, so he shared skipper duties with Kyle so he could get a feel of his new A Class boat.

After finishing the first race, Kyle quickly went ashore and changed over to the B Main (only took 3 races to change and tune on shore before returning to the action).

In the 15-20 knot breeze, the A Class boats had a clear advantage over the B Rigged IOM's. That said, all three IOM's also showed very impressive speed, but just lacked the sail area. Both classes of yachts were regularly planing downwind in some extremely enjoyable conditions.

Although saying that the "A's" had a clear advantage, both A's missed 3 races each with rig changes etc, which proved the difference. 

Ray Joyce had a really consistent day, with all counted races on the podium, a well deserved winner of the day on 11 points.
Also with a card full of podiums, Stuart Dawes took out second place, two behind Ray on 13 points.
In third, two further behind, was team Kyle & Phil on 15 points.

Seasons greetings from the Committee
On behalf of the committee, we would like to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. There have been a few challenges this last year, both at the club and with the health of members. We truly believe the club itself is in a much better position at the close of this season than it was at the start - acknowledging that we do believe we were in a pretty good position at the start of the year as well - we do feel we have moved forward in a positive way. Club finances are healthy, allowing us to further add to the club's assets and prepare our venues to better suit sailing for all.
We are excited about the upcoming Nationals in February - currently taking up a lot of committee and volunteer time to try to make sure it is at least equal to our last nationals in 2018. The new launch pontoon at Montrose is under construction and should be ready for use mid-January. Acknowledgement must go to Glenorchy City Council and Dan Hunter for their work in getting us to this stage - as well as the hard working members of the committee and general membership who have worked hard both on the project itself, but also behind the scenes with applicatios for funding via various government agencies.
After the nationals is completed, we aim to update our strategic plan, which has been instrumental in targetting our focus in the last 5 years. Without this plan, we may not have been so successful in improving our facilities. We have a new rescue boat at Montrose, new motor for the rescue boats, both at Montrose and at Risdon Dam. We have our Defib available at all sail days, and there is the significant upgrade happening at the competition area at Montrose. Positive steps for our future at both Montrose and Risdon Dam.

Coming up

A little bit of a break now, with christmas on Wednesday and no sailing next Sunday, so our next sail day will be on New Years Day, with DF95 Handicap at the dam from 11am.

The following Sunday, 5th January will be the resumption of sailing with IOM Scratch. We plan to have a season opening BBQ prior to this at 12, along with 2024 award presentations, and then proceeding with a 3hr sail session at the conclusion of the BBQ and presentations, so the day may go a little longer than the normal 4pm, depending on button press for the first race. Please put this into your calendars as it would be fantastic to see a well attended presentation and first Sunday sail day of the year.

Kyle