IOM Mid Week Handicap

A gusty Northerly of  more than 15  knots made B-rigs the go-to choice of all skippers racing in today’s IOM handicap at the dam. The wind held strength throughout the day but backed towards the west as the day wore on. 

It was great to see a couple of missing skippers back today, Chris Wood back after a bit of a break and Jammy Jones returned after spending the winter on the Sunshine Coast where he competed in local competitions racing DF95s and DF65s. 

Jammy had his new lime green V12 out today and Lisa Blackwood also launched her new deep blue V12. Both very much tuning runs today although Lisa chipped in for a win in race #6. 

Today was a bit of a day for equipment failure for many. I was out for the morning with electrics issues, (thanks Rod Marshall for fixing me up during the lunch break), Peter Turner also had electrical issues, Chris Wood missed a couple of races with a broken forestay and Bodge was also out for one race with rigging problems.

Andrew Wardrop took out third place overall today with a lot of ‘useful’ third places in the mix. Chris Wood was second – welcome back Chris! And today’s winner was Buzzy Behrens who won by a clear points margin. He started the day with handicap 40 but finished on the maximum handicap of 90. Congratulations Andrew, Chris and Buzzy.

Just a note on how the weekly starting handicaps are generated: The top third of the fleet have their starting time increased while the bottom third have their starting time reduced. Now with 12 starters you would expect the top 4 and bottom 4 to be the ones affected by handicap change. But skippers who don’t finish enough races do not qualify for a handicap review. (With 10 races sailed you must finish 7 in order to qualify for a handicap review.) Today Lisa, Pete and myself all did not finish enough races in order to qualify for a handicap review. This meant that there were in fact only 9 skippers who could qualify for handicap review. So the top third of the fleet consisted of the top 3 skippers and the bottom third consisted of the 3 lowest placed skippers once Lisa, Pete and myself were removed.

Yes it is kind of complicated but it regularly produces weekly starting handicaps that seem fair and fortunately it is all coded into the computer which gets them right every time. 

Coming up:

Sunday: IOM scratch racing at Montrose. Button-press at the summer time starting time of 1:00. Also remember that daylight savings starts on Saturday night!

Our friends at Montrose Bay Yacht Club are having their opening day as well on Sunday. From about 11:30 they will be having a BBQ on site as well as a short opening ceremony for the start of their sailing calendar. It is a great opportunity to catch up with them in support of their opening prior to our scratch day commencing.
Next Wednesday: DF95 handicap racing at the dam. Button-press at 11:00

And Sunday Week (8th Oct): The Southern Tasmania IOM Championships. We are hoping to hold these at Montrose. 10:15 briefing for a 10:30 start. We are hoping for a big list of starters. You can enter on-line (through our site).

​John S