IOM Mid Week Handicap

Another glorious sailing day brought 17 IOM skippers to Risdon Brook Dam for today’s handicap racing. About 5 knots of North-Westerly persisted throughout the day though there were some sizeable wind shifts and some calm holes as well. 
John Hall again took up the PRO role. Thanks, John for your excellent work today. We do hope that you get your own boat back together and racing again soon.
Unfortunately a couple of skippers were forced to finish their day early due to gear failure. Rob Cooney (rigging issues) and Bodge (rudder servo) both only completed a couple of races but they did stay on to watch the good racing on show today.
Predicting the shifts was the name of the game. Many skippers went well west today waiting for a shift to bring them back – and sometimes it worked – but not always. Ray Joyce seemed to choose staying close to the Eastern bank when working upwind and was the best performer of the back-markers today.
Overall Rod Marshal finished in third place. He was using the Blitz today. This result follows a second overall last week. 
Second place went to John Penman. John has leased the club boat and it was his first day racing an IOM. And with two second places and two race wins in the mix it’s not a bad way to start.
But Alan Short trumped everyone - just one point ahead of John and two ahead of Rod and two race wins in his mix as well.  Al has been racing for just six months now and this was his first event win. Congratulations Rod, John and Alan.
Coming up:
Sunday: IOM Scratch racing at Montrose (1:00 button press.)
Next Wednesday: DF95 handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam (11:00 button press.)
Shorty