IOM Mid Week Handicap

Today was a beautiful sunny day at Montrose. The first race was held in a North Easterly of around 8 knots but this breeze gradually died throughout the day. The wind was a bare zephyr for the final races of the day. PRO John Banks worked us late into the afternoon in order for us to get through ten races.

An interesting feature of today’s results is that Chris Wood won the event without a race win. Similarly Mat Gray took second place without a win but the third place getter Ricky Price had four race wins. These results demonstrate well how important it is to maintain consistency in this type of event.

Congratulations to all podium winners today.

Special mention should also be made of Peter Turner’s racing today. While Peter had radio trouble that kept him from sailing in the afternoon his morning’s efforts – two firsts and two seconds - were particularly impressive.

The last couple of weeks we have deviated from a strict formal handicap system in order to experiment with a few ideas. I feel that this has been to the detriment of Wednesday’s racing. Next week we will be sailing DF 95’s under the old handicap system and after that reinstate formality and rigour to the IOM handicap.

There has been no news on the reopening of Risdon Brook Dam but we will keep skippers informed when this happens.

John S