IOM Mid Week Handicap

It was cool and cloudy today at Risdon Brook Dam with a nice Southerly of around 5 knots blowing. The wind direction meant that the surface was particularly smooth and so conditions were set for some quite fast sailing. There were some holes and light spots and significant lifts and knocks and so definitely the passing lanes were open if you kept ahead of the game. 

Before racing today we had a voluntary ‘weigh-in’. It is important that all boats comply to the minimum total weight of 4kg. All boats were found complying today. Later in the season we will have another ‘surprise’ and compulsory weight in. If you did not sail today but would like to check that your boat weighs correctly please contact me or either of the two official measurers Ian Hey or Rod Marshall.

It was good to see Charlie Mansfield again. Charlie was racing less Chienz (#48). I reckon that Les would have had a bit of a smile to see it back on the water today and especially as Charlie sailed it to two race wins.

Andrew Wardrop launched his new yacht - a plastic printed IOM! It was designed in South Africa and called a Proteus. Andrew showed some great boat speed today and it will be extremely interesting to see how this boat goes. Is this the future of IOM sailing?

The rotating PRO system was used with each PRO getting their average points for the race that they missed.

The easy sailing conditions led to good seamanship even on crowded buoy roundings. The conditions also allowed all the boats to complete the full complement of races - apart from the first race all boats finished every race.

The racing was fairly close today with the back-markers often making up good ground as following gusts on the long down-wind leg from buoy 2 to buoy 7 swept them towards the front-markers.

All up however it was the mid-fleeters who performed well today. I took 3rd place with a fairly consistent scorecard. Rod Marshall has opened the handicap season well by coming second today to follow last week’s DF95 event win. Ian Hey took out the day with a race win, two 2nd places and a third. He was a solid 4 pts in front. Congratulations Rod and Bodge.
 
Coming up:
Sunday: 1:00 - 5:00  DF65 and DF95 scratch racing at Montrose. The afternoon haas been extended so that we can hold races for the two classes. The plan is to alternate between 2 races for DF65’s then 2 races for DF95’s. It should be fun so bring both boats if you have them.​

Next Wednesday: 10:30 - 2:00 more IOM handicap racing at Risdon Brook Dam.
 
Shorty