IOM Mid Winter Challenge

​A light N-NW of just 4 knots max today at the dam for the IOM Mid Winter Challenge.

16 sailors turned up for a very well contested day, with close racing throughout in amongst the different groups that formed across the races. Great to see that we had three entries from outside the club, with Montrose Bay Yacht Club and North West Radio Yacht Club members competing today. Thanks for supporting us again. It's really appreciated, and we hope you enjoyed the sailing - albeit in very light conditions.

Unfortunately for us, not long after lunch, the wind decided to go somewhere else, and we finished an hour early. A few of us stayed behind to have a chat, and by the scheduled 3.30pm finish time, the wind had yet to reappear, so even though it was a bit sad finishing early, it was certainly the right decision.

Just 7 races completed for the day with some very close scoring. Just one point separated 1sta nd 2nd, and same 1 point separating 3rd and 4th. Even further down the list, 3 points separating 9th to 12th.

The winner of the IOM Mid Winter Challenge was Michael Hickman, on 12 points.
Ray Joyce took second (very happy back in his Britpop!) one behind on 13.
Mathew Gray rounded out the top 3 on 20 points, one clear of Lisa Blackwood, on 21.

We decided to run a handicap at this event as well. With so many entries, I did run a bit of a critical eye over it and felt that there could have been 6 sailors in the hunt for the top 3 positions, and having had a chat with another sailor last week who entered after seeing that there were others around his ability entered, decided to compete as well. I felt the handicap gave these sailors somehting to aim for in regards to their sailing performance on the day.
This handicap system was simple - I looked up the ARYA rankings and seeded sailors based on that, with the one exception who did not have a ranking, so I looked at our own club rankings and seeded him alongside the sailors he was next to in our rankings. The winner of handicap was the one who had the best net result based ont he difference between their seeding position and final position.

That said, the handicap winner today was John Short, who finished on a net score of 5.
Unfortunately, with my laptop having a fit shoreside today and having to manually calculate everythng, I made a mistake on the rest of the handicap scoring, and we have a slight difference in reality.
Equal second place on Handicap, was a 4 way tie between Iam Dickinson, Peter Sylvester, Ray Joyce and Kyle Stewart - all on a net score of 3. I'll get some more certificates made up and get them out to you all. My apologies on that.

Big thanks to Jeff Byerley for taking on the PRO duties and to our volunteers for making Jeff's job much easier.  Your work is really appreciated.

Coming Up

Wednesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap, at the dam with button press at 11am

Next Sunday is the RM State Regatta, held at Risdon Brook. If you are considering sailing, please get your entry in as soon as possible as official entries close tonight, and late entries on Friday.

Kyle