IOM Stay ChatTY Regatta

Today we held the Speak Up! Stay ChatTY regatta. This event was designed to raise the awareness of mental health, to support the Stay ChatTY organisation, to build our club profile, and to offer an open invitation to guests from other clubs.

The weather looked dubious all week with an 80% chance of 1 – 5 mm of rain forecast, but I think that it must have fallen overnight as by start time we had a cool but dry day. The wind was a gusty 15 knots from the South East and sudden shifts of up to 30 degrees made sailing really challenging. 

There were plenty of helpers today. Thanks go to Mat Gray, John Hall and Chris Wood who helped out with official race duties. Tristan Price and his wife Renee (Ricky’s son and daughter-in-law) also attended. Tristan took lots of photos of the event (published soon) and Renee took on the role of tong-master at the barbeque. A huge thanks to you both! 

Alex Fitzgerald from Speak Up! Stay ChatTY talked to us over lunch. He outlined the history and purpose of his organisation, spoke about the importance of sport and sport clubs in helping address mental health issues, and of how we can support our mates in the club. Alex was pretty blown away by the whole radio sailing thing and thought that what we were doing was excellent both as a sport and from the mental health aspect. Entry donations were collected and in all we raised $320 which will go directly to Speak Up! Stay ChatTY. Thanks to all those who donated.  

All boats started on scratch for the first race today and handicap penalties of 15 sec, 10 sec and 5 sec were applied for 1st , 2nd and 3rd respectively. I was expecting that the boats which usually have longer handicaps would be left well behind but was surprised on how close and competitive the racing was. Only 11 points separated the first 8 skippers and each of these had race wins.

Worthy of special mention today are Ian Hey and Ricky Price both of whom had two race wins.  

Third overall went to Phil Jackman. Trout was only 1 point away from both winning outright and winning the woodies division.

Second and first place were tied on points and separated by count-back. Ray Joyce took out the day from Commadore Rod Marshall. Rod’s day was particularly impressive remembering that everyone started the day on the same handicap.

We awarded prizes for first overall, first woodie and first classic. Rod Marshall was the first in the hotly contested woodie division. Rob Cooney took out the classic division with a nice 2nd place in the mix.

I really think that congratulations are to all that participated so well today. All up it was a great day out.

Next week we will be trialing a brief lunchtime rules presentation as new feature on Wednesdays. Wayne Behrens will present one rule each week. I am looking forward to this and have got a few tricky questions for him!


COMING UP:
Sunday: Marblehead scratch racing at Montrose (1:00 button press)

Next Wednesday: DF95’s handicap racing at the dam. (11:00 button press)


Shorty