IOM Summer Scratch Round 3

A North-Easterly of about 15 knots set the scene for todays IOM Scratch round with ten skippers contesting. B rigs were the universal choice and held throughout the day with the wind perhaps strengthening a knot or two as the afternoon proceeded. 
 
The wind direction meant resetting buoy 5 further out to get a better upwind leg - in fact we needed to reset the buoy twice before the wind direction settled. This did mean that the bigger distance to the buoy meant that it was difficult to judge the lay line approach and quite a few skippers wrong sided the mark throughout the day.
 
A rotating PRO was used for most of the day but when John Hall retired due to gear failure he took on the job. Thanks to all who participated.
 
The wind did build some good waves which increased through the afternoon and good surfing technique was a valuable skill as if you caught a good big wave you could be propelled ten or twelve meters ahead of a opposition skipper who missed it.
 
While there was a small amount of weed on the course the real hazard came from a rope that was floating near the start mark. We think that this may have been from an older start mark that broke free some time ago leaving its block and tackle behind and it caused a problem today because with such a low tide it was floating near the surface. It did give some grief to many of the skippers today particularly as it was positioned just in the place that you wanted to be 3 seconds before the start. If you got caught in its snare a good start was turned into a shocking start.
 
Overall it was Gary McCarthy’s day. He showed his class by maintaining consistency throughout the day. Congratulations Gary!  I had a better day and managed second overall and was pleased to have a race win in the mix and also managed to complete a near blitz in the Silver Division. Ray Joyce completed the podium after finishing the day strongly.
 
Simon Delaney took second place in the Silver Division finishing all races on a testing day and Andrew Wardrop was third. Andrew had a couple of really strong races in the Proteus.
 
I think that everyone agreed that todays conditions were great.
 
Shorty