IOM Super Wednesday

The forecast was for good sailing conditions and a maximum of 25 degrees but it didn’t look that way last night with heavy rain falling and even this morning at start time it was jackets and jumpers on and the expected maximum looked like wishful thinking on behalf of the BOM. Never-the-less the steady North-Wester of about 5 knots made for good racing conditions and a fleet of 14 skippers turned out for todays event. 
Phil Jackman was suffering back issues and took on PRO duties for the day. Thanks to his efficiency we were able to complete a seven race handicap series in the morning. 
Peter Turner won this event with two race wins, a second and a third on his score card. Gary McCarthy finished second - consistent as always - and John Hall took third place finishing the morning strongly with a 2nd place and a win in the last two races. Congratulations John, Gary and Peter.
Timing the day nicely, just as Phil called for lunch the wind died to nothing but then it returned from the South-West at 3 or 4 knots for the afternoon session.
Being the last Wednesday of the month it was a Super Wednesday for IOM sailing meaning a slightly longer day and the opportunity to try something a bit different in the afternoon. Today we organised a teams racing event. The fleet was divided into three teams:
Ray’s Ratpack - Ray Joyce, Peter Sylvester, John Penman and John Short.
Bodge’s Brave-hearts - Ian Hey, Andrew Wardrop, Jammy Jones and John Hall.
Gary’s Giants - Gary McCarthy, Buzzy Behrens, Alan Short and David Woolley.
We then sailed what was basically a scratch series. The first three boats home from each team had their positions counted and the team with the lowest points was said to have won that race. 
Unfortunately Gary had transmitter issues and could not even make the first race, and Buzzy also succumbed to electrical issues before the day’s end leaving the Giants down on personnel. The format did make for some interesting sailing and good camaraderie though. In one race Andrew was engaging Bodge in a luffing duel until Bodge convinced him that they were on the same team! 
Bodge’s Brave-hearts came out on top after the five race series. Having won three of the races they finished a point ahead of Ray’s team. I did (somewhat selfishly) try to see if I could swing the result by seeing what would happen if we allowed a team discard race, or if the result would be different if it was decided on total points accumulated, but no matter what I tried it was Bodge’s team who came out on top. Congratulations Ian, Andrew, Jammy and John. Not at all despondent about his team’s performance Sheep was bragging how his team still claimed a podium finish!
I have already had some positive feedback on the event and some suggestions of how we could improve it if we run another later in the year.
While the afternoon was primarily a teams race we were all starting off the same line and so we did keep the raw data so we could have a scratch series result as well. Ray Joyce won the series a good 6 points ahead of Jammy who took second place in a count back tied with Bodge.
Our next Super Wednesday event to be held at the end of April will be long distance sailing.
Gary McCarthy leaves on Friday to compete in the South Australian State IOM Championships. We hope that you do well Gary and have a good time too! 

Gary also has a few boats that have come up for sale. His IOM Classic TS-2 is now for sale and  a good friend of his is selling a pretty new V12 boat. Both are on the RBRYC For Sale page for anyone interested. Contact Gary for more deatil on either boat.
Coming up:
Sunday: IOM Scratch Racing at Risdon Brook Dam. NOTE WINTER START TIME - 10:00 button press
Next Wednesday: DF95 Handicap Racing at Risdon Brook Dam - 10:30 button press.


Shorty