IOM Winter Scratch Round 5

​A cool morning today with a light northerly blowing straight down the dam.

Ten sailors came along today, including new old member  Charlie Mansfield. Welcome back to the club after a fairly long stint away from the club. Having purchased Les' Cheinz a week ago, I am sure Les would have loved seeing the boat back on the water.

We started nicely on time and used the rotating PRO system again today, which worked really well - heavily influenced by the fantastic on-water conduct of all skippers. Really everyone, it was marvellous to hear "what a pleasant day's sailing" by one of our skippers as we came off the water at the conclusion of sailing. That said, we weren't incident free obviously, but it was worked through with discussion and without any carry on. Again, the example we want to be while we are racing.

For much of the nine races today, the story was similar at the head of the field. Close and tight racing amongst Risky, Rod and Lisa, but with many of the rest of the field getting in there at times as well. The consistency of these three was fantastic to see. The majority of wins shared amongst them today.

The light conditions were quite tricky, tactics played a very big role in the results. The boats all so close in speed, but those 1 percenters in positioning the boats in the right spot certainly made a big difference.

At the end of the 9 races, Lisa Blackwood came out the winner today, with 12.5pts. Well doneon a great day's sailing Lisa.

Second place, keeping Lisa right on her toes was Rod Jackman, just 0.9 of a point behind on 13.4pts. Great also to see just reward for a great day's sailing.

Rounding up the top three was Ricky Price, again, less than a point behind on 13.8pts. Just hsows how close it was with 1.3pts between the top three.

In Silver Fleet, John Hall came out winner today, on 7.3pts, followed up by Rod Marshall in second on 10.6pts and Charlie Mansfield taking third on 19pts.

Fantastic work evreybody today. Some of the results may not have indicated it, but the racing was very close today, and our standard continues to improve.

Coming up

Wednesday sees DF95 Handicap at the Dam, starting at 11am.

Next Sunday is DF95 Scratch Round 5 at the Dam, button press at 10am.

Kyle