Long Distance Handicap Round 7

What a wonderful day at MBYC today. Maybe a little cool to start with, but a nice B Rig breeze from the south in the morning, which only strengthened as the day wore on. The B Rigs were the order for the entire day.

The long distance course was set by Les, which had us traversing the entire length of our course, twice over. It gave great time and distance to have the various wind shifts to come in to play, and allow the skippers a bit more time to plan how they were to attack each leg. I am pretty sure we all had our share of both hero and zero moments out there - but that really added tot he enjoyment of the day.

Rod Jackman came out early for a look, and helped Justin out early, both with rig setup and some course instruction. Thanks for that Rod. This sort of assistance is really what our newer skippers need to develop their sailing craft and maximise their enjoyment on the day.

Justin must have taken everything in, winning the first race of the day - quite easily, and then topped it off with two more uninstructed wins as well, to finish the winner on the day (I believe his first Series Round win - congrats), with 16 points from the 9 races.

7 points behind, in second, was yours truly - one of the best days the V8 has had in my hands.

Third was John Cole-Cook, with his Topico, 3 points further behind, on 26 - having survived a countback for third with Andrew Wardrop just missing out.

Even the beer afterwards with a chat, back at the MBYC bar was nice, relaxing and enjoyable.

Thanks again to Les, for setting out a really great course for the day. I have no doubt that everyone really enjoyed the longer races.

This coming Wednesday is the usual IOM Handicap racing, starting at 10, and next Sunday is IOM Scratch Series Round 5, starting at 1pm.

The week following that, we have our IOM State Championship, on both Saturday and Sunday. If you are considering competing, the on-line entries are linked on our Ranking Events page. If you aren't competing but would like to help out on either or both days, let me know, so I can add your name to a volunteers list. We have a few northern competitors this time, and will be considering having a BBQ afterwards on Saturday if anyone is interested. Just let me know for catering purposes.