Marblehead Scratch Round 1

​A beaufitful day for a sail today. Just a shame only four could make it. A nice 10-12 knot Nor Wester all day. no sea breeze today. Enough shifts to make it interesting and we all fell on both sides of lady luck throughout the day.

A funny little one was approaching the windward mark on the first lap on one of hte races, and three of us had made mistakes and done our required penalty turns. John Hall wouldn't play the game though, sailing through without causing issue and not doing any penalties - just thought it was unfair that he didn't need to do one....

Anyway, not a real lot to say for the day. Wonderful sailing, although with just the four sailors. Personal lesson today was to make sure th epot lid is secured properly, otherwise water gets in and receivers do not like salt water.......... Quick enough fix, but killed two races because of it.

Ray's consistency stood out today, with a well deserved round win on 18 points.

I came in second, two behind on 20 points.

Stu took third, a further 6 behind on 26 points.

Big thanks to Bodge for running the day so efficiently today. Thankyou also to Grant Wise, who came along again today to take some photos of the action.

The RM Series Competition this year has been reduced form last year to a series of 6 rounds only (Summer and Winter series in the past due to good turnouts). With the reduced enthusiasm with the class, the series may well fall over unless we somehow get some interest back. For such a wonderful class of yacht, it will be very sad if this does indeed happen. We do have three club RM's and happy for any member to sail them, but the offer has yet to be taken up. After round 2, there may be a reconsidering of the viability of running the series. With a 40+ membership in the club, it is hard to justify dedicating a day for a class with just 4 yachts turning up.

Coming up

Wednesday sees IOM Handicap at the Dam, starting at 1030.

Next Sunday will be a bit different, following the committee meeting today.

With the increase in popularity of the DF65 class in the south of the state, we have resolved to run a DF sail day instead of DF95 only day next Sunday.

As such, the sail time will be a little longer. We will be starting at the same 1pm, but sailing to 5pm, hoping to take advantage of an afternoon sea breeze. The format of the day is scratch racing throughout, with races being held in the same fashion that worked so well at the combined IOM Classics and Woodie day in Trevallyn last year. That is we will sail 2 races with DF95's, then swap out to two races of DF65.

Again, next Sunday will be form 1pm to 5pm
We will be sailing both DF65 and DF95 two races at a time, then swapping out to the other class.

After the end of the sail day, the committee are keen to hear feedback on the day and are open to any suggestions as we do believe that the sail days will become a DF day intot he future (both classes) and need to find that right balance for sailing for as many members as possible. 

Kyle