Mid Week IOM Handicap

A strong fleet of fifteen skippers turned up at the dam for our first IOM handicap event for the year and were greeted with a warm and gusty North Westerly of up to 15 knots. Everyone selected their A-rig for the morning and we got underway using a rotating PRO to officiate. Later in the morning Graeme Cooksey had to retire but took on the PRO role. Thanks for your great work today Graeme.
 
I broke a shroud in race 3, took race 4 off but rather than make repairs I chose to change to the B-rig. This was very effective and allowed me to win the next race by a fair margin. Maybe this in part helped convince most skippers to change down over the lunch break. In fact changing down may not have been best as the wind did moderate a bit in the afternoon. Rob Cooney was the only one to stay with the A-rig and he performed nicely in the afternoon session.
 
Overall it was a good day for the experienced hands with Jammy Jones earning overall honours .No race wins for Jammy but all of his results were right at the head of the fleet.
 
The unstoppable Matt Grey took out second place finishing the day with back-to-back race wins.
 
Third was taken by Ray Joyce with three race wins in his tally. Congratulations Jammy, Matt and Ray.
 
Coming up:
Saturday: Marblehead scratch racing at the dam (1:00 button)
 
Next Wednesday: IOM handicap at the dam (11:00 button) and on this day we will have visitors from Minister Nick Street’s Office who have assisted us with the grant for the new rescue boat. They wish to do a ‘photo shoot’ with the boat. It would be great if we have a good turn-out next week to show the excellent value that radio sailing gives their funding. Lets have a big week!
 
Shorty