RM Summer Series Round 4

​First day back with the Summer Series today, and we turned up at Montrose Bay with the expectation of some heavy weather sailing. That expectation was met plus some.

At the start of the day, we joined our friends at Montrose Bay Yacht Club for their Seasn Opener and BBQ. Unfortunatley - but wisely, the dinghy's that were rigged up were soon put back away as the wind strength just kept building

That said, the advantage of the Marbleheads is the rig choices, and with that, we had five keen skippers suit up their C2 and C3 rigs in preparation for the first race.

Unfortunately, during the initial shakedown prior to the start of the first race, we lost Stu Dawes and John Hall to various on-board failures and only Ray Joyce, Kyle Stewart and John Cole-Cook got a start in the still increasing wind.

The first race went down to the wire, with Kyle beating John over the line - who were both in C2 rigs, while Ray came in 3rd on his C1 rig.

During the race, the wind had exceeded 40 knots, with sheets of spray lifting off regularly. We decided to give Ray the opportunity to change rigs (down to his B2) and reassess the wind when he was again ready.

Unfortunately, when he was ready, the wind hadn't abated, and we discussed whether to start race 2. We were fairly keen to race in the wind, but the decision came down to the safety of a rescue, should it be needed. Based on that, we decided that we would call the day as we did not see it as being safe enough to take the rescue dinghy out in the conditions, should it be required.

As such, the round was called off as a non counting round, with just the one race completed.

We then enjoyed some good company and converstaion in the MBYC bar with the dinghy sailors.

Thanks to John Short for volunteering his services as Pro today

Coming up

Wednesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap, button press at 11am. 

Next Sunday is IOM State Regatta. Just a reminder that it is at Montrose next week, with a button press at 1030. Please get your entry in (entry link on our website in Ranking Events) as soon as possible.

Kyle