Tasmanian IOM State Regatta

A rather difficult day on the water today. About the only wind directin we didn't have was an Easterly influence, but the rest of the compass was covered.

Sailing at Montrose today, there was a lot of water outflow from the dams, creating a significant current against a light and fickle early breeze.

Our Pro for the day, Stu Dawes got us under way efficiently, and we had 5 races in the bag by a slightly early call for lunch due to a build up of wind and skippers needing to change rigs at that same time. By this stage, Rod Jackman, Gary and Kyle had built a gap to the rest of the sailors with one point separating the top three. Similarly, in Silver fleet, Rod Marshall had also jumped to a 4 point lead.

With lunch done and everyone now on B Rig - except for the late arriving Andrew Wardrop, who came with his A (only late with some boat issues that needed fixing in the morning) - we got under way again. The breeze had died off, much to Andrews delight, stringing four wins in a row before skippers decided to change to A rig as well.

Unfortunately, the weather closed in on us and Roddy thought better of it given his recent illness and retired to the car for some warmth and dry conditions. We also lost Gary and Bodge for the last few races, but we continued on till just before 3.30, when the threatening rain started on us.

Twelve races completed by the end of the day. Overall, quite fickle wind, which caused a lot of lead changes during the races with some being a little more fortunate than others at various times with little spurts of wind carrying some boats quite nicely, and others being left behind.

I'd love to say that skill won the day, but in all honestly, there was quite an element of being in the right place at the right time when bits of wind came about - and a lot of that was with a bit of good fortune and not so much skill.

That said, I was fortunate enough to come away with the win with the new (second hand) Venti today, winning on 26 points.
Second today was Ray, 9 points behind, on 35, with Gary in third on 36.

Winner of Silver Fleet today was Rod Marshall, on 37 points.

A bit of a challenge today, but well done to all the skippers for persisting in the inclement weather. At least we weren't blown off the water like we would have been if we sailed in the week prior.

Big thanks to Stu for taking the time today to be Pro for us.

Upcoming Events

• Wed 17th September – IOM Handicap at Risdon Brook (11am start)
• Sun 19th October - A Class Scratch at Montrose - Please contact me if you intend on sailing. We have a few sailors unable to make it at the moment. We will make a call on Wednesday based on interested sailors as to whether we cancel A Class sailing and replace it with another IOM Scratch day. No use having a sail day for 4 or 5 sailors and have the rest of the membership not sailing.

On another topic, we have an amount of For Sale's on our website, with some really well proced boats currently for sale. Please have a look at https://www.risdonbrookradioyachtclub.com/for-sale.html  if you are interested in another yacht.

Kyle