Tasmanian IOM Travellers Challenge

​An overcast and mild day today at the Brook, with hardly any evidence of breeze when I first turned up.
 
Just the 7 sailors turned up today – we had 9 enter, but two needed to pull out with other commitments.
 
Very difficult for our Pro, Stuart Dawes to set courses today. The first few races being similar to that of a traditional DF course. Race 3 still had us closing in on 30 minutes to completion and full 5 minutes afterwards to score boats on water.
 
We pushed through to lunch time with what little we had on the water – often there was some real promise in patches, then dropping to near nothing. The importance of the boat being able to move regardless of direction it was heading became very important. 4 Races were completed at this stage, so we still needed one more to make an official event result.
 
There was a little promise after lunch and we moved course down the dam somewhat, with a start at 7/8, sailing to 9, back to 7/8, up to 9 and then to finish between 3/4 which worked pretty well.
 
Unfortunately, after race 6 the wind died right off, with the small bit of promise soon disappearing again. We waited for about an hour for something to come that was somewhat consistent and made the call at that stage to call the day off.
 
For those that left as the wind did return, I did hang around for a while chatting with a few other competitors and can confirm that the nice little breeze that came in over the wall soon disappeared to nothing as well.
 
Today, Ray had his light winds tactics going beautifully – the 10+ year old BG Sails showing no issue at all. Three wins, a second and a third enough to win the day with 8 points. Very well sailed.
 
Just one point away was Gary McCarthy, with the other three wins and closing out with a pair of 3’s as well to take second on 9 points.
 
Rounding out the top three was Ricky Price on 15 points, also sailing quick – with the V12 exceptionally fast in the conditions. Just not quite as good on the day as Ray and Gary.
 
In Silver Fleet, we had just the two sailors with the two that couldn’t sail going to be Silver as well. Rod took the honours on 6 points to Simon on 8.
 
Big thanks to Stu today for taking on the PRO role. Although we did make it easy for him (as we should) with him not needing to make a call on anyone throughout the day, the weather did make it quite a challenge for him to set a fair and time appropriate course – and he created some different but very effective courses.
 
Today’s sailing has effectively closed our Sunday Winter programme and the Dam, and after the DF95 State Champs, we will be starting the summer programme at Montrose. I’ll give a further heads up closer to the first Summer Scratch day, but the committee have decided to adjust our Summer racing times to 2pm starts for  the IOM/RM/A Classes with a similar earlier start for the DF’s to allow for both DF65 and DF95 on the same day.
 
Coming Up
Wednesday is IOM Mid Week Handicap at the Dam. Button press at the usual 1030
Next weekend is DF95 State Championship up the NW at Brookfield Dam. If you have yet to enter, please get them in as soon as possible so the NW team can have everything set and prepared for a successful weekend.
 
Kyle