IOM Winter Race 09: 4th Feb 2020

car park flooded

Today started for me with a swim!! Mark 8 had drifted off yesterday, although it was retrieved by the AC Class, it was punctured so I swam out to resite a brand new shiny white mark for today’s racing. Just as well since we used it as the windward mark. Nigel and I tried relaying it yesterday using Nigel’s rubber dinghy, however mice had eaten a hole in the dinghy so we jacked. Nigel has two cats, I suspect he overfeeds them, they certainly aren’t interested in mice.
Back to today’s sailing. Firstly a warm welcome back to Martin Houlton, it is good to see Martin back at Setley. We had a strong northwesterly breeze today, B rigs were donned however course setting proved difficult in finding a start line that was fair and could be monitored. We ended up using 2 and 3 which is not a favourite as at can’t be readily seen from where we stand, particularly when sighting into a low bright sun. It did however give us the longest possible leg to get some boat separation  before the first mark, mark 6. Racing was close with John M just pipping Robin and John T who finished on equal points.
For those who haven’t been to Setley recently , I have included a photo of the main car park. Not many cars parked on it!!!