IOM Autumn Race 05, 05th Oct 2021

What conditions we had at Setley yesterday, with the forecast rising to a westerly 25 knots during the morning our first consideration on arriving at Setley was “what rig should we use?”.
Hugh rigged his “A rig” and was first on the water as usual and showed that although there may be 25 knots somewhere up in the ether, which would affect JB and his planes, on the water the wind was best described as random!!
We set a course and on average we had beats, reaches and runs on all legs. The strength at water level varied from flat calm to nose diving conditions. I found the calms didn’t last long, just long enough to let the lucky boats sail away from mine!
It was so fluky it was almost enjoyable. Most boats had very varied results, apart from one lucky boat which found a breeze wherever it sailed – and it wasn’t John B whose best position was a 3rd. I can do better than that, my best was a 4th!
Congrats to John T for sussing the conditions and sailing consistently to win the Shaw Trophy, also to Hugh, Martin and Gordon who also won races.