IOM Spring Race 01, 5th Mar 2024

For all you that stayed at home today because of the rain, you got it right! Though we were promised 20% rain, the Met Office lied, it rained all morning and we got soaked. The good news was that, although it was a northwesterly, the wind was remarkably steady until near the end which gave us good racing. I mentioned to Hugh about the morning being good until the last two races where the wind went a little squiffy, he didn’t understand my concern, he won them both..

The northwesterly gave us the opportunity to set a zigzag course with two beats per lap. This made the laps a little longer than normal and gave some confusion with one skipper trying it finish a lap early.

The day started badly for me, having rounded 4 going to 6, I looked to go as close to the bank as possible whilst waiting for a starboard shift to take me to 6. I over cooked it and got caught in the bushes. The end of my race. I was a little worried, I had to be very careful walking across the car park since the water level was very close to the top of my wellies. I was just about to return JT’s long stick, useful for detaching my boat, when JT himself got caught in another bush while writing up the results. I would have though with all his previous wins he would be well practiced at writing and steering simultaneously! As all good things come in threes, Graham got caught in the next race in the same place as me. After that everyone behaved and kept well clear of the bushes.

Racing was for the Jack Fry Trophy. It was close, like last week, with everyone getting good and bad results. This week it was John B who tipped the balance with four firsts to win the Trophy with John M second and John T third.