IOM Autumn Race 05, 03 Oct 2023 – Shaw TrophyOctober 3, 2023
What a day today, beautiful sunshine and a stiff breeze rustling the leaves of the trees behind us while standing on the bank. While it sounds idyllic, it wasn’t – we had a westerly! I realised we may have issues when I was contemplating setting 1 as a windward mark whale Robin was suggesting 6!. The wind was evil, of varying strengths of nothing to a bit more than nothing, it shifted in all directions, often just swirling round in circles. At times I knew there was wind as my sails were flapping, but they just would not set whichever direction the boat was pointing. At one point my boat got a gust from up high, it broached then got entangled with an adjacent boat. I think that was the only bit of wind I had all day. I would have happily lost the race results on the way home!
To be fair, everyone found the conditions challenging, and the racing was quite close. Apart from Robin who seemed to have a hotline to the clouds, winning the day with ease, the next places were relatively close with John B just beating Hugh to second place. [...]
IOM Summer Race 07 : 18 July 2023July 18, 2023Fabulous racing at the pond today. We had partial sunshine, no rain and a southerly breeze that came and went and shifted at will.
The racing was very competitive with plenty of place changing as the breeze and shifts filled in in different places on the pond on each lap. There were four different race winners, and the final points were very tight.
Congratulations to John B for just winning out ahead of John M and John T. Again it was a case of consistent results winning the day. [...]
IOM Photos by David King @FocalsensePhotographyJuly 13, 2023
….or click on a thumnbail to enlarge the photos… [...]
IOM Summer Race 06 : 11 July 2023July 11, 2023
An action replay from last week. Lots of wind, over some of the pond, but not too much for the A rig though there was a bit of broaching and nose diving. Lots of flat spots in varying places and many windshifts. Most importantly “No Rain”.
Congrats to Nigel who successfully managed to maneuver his way around the dead spots to gain 4 race wins ahead of John M and Hugh in 2nd and 3rd places.
Very pleased to see David King arive with his camera. Hopefully he has managed to record a few thrills and spills, though when I have tried to do it the action is never where I am pointing the camera! [...]
IOM Summer Race 05 : 04 July 2023July 4, 2023Great day for sailing today. A fresh southerly breeze, top of the range for the A rigs giving a few broaches and nose dives. It was however a “little” shifty giving the opportunity for place changing, sometimes I reckon gusts came in swirling in all directions which made progress quite difficult.
John M started well with two wins, however after this John T got his eye in winning 6 of the following 8 races to win the day. He generously gave the remaining two wins to Hugh.
The conditions saw Phil dropping out with steering issues and John M breaking a main sheet. Certainly I feel there is no excuse for poor boat maintenance and I encourage others to check their sail control strings. Stopping early gave me the opportunity to take a few photos of the leeward mark which included John T fighting with a swirling gust!
Hope to see you next week, with luck with a similar breeze without the wind shifts. [...]
IOM Summer Race 04 : 27 June 2023June 27, 2023
Lovely morning at the pond this morning, the weather was warm, the sun not too bright and no rain. All we needed was a steady breeze and it would have been perfect! The breeze we had generally came from the southwest and enabled us to complete 11 races, however there were many calm spots that depending on how they affected you could either take you to the front of the fleet or conversely lose you loads.
Racing was close with John T getting the better of the conditions gaining 5 firsts, Nigel and Martin had two wins each with John M and Hugh winning just one. Congrats to John T for winning the day, however despite all his wins he only won by one point over John M who had a much more consistent day. [...]
