IOM racing at Fleetwood Model Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 10 Mar 2020 13:17 GMT
7 March 2020
IOM racing at Fleetwood - March 2020 © Tony Wilson
With winds coming from the South West, not the best. Anything with a bit of South in it is not too good, but up at around 18 - 20 MPH so should be doable.
Derek was pleasantly surprised for 9 Skippers to turn out for this Saturday's sailing event, but wondering why he had bothered to bring his boat with only and set up ready with 'B' rig when others were practising and warming up in 'A' suit and the wind was barely 8 MPH.
10:00 am meet up gave plenty of time for the stragglers to turn up and again it was by about 11:00 for the first race to begin on cue with Derek's forecast favourite rig as the wind picked up. Now the rest of the pack were bewildered to whether they had the right rig. One or two of the late arrivals had also gone straight for middle rig.
With the wind at 45 degrees to the lake, so was the start line and it was beat up to the second mark from the top on the left side. Taken to starboard and run across and back to the opposite side. Following the far bank to the pump house mark and beat up to a finish mark pretty central up the lake.
With a few Britpops, a couple of modern, a few not so modern and various others, we had a bit of a selection but the skill was going to be in reading what the lake had to throw at us. It was dry and the challenging bit was as you got up to about halfway and the bit leading up to the top mark.
Gary had the first couple of races in the bag, but on race three there was some confusion with his boat as brother Mike was still sailing another after they had already swapped. Guys were reminding him to take the boat with him as it was skipperless. Derek won race three and Gary won race four.
Coffee break was called and if anyone wanted to change down this would also be a good time.
A few took advantage of this, but Tony seemed to be struggling with the smaller rig and missing fittings. Four more races led us up to lunch time were Derek disappeared for the afternoon and left us to it.
Others took it in turn at winning the odd race and it was John Sharman now that seemed to be one of the forerunners along with Chris Chatfield. Chris downsized on race 11 as he was still running big up till then.
The wind had certainly picked up and a few more went for a rig change the race after. With only five boats on the lake for race 11, John Taylor had turned up and was having a go with Tony's old boat. His race although doing well concluded on the last homeward beat when it decided to give up the ghost and drift into the side. That was the end of Tony's racing day as not only did the radio pack up, but a shroud came loose on dragging it out and the whole shebang fell apart. Ian on looking said " Oh' look now your fin has also dropped off". (He was just joking).
Not such a bad day and a half descent turnout as still a good handful couldn't make it. We had amassed 16 races giving us 3 discards. Right up to the end and after, guys were still requesting just one more race?
We do have at least one club IOM and with early notice, you to can join us. Don't feel to overwhelmed as the Dragon Flight boats were a good introduction for you for this class.
Rumour has it that there might just be an Open event in a couple of weeks, stay tuned.
Results:
1 Gary Benson 27 pts
2 John Sharman 30 pts
3 Chris Chatfield 47 pts