MYA IOM Northern District Championship 2025 at Weecher Radio Sailing Club

by John Tushingham 21 Aug 18:20 BST 17 August 2025

23 entries for the revived IOM Northern District Championship held at Weecher Reservoir on Sunday 17th August was a decent turnout and we look forward to building the numbers as this event becomes a major fixture in the racing calendar.

The 8 - 10mph NE breeze was exactly as forecast, a slightly tricky direction for the race officer John Tushingham and his team to set a perfect windward/leeward course but plenty of wind shifts in the warm conditions kept everyone on their toes, especially on the approach to the windward mark on every lap with very tight finishes being fought over throughout the day.

Apart from a technical issue in race three, Martin Roberts got his day off to a flying start winning four of the eight races before lunch to take an early lead from Graham Elliott. Others to show strongly at the front of the fleet were Peter Baldwin with two wins and Derek Priestley taking the top step in race three. Mick Chamberlain, Olly Murray and Roger Crates were sailing constantly at the sharp end but often just missing out on the finish line.

With eight races completed the fleet enjoyed a relaxed lunch break with a superb ploughman's lunch served up by Liz & Helen. The wind remained steady (ish) but the sun seemed a bit shy of breaking through the hazy grey clouds. It eventually made an appearance towards the end of the afternoon - it's always more satisfying to pack up and chat over the days racing when it's not tipping it down!

The afternoon racing carried on the very well mannered way it had been all morning, it was a pleasure to behold and a great example to the clubs newcomers who had come along to see how the professionals do it - thank you everyone. Graham Elliott came out fighting and a string of great results saw him take over the top slot from Martin despite falling fowl of the black flag in the final race.

Martin needing a win in that race to get back in front but suffered one of his worst results of the day. Olly Murray and Derek seemed to be having a bit of inter-club sparring going on all afternoon, despite Olly chalking up two wins to Derek's single victory and very much to Derek's obvious delight, Olly had to cede third place overall to Derek by a single point.

Looking through the overall results I have to give a big thumbs up to Keighley club member Stuart Lockwood whose 11th place well exceeded his own pre event forecast. Just proves that the top of the results sheet are not the only winners!

A big thank you to all the club members who helped prepare and run things on the day despite the slightly depleted water level. We all love the sun but can we just have a bit of rain soon - please.

Overall Results:

Pos	Design	Sail No	Helm	Club	R 1	R 2	R 3	R 4	R 5	R 6	R 7	R 8	R 9	R 10	R 11	R 12	R 13	R 14	R 15	R 16	Pts
1	Britpop	9	Graham Elliott	Birkenhead	3	4	4	4	2	2	1	2	1	2	6	1	4	1	2	22	29
2	Britpop	22	Martin Roberts	Birkenhead	4	1	22	1	1	1	5	4	2	1	4	5	1	9	3	10	33
3	SV	67	Derek Priestly	Fleetwood	6	20	1	8	3	3	3	5	3	9	7	3	3	3	1	6	47
4		183	Olly Murray	Fleetwood	2	5	10	2	5	4	8	10	6	8	1	4	2	4	4	1	48
5	.venti	30	Roger Crates	Bridlington	9	3	3	10	4	22	4	6	19	5	2	2	5	5	6	2	56
6	Britpop	63	Peter Baldwin	Bikenhead	1	6	12	15	7	7	9	1	5	6	8	11	15	2	8	3	74
7	Britpop	35	Paul Plested	Birkenhead	7	7	6	3	6	6	2	3	7	7	9	7	14	18	9	4	74
8	Venti	46	Mick Chamberlain	Lincoln	5	2	2	9	13	14	6	13	9	3	3	20	20	11	5	8	89
9	Alioth	71	Simon Fairman	Manor Park	13	8	5	7	9	5	11	14	4	4	5	9	11	14	11	7	96
10	Britpop	91	Martyn Aspinall	Rotherham	12	11	7	6	11	9	10	12	12	14	14	16	7	6	12	13	128
11	Sedici	56	Stuart Lockwood	Rofwac	10	10	17	14	10	8	13	16	15	10	22	12	6	13	16	5	142
12	Vision	151	Gary Parkin	Scarborough	21	17	13	21	8	11	7	15	13	13	12	15	9	12	14	9	151
13	NIGHTmail	101	Damian Ackroyd	Keighley	8	15	19	11	19	22	17	8	14	16	11	10	16	8	7	14	155
14	Britpop	68	Garry Benson	Fleetwood	16	12	9	16	15	16	16	7	11	20	17	17	10	7	13	16	164
15	Britpop	18	Mike Drew	Fleetwood	18	18	14	12	12	17	14	9	17	18	18	8	12	17	19	12	180
16	Alternative	32	Paul Middleton	Fleetwood	15	9	11	13	20	12	18	11	18	11	15	18	17	15	20	15	180
17	Vision	16	Bob Lafbery	Keighley	19	16	20	5	14	15	12	20	8	15	16	6	19	21	21	19	184
18	Britpop	69	Jen Hand	Lincoln	17	19	8	17	17	13	21	17	10	12	10	21	8	20	18	18	184
19	Britpop	11	Eric Austwick	Fleetwood	11	14	15	19	16	10	19	18	20	21	22	14	21	10	10	11	187
20	Fantasia V	17	Peter Guest	Fleetwood	14	13	18	20	21	18	15	19	16	17	19	13	18	16	15	22	211
21	Sedici	83	Harry Balderson	Fleetwood	20	21	16	18	18	22	20	21	21	19	13	19	13	19	17	17	230