IOM Winter Series Round 1 at Lincoln Radio Sailing Club

by Darin Ballington 2 Nov 09:43 GMT

Darin Ballington presenting Pete Walters with the winners bottle - IOM Winter Series Round 1 at Lincoln © Jen Hand

Thick fog and no breeze on the journey from Burton on Trent for the trip to Lincoln for Rd1 of the MDWS; well at least until we turned into the club lake, where we met with a nice top suit breeze and visibility from one side of the lake to the other.

That was at 8.15am, by 9.00am a course was set by PRO Pete Walters and boats were on the water practicing. Just before the official start time a sea haze (!) drifted in and a fine mizzle replaced the breeze. Still the fleet of 16 had faith and kept preparing.

Come the start time, Pete was able to announce a course with a number of different options for the swinging breeze, something that would continue all day, although we later settled on a course with a long beat which worked for the big shifts and differing pressure across the lake and allowed us to complete 13 races in a single fleet.

Up and down the fleet skippers had tales of snakes and ladders with the more consistent finishing higher in the final positions, but almost everyone having at least one good race.

As usual at Midland District events everyone was made to feel welcome and questions were asked and answered throughout the fleet, with advice given willingly.

The results are posted here, but they are secondary to the banter, competition and camaraderie shown and the fun had.

The top 3 were presented with prizes and everyone was encouraged to enter the next round at Manor Park Sailing Club on the 6th Dec 2026.

Only two pictures were taken as everyone was sailing and Tim had left by the prize-giving so Jen took the chocolates. She said that she will pass them over!

PRO Pete Walters presenting Darin Ballington with the 2nd place bottle - IOM Winter Series Round 1 at Lincoln - photo © Jen Hand

Event Results:

Pos	Hull	Sail No	Helm	Club/City	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	R11	R12	R13	Pts
1	Venti	65	Pete Walters	LRSC	2	2	3	1	2	2	2	1	3	1	2	7	8	21
2	BritPOP!	98	Darin Ballington	LRSC	10	4	6	3	3	9	1	4	2	3	1	6	2	35
3	BritPOP!	54	Tim Hand	LRSC	3	1	1	5	1	5	3	3	14	13	5	10	17	50
4	BritPOP!	91	Martyn Aspinall	RMYC	5	3	4	14	9	3	6	10	4	2	7	2	5	50
5	Alioth	71	Simon Fairman	MPRSC	4	8	2	10	12	1	9	7	6	5	4	1	6	53
6	BritPOP!	43	John Smith	MPRSC	1	6	9	2	6	8	4	11	7	9	9	13	1	62
7	BritPOP!	97	Rob Wilson	LRSC	9	5	5	8	16	15	5	6	9	4	6	4	3	64
8	BritPOP!	3	Colin Walton	MPRSC	8	9	10	9	14	11	7	2	8	11	10	8	4	86
9	VISS	89	Richard Jutsum	LRSC	7	10	16	16	4	6	8	9	13	7	13	3	12	92
10	BritPOP!	49	Tracey Ballington	LRSC	12	15	12	11	10	13	11	5	5	6	3	14	9	97
11	V12	40	Neil Webb	MBMYC	6	11	11	7	8	12	15	13	12	10	11	5	10	103
12	Proteus	27	Mike Holmes	LRSC	15	14	13	12	7	7	12	12	1	12	8	12	13	109
13	BritPOP!	87	Kevin Evison	LRSC	11	12	15	13	15	4	10	8	11	8	14	11	7	109
14	Venti	18	Jeff Clarke	LRSC	14	17	8	15	13	16	16	14	10	14	12	9	11	136
15	Alternative	32	Andrew Edmundson	MBMYC	13	7	7	4	11	14	14	17	17	17	17	17	17	138
16	BritPOP!	69	Jen Hand	LRSC	16	13	14	6	5	10	13	17	17	17	17	17	17	145