With the big boys and girls of LRSC off plying their skills at the Datchet Ranking event, round 6 of the IOM summer series was always going to be light on numbers. The forecasted rain throughout the morning maybe put a few off too. But 4 skippers sailed some competitive, fair sailing in good humour.

Somewhat surprisingly, the weather forecasters had got it wrong and the whole mornings sailing saw just a very occasional spot of light rain, and at times the sun came out. The wind was light with A rig the order of the day.

Racing with a smaller than usual fleet enabled the skippers to concentrate a little more on the set up of their boats and trying to get a better balance. The two Ventis of Sam & Kev were noticeably quick upwind, pointing high and fast.

New member Bryan, sailing his recently acquired TNT, sailed extremely well. A tweek to his rig before race 3 saw him very much in the pack, regularly leading around the windward mark as the day’s racing progressed. No doubt as he gets used to his boat he will be a strong contender in the near future.

With 12 races sailed there was never a clear winner. Kev, Sam & Paul each taking 4 bullets. But with 10 minutes to go and a somewhat foreboding sky, we made the decision to get one last race in.

Kev sailed skilfully to take the bullet, just as the heavens opened.

The final results were close and the learnings from sailing in a smaller fleet will hopefully come to fruition once the fleet comes back together for the next round of the series.

Paul K