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

Bit breezy , but sunny and warm for the 5 skippers who contested round three of this series, close racing was to be the order of the day. Micky boy got some marks sorted for a nice dog leg course on the East bank which kept us close to the action , and as the wind backed we took out the dog’s leg , Adrian got of to a great start , having a good set up with a nice amount of twist, Martyn took the second win, and Micky boy took the third race, after a bad start Martyn was making up ground with a series of good results, and him and Adrian were neck and neck going round the race course, Clarkey was in the main getting his set ups right and doing his best, he was of course very happy with his days racing and as usual had a wide smile on his face. After a couple of not so good races Micky boy got a couple of bullets, and it was anybody’s call who was ahead at this time, Jen was threatening Martyn with a no apple crumble option by race 9 but Martyn ploughed on with another couple of wins, Adrian was slipping, and it was all so tight by the end that nobody could have forecasted Micky boy taking the top step but only on countback and being pushed very hard, As we were finishing rain was in the air and we all mucked in to get the gear put away, A great mornings racing was had by all, not heard the outcome re the crumble debate but I am sure we will hear when we all get together next.

Many thanks too all for an enjoyable morning .

Saturday 28th June 1030 am start till your ready to stop, informal I.O.M racing, all muck in to sort courses etc, just turn up, no entry fee, no prizes, but a great chance to do a final tune against other race boats before the Ranking, proper starts by the way.

It was tricky, shifty, gusty conditions for the 14 skippers who took part in Lincoln Radio Sailing Club’s I.O.M Summer series round 5.

Simon Fairman from Manor Park joined us for the day, to work up his Alioth Mk3 and showed good speed at times, recording three 3^rd place finishes on the gloriously sunny day.

A big thank you goes to Greg Codling, assistant RO and Roger Crates, RO. They set a predominantly windward/leeward course, angled to the West bank, with the start line having an inner distance mark and a choice of 3 outer distance marks, making it possible to rapidly realign the start line for a port bias as the wind oscillated. There were barely two consecutive races with the same start line, it was that unpredictable.

A fast Mick Chamberlain won the first race ahead of Darin Ballington, recently returned from his brilliant 3^rd place at the Marblehead Worlds, and Martyn Aspinall took 3^rd.  Mick and Martyn have some head scratching to do, where did the boat speed go after that?

Darin B has found his IOM form again and went on to win the next 3 races, winning a total of 6 out for the twelve races sailed and taking the days series overall with 19 points. In a distant second place was Roger Crates with 3 wins and a 29 point total, closely followed by Rob Wilson on 32.

As always there was close and enjoyable racing throughout the fleet, including for our octogenarian of the day, Mick Cooper. Happy Birthday Mick and best wishes from all of us at the club.

Report by Roger Crates.

Results , very well done Darin for the win .