Picture by Graham Nelson of a start in the Martin Lambert 2017

A first class summers day greeted the skippers but with only a knot or two of wind the first few races were going to be tricky, Mick C had a secret weapon ( sorry its a secret) for the light air with his V9 and bagged a bullitt in the first two races, closely followed by last years winner also with a V9 David Alston. By race 4 the breeze had become a nice south westerly 5 to 8 knots and racing was conducted on the East bank, one or two bits of the floaty green stuff, affected most skippers at some stage and yes it is frustrating but in reality it did not affect the racing that was held in high humour throughout. By 11am the sun was beating down and 25C was recorded, the breeze increased as the day wore on, and some fantastic close racing ensued. Some of the skippers brought their wives who very generously helped man the finish line and input the scores into the computer, they aslo had plenty of time for a chat and thoroughly enjoyed their day. Grainne Lambert came along to present the prizes on probably the best summers day this year. Many thanks to all the helpers and the good behaviour on the bank. It was nice to see a wide selection of I.O.M designs 7 out of 9 boats. Also nice to see three or four Visitors and potential new members having a look at what we do, we hope they return and come and have a go.

Results below nice to see the V9 winning two years in a row   .

A great day

Graham K 3rd place

David Alston 2nd place

Mick C 2017 winner the Martin Lambert Memeorial trophy

Mick Admin

A chilly start for round three but it soon warmed up as ten skippers came to the line. A good breeze blew from the South west enabling a course to be set on the favored east Bank, all top suits or No 1 rig which ever suits you. Some of the big guns were away and Mick C GBR 46 took full advantage winning the first two races. Rob Wilson was a little slow out of the blocks but as he was race officer, other things were on his mind. Gordon B won the third with Mick C and Rob W breathing down his neck. Racing was close all through the fleet, and it was good to see Ed Whitaker who is very new to sailing getting round the course in good shape, showing that the Wednesday lessons are working. Roger Bowtle was seen to be measuring all sorts on his boat which will help when setting up in future, he was also going much quicker than normal. I take this oportunity to greet new member Chris Graves to the club, sailing his B/P and we hope to see much more of  Chris in the future at the club. 10 races were sailed during the morning and the results are posted below, Nice to see the V9 getting the better of the B/P’s this time, and also nice to see Mick Cooper doing well with his explosive TNT, I must say that in the very last race he led all the way until just after the last gate , Rob Wilson was two yards behind and Mick C a further yard behind, all I can say is there was an incident between the two leading boats, close to the bank AGGGGGGGhh I heard someone say ,                                   ( inexperience ??? ) and lessons to be learned , but the upshot was it let Mick C through and he led to the finish with a massive grin on his face.

Massive thanks to all the skippers who got there early and got everything set up and to Rob W for being our official for the day. It was a great day’s sailing with a good spirit , just how it should be , so thanks to all .

Mick C winner of round three

Mick C’s V 9

Not to much to report here as both roving reporters were away , a brief chat with one competitor said it was windy and sunny and mainly B rigs were used. Race officer decided not to sail so that left 8 competitors to fight it out on the I.O.M front with Chris E having a clean sweep, with Keith Holmes hanging on to second spot, very close between Bob G and Jen H for the final podium.

Many thanks to all and hopefully fleet numbers will return for round four to try and stop this BP dominance.

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With the DF fleet short as well due to the DF 95 Nationals, Gordon B showed his class, but nice to see each skipper recording wins.

The Nationals for this class was at 2 Islands and Mick C did not have too good a weekend ending up aprox 15th out of 40 full report for this can be seen on the DF 95 website

Mick Admin

A fantastic morning greeted eleven skippers for round two of this summer series. A gentle breeze from the South enabled a course to be set on the east Bank. It was noted that the water level had again increased due to the constant rain of last week. Keith Holmes was trying out the new A rig + and in actual fact won every race bar none proving that in the lighter conditions more sail area did make a difference, Keith did not feature in the results of this round for that reason and was happy to trial the new rig, which over the coming months the skippers will take a vote on to see if we can introduce this rig in our DF 65 fleet as optional ( at the moment it is banned ) .

On to the racing Alan Newman started well in race one with a win and a second in race two, Phil Harpham was sailing consistantly well as was Gordon Bennett. The breeze was steady all morning and the sun had a glorious warmth to it that helped to keep it all very lighthearted on the bank. Only once or twice did I hear the shouts of “starboard” or “water at the Mark”,  it was so quiet I thought my hearing aids had packed up. Great club racing and in the end Mick C came out on top with Phil H not to far behind , countback had Alan N just pipping Gordon B. I was very pleased to see Ed Whitaker getting the hang of it and actually sailing very well at times,  also young Joe Harpham was finally enjoying some good results.

All in all a great day , many thanks to Keith and Joe for the OOD duties and all the skippers for turning up and having fun, A good turnout but could be a little better.

Great little boats the DF 65 fleet ( Thanks Sue Brown )

Mick admin