Fantastic day of sailing at Scotland Farm , 15 I.O.M competitors and 4 DF 94 skippers , steady 8/10 knots from just West of South made it perfect for racing on the East Bank Cris E started well with a win then Mick C took the next two races but that was as good as it got for the V9 , Kieth Holmes sailed a steady series and got better as the morning went on, The Df 95 fleet started two minutes before the I.O.M , and in future we may have to change things slightly as the I.O.M fleet did not stay away from the start line as they should ( respect for smaller boats ) on the whole it all went very well with little or no horrible green stuff around to spoil things. It was nice to see Chris back and winning after his poor performance at the Nationals ( we all have a bad day or two ). Rob Wilson who did very well at the Nats stuggled to find his form and may have had eleccy problems. It was nice to see some members who have been absent for a while, lets hope the exciting racing will bring them back for more . Many thanks to the OOD and assistand Bob G and Graham K , fantastic job , well done to Chris E for winning the day for the I.O.M , Looking at the DF 95 , Gordon bennett was on fire winning every race bar one, must be his secret set up, Ivan came in a close second, and Alan Edgar with his new DF95 came in third , Ed is improving at every outing, but the same old power problems seem to hamper him each week.  Great turnout 19 boats well done to all,  and for the harmonious way in which everybody conducted them selves on the bank ,,if not on the water . ( just joking )

Great win in round 8 for Chris Elliott in the I.O.M

Gordon Bennett relaxing after a hard day at the office . with the DF 95

A brisk breeze from the West greeted 9 I.O.M skippers and 1 DF95 who came down for some practice , The rain held off and racing took place from the East bank, A tiny bit of weed affected the racing but evened itself out , hopefully we are seeing the last remnants of it, Mick C’s V9 dominated the morning, with Keith H always pushing hard , B suit all Morning, which meant a few failures Gordons winch even before the start and Ivan’s servo on race 6 , Cake at half time in the club house which is taking shape nicely.

Round 7 is on the 25th September so lets hope everybody is back from Hols and supports the series

7 skippers came to the start line which, although being low, is understandable for a Bank Holiday weekend. The weather started dull and cloudy with a few drops of rain early on, but the clouds cleared, the sun came out and the temperature rose. The wind was was light and variable but always present. The direction was West moving round to North West requiring a change of course mid morning. A very pleasant morning for sailing you might think -BUT- the weed was back in quantity. From the first race to the last problems there were problems throughout the fleet. As is usual all skippers were affected at some point and despite high levels of frustration no dummies were thrown.

Officers for the day were Kieth Holmes and Roger Bacon who ran a well organised morning despite trying circumstances.

!7 in all,13 for the Championship and 4 for the DF95 series  turned out for a breezy round 7 of this series  A suit was used in the warm up around 0930 but not 15 minutes had passed when most skipper were sent scurrying for there B suit. The wind was from the west which made the windward mark a little testing as the Sout Bank is still unsailable, We welcomed Steve Haywood from Market Bosworth, who like a few others treated this as a warm up before next weeks Nationals and he went on to win by a convincing margin, The start line having a little stb end bias meant a little bunching at that end but generally no problems. Phil Harpham had to retire afetr only one race with sail damage, and then helped Rob Wilson our OOD with race control , many thanks to him for that. Chaz Jordan was the next casualty and left after race 4, Rob Wilson had a bad start with his first three races and will be regretting it because the final out come would have been a lot tighter. The sailing was fast a furious and a great advert for radio saing thanks to the OOD team Rob and Joe. Next round is on 11th September so try not to miss it , results and DF 95 report below. .

I.O.M’s racing in 2016 , Many thanks to the Photograqpher for this great shot

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Four DF95’s came to the line with a mixture of rigs from A to C and the racing was fantastic , Ivan fell foul of Mick C Bigger boat on a couple of occasion in uncontrollabe racing accidents ( say no more ) except sorry . Alan Edgar borrowed a DF 95 for the first time and apperard to enjoy himself. but the clear winner of the day and all nine races was Gordon Bennett now fully recoverd from his hand injury , again a great days racing and nice to see 4 boats racing .

Mick and Ivan Admin