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Another great day on the pond guys.

Kicking off the days racing were the IOMs with Commodore Pat Nevitt doing a great job as RD. First race was going to be our standard medium course just to scope things out but that was changed to a long course after some advice was offered to the VC of Sail from the Godfather of IOMs, Mr. Mackey. Not wanting to wake up in the morning with a horses head in my sail bag, I kindly passed this advice on to the RD who willingly obliged. 🙂
Long courses were the order of the day with some superb competition throughout the heats.
Good to have Jason and Dennis back on the starting line with Dennis racking up four bullets and taking out the day, well done.
With the Region 8 Regatta on next week it’s sure to be a great couple of days.

But wait, there’s more!
Next on the pond were the DF 95s, 18 in fact! What a show.
With that many boats on the start line and on the course all at the same time there was bound to be ‘interactions’. Plenty of penalty turns and close avoidance measures being put to the test.
All skippers conducted themselves very well, kudos to you all for sailing as sportsman should, the Corinthian spirit is alive and well. 🙂
BUT…….
Oops, I forgot to mention the RD. Headmaster Mackey was back to keep things in order. Apparently word got out there would be a host of boats in the playground and anarchy was not to prevail.
As most of you that sailed the January points race would know, Craig runs a tight ship and after a general recall or two, you guessed it, the black flag rule was invoked.
Those skippers that weren’t up to speed on what the black flag means, definitely know now! :O
Heats were all medium courses in a very fluctuating breeze that kicked hard to the right at times making any venture out to the left somewhat perilous and not without risk.
Great to see so many boats turning up and providing some very tight racing.
Welcome to John Lisenby who has only just got into sailing the DF 95 and by all accounts is having a ball.

A big thank to everyone who manned their rakes this morning to clear the shoreline of the dreaded slime. Very much appreciated. 🙂
Thanks also to Kerim, Jason and Dave for helping get the boat and buoys away.

See you all next time!

Regards

Chris

By gee by jingo by Crikey! What another great day at the pond with the Soling 50’s and ODOMS fighting it out on the water!
First off was the Soling 50’s with RD Pat Nevitt allocating a mixture of medium and long courses for the six heats sailed.
The breeze flicked a little from left to right which offered plenty of opportunities for the skippers to show their tactical prowess. 🙂
Some very close racing with three different boats taking two wins each and a tie for 1st overall.

Chris Staiger took over from Pat to RD for the ODOM’s and again there was a mix of medium and long courses.
Unfortunately for Steve Ross and Gil Jansky the dreaded gremlins had got onboard both boats and they were not able to compete but instead added
two more seats to the ‘peanut gallery’. What else would one do if you can’t go sailing? 🙂
By now the breeze had moved a little into the right which created panic if you found yourself on the left side of the course. :O
With a little luck and bad luck being shared around, there was no doubt at the end who took advantage of the conditions the best.
Kerim Baran again put in a very consistent performance with only Tom Warren being able to spoil Jess Atkinson’s clean sweep.
Great racing by all skippers over all heats.

The ODOM tuning clinic on the 1st of March is not to be missed.

Thanks to skippers, Race Directors and of course the ‘Peanut Gallery’ for making it another great day at the pond.
See you next week!