Graeme Elliott and his Vickers V12 reigned supreme
Does a day of sailing get any better than this? We had a fresh west / south-west breeze with enough variation to keep things interesting, mostly comfy sunshine, comfortable temps and smiling faces. All we lacked was numbers! Mark Easton is still ill (get well, friend) while the likes of Sherriff were off chasing glory at Champion Lakes.
Lawrie came along (hopped along, with ankle still in a cast), suitably escorted by the ever patient Debra, to be today's PRO. He sent out the Buoy Bots thanks to the porters who carried them to the jetty and laid a course. These were a god-send today because the wind swung around a bit, but Lawrie had the bots repositioned in short order. The bots gave us no trouble, following a deep waterproofing exercise by Lawrie.
Graeme (Cream) Elliott was out for a result with his gorgeous Vickers V12 in midnight blue, complete with "05 Brock" racing sails and now sporting a "Blue Meanie" nametag on the gunwhales. I'm not sure Peter Brock was much of a sailor but it seemed to work today. It was good to see Phil Plowman out with his Maltezer. Phil attends more outings than anyone else! Rosco had his Red Disco while John Wade brought his pink Britpop.
Special mention to Ray Silbereisen for organising another start box for the club. This has plugged a bad hole in the IOM fleet. Thanks, Ray!
From the first bell Graeme was out in front and became the man to catch. That said, he was caught three times by Rosco and John Wade, so it shows what can be achieved even against the latest design. Rosco gave everyone a lesson in pointing today, sometimes 15° higher than Cream's V12! Of note was Cream blowing a start and ending up well behind the fleet as he rectified this, only to end up second in that heat. Quite the speedster!
John Wade had a tough first race so he brought his boat in for a trim and found his backstay wasn't tightened at all. He tightened it with vigour, with the mast now pointing well towards the stern. We wondered how this would work out, which proved to be "not well" so we called him back in after Heat 2. This time Cream gave it the delicate touch of a Kiwi with a lamb and John's sails never looked better. John went on to win in heat 5, defeating Cream, so that was very sporting of our hot shot!
Despite only a fleet of 4, we had a lot of fun. Ian Holt and his buddy helped to fill the voids with their foiling trimarans, showing us the art of the possible. Lawrie was mad with frustration, being confined to the sidelines, so he took on the role of barracking. Any time Phil or John were on starboard and bearing down on Cream, Lawrie would yell "GET HIM, PHIL [or JOHN]!" These guys are so nice that they tend to give way even when they have rights. What they hadn't considered was that Cream, sailing his super-shiny & expensive new fibreglass hull, is going to back down pretty quickly if you have rights! It has to be said that the crew did well to not push Lawrie into the water, such was the loud heckling!
At the end of the day, the cream rises to the top, and even though Cream could be caught occasionally, he won enough heats to comfortably win the day. Rossco came in ahead of John, while Phil worked on his skills. Keep at it, Phil. It was great to see you experimenting today, especially with the starts. We all cheered when Phil had a photo-finish with John Wade for a minor placing but got the spot.
Event Results - Top 5
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