2022 IOM Ranking 3 & 4 Results and Report
3rd & 4th September 2022
A total of 28 boats made it to IOM Ranking #3 on Saturday 3rd September. With only two heats and 6 promotion many sailors spent the day oscillating between Heats A and B and when they weren’t sailing had an observer duty to fit in as well. The breeze built during the day and there was plenty of rig changing between A and B suits, which was not the forecast at all. Along with a heavy rain shower for a short while, everyone had some difficulties in getting into a groove.
Unfortunately with rig and course changes required before the start of Race 9A, followed by a General Recall, this Race (and consequently Race 9B) had to be abandoned due to lack of time to complete by the final cut-off time.
After these 8 races, Rob Walsh took the day with Tony Edwards in second and Peter Stollery in third. The top places were very closely contested as the results below show.
After the long day on Saturday (causing both human and boat difficulties) and the prospect of another hard days sail on Sunday for Ranking #4 (according to the forecasts), only 21 boats turned out to start the day out of the 28 originally entered. Unfortunately, a delay of nearly 2 hours was endured before racing finally began, whilst the wind decided whether it wanted to blow at all and from which direction. We had arrived to a SE breeze bordering on 3rd suit, which suddenly moderated to a top suit, then switched within 10 minutes to a NW of a similar strength with rain. This breeze lasted for around 25 minutes before dying and finally starting to fill in again from the SE. After a single heat, there was another shift in direction and come from the S, requiring yet another course change. The wind could not really decide which direction to come from and also had a slightly different direction at the top of the course from the bottom. So a zig-zag two beat figure of 8 course was used with minor changes to windward and leeward marks during the day, to try and give decent beats for each heat.
Peter Stollery mastered the conditions and was Mr Consistency, discarding only a 3rd and finishing on 7 points, 11 points ahead of Rob Walsh in second, followed by Graham Elliott in third, with 3 points separating them. Only 6 races were completed (2 heats and 4 promotion) after losing so much time at the start of the day.
At the prize-giving, both winners thanked the other competitors for attending and the hard work from all of the volunteers in running the event.
Photos from Jon Cooper (a local freelance photographer) on Saturday and Sunday are here in the Birkenhead website Gallery. If you would like to have a print of any photo taken by Jon, then head over to his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100066514788823
