2024-2025 Northern District IOM Winter Series Round 4 – Ripon SC

Ripon SC hosted its first IOM open on Saturday 25th January. The wild winds of storm Eowyn the previous day had given way to bright sunshine and a gentle breeze as competitors rigged their boats. 17 boats entered, including 3 from the host club.
Following a briefing, the first of 18 races got under way shortly after 10.00 a.m. in a building breeze on a windward-leeward course with a gate at the leeward end. The bright sunshine created intense glare on the start line and up the windward leg as the day went on, causing more than a few collisions as helms tried to see their boats and judge distances. There was only one general recall during the day, with some occasional eager starters being called back as required.
The south westerly wind across the lake created various eddies as the boats approached the windward mark, making consistency difficult and turning winners to losers in seconds.
Downwind also turned nasty at times as short sharp squalls came through, leading to much rudder waggling, entanglements and further rapid place changing.
After 10 races, there was a break for lunch and a pattern was starting to emerge with consistency, rather than outright speed keeping people at the top of the table. After some lower results in the early races, Robert McIntosh sailing a V9 from Birkenhead RS&PC started to find his form and post steady first place and top 6 placings. John Tushingham from Keighley &District MES Ltd sailing an experimental boat from Joysway sat close behind in 2nd place.
The final 8 races got under way just at 1.00pm in what appeared to be a dying breeze, but this was short lived and the wind filled in again to provide as much excitement as before, with gusts, large shifts and holes in equal measure. A game of Snakes and ladders was no match for this.
Finally, the breeze did start to die and the last three races were sailed in ideal wind speeds, allowing the series to be completed on time before the wind died away completely.
The final results were:
1st Robert McIntosh (V9) – Birkenhead RS&PC
2nd Peter Baldwin (BritPOP!) – Birkenhead RS&PC
3rd Roger Errington (BritPOP!) – Killingworth MYC

John Tushingham sailing his experimental Joysway finished 2nd overall, but the results were discounted, given the prototype status of the boat. A development to keep an eye on, though.
Many thanks to the IOM sailors at Ripon for giving up their racing in order to run the event and to club IOM Rep Robert Thorn for pulling everything together. Ripon would be delighted to welcome the IOMs back again in the future.
ND WINTER SERIES 2024-2025 Cumulative R4
Graham Lamond
Sailing Secretary Ripon SC