2026 IOMMDCS&C R2 Manor Park RSC Race Officer Report.

We had a competitive IOM days racing, with a strong group of 28 MYA sailors entering, plus the end of a heat wave, with Manor Park experiencing a stiff breeze, sometimes at the top of A suit.

Darin Ballington and Denis Walker manned the boat, setting a long course from Northeast to South West.  Over the day this veered round to East-West and then backed again. Two heats of 16 yachts, with four up and four down, plus some closely matched skippers, guessing the frequent shifts, made some challenging racing over ten races.  At the finish the two volunteers were frequently struggling to say all the sail numbers fast enough, as the swooping yachts crossed the line from port and starboard directions. This despite the two new deckchairs.  The deck chairs in the shed are to be retired after a mouse jumped out of the nest he/she/it had built inside the seat.

As Manor Park Race Officer and operator of the HMS scoring system, I could see how close the places remained all day.  I now discover that there is a tiebreaker button and that I have robbed Peter Baldwin of fifth prize (to be awarded at the first opportunity).   Simon Richardson who has just informed me, is the other change, and he drops a place. The brothers, Austin and Tony Guerrier, both with Ventis, were contending for first and second until mid-afternoon.   The choice of the shore side or island side of the lake when tacking up to windward could take a skipper from first to last, as the wind shifts never played fair. John Smith in a B fleet race called all the shifts straight from the start and had the best win of the day by half the length of the lake.  Despite his example no one achieved as big a lead again.  Tim Hand was worth watching.  Darin never surrenders.  Our new IOM captain, Robert McIntosh, came fourth, then Tony Guerrier and Dorian Crease.  Team Manor Park, Steve Venables (with a win), Rob Radbourne and Simon Fairman followed.  I was hoping all day, that there would be a single A fleet race including every Manor Park skipper. It was not quite to be.  One of our skippers may have celebrated the England football win over Panama rather too much the same morning.

It was a pleasure to have some newer skippers, who despite sail, battery and even radio issues kept cheerfully sailing and will do so much better next time.

Many thanks to the volunteer team of Colin Walton, Graham Whalley, Denis Walker (friendly rescues), Chris Cheal and Barry Salt with the assistance of Darin Ballington and Gordon Sears.

Colin