South West District IOM Winter Series 2 @ Woodspring 11/12/16
A bright brisk morning with skippers happy to see the back of the fog by the time they had left the M5. The breeze was from the W-SW and perfect Mid A rig conditions. Rupert Preston had laid a Windward leeward course with leeward gate for the skippers.
Throughout the day it mainly paid to play the right hand side of the beat, but the lee of the club house at the windward mark meant that at times a flyer from the left hand side could pay if there was breeze to back it up. Tony Edwards and Gavin Watson showed the early form setting up a rematch from a closely fought final district summer series event.
After lunch James Edwards found a nice trim after some winalot sandwiches and continued to move up the leaderboard as the day went on. Woodsprings Nick Noble took out race 7 showing a good turn of speed in his shiny new Britpop. Also showing improved form later in the day were Mike Cooke and Richard Aucott.
After twelve races Tony Edwards took the win on count back from Watson with James Edwards four points adrift after a poor start to the day.
Unfortunately during the day Dartmoor skipper Nick Whyte was taken ill, Doug Penman and Bob Conner did a fantastic job administering emergency first aid until the paramedics arrived. I understand Nick is still recovering but making progress, our best wishes for a speedy recovery go out to him.
Thanks to Rupert and Tina Preston and the Woodspring club for running the racing, and Gavin Watson for the report.