2026 IOM Ranking 5&6 Report and Results

MYA IOM Ranking Weekend at East Kent Radio Sailing Club (Barton’s Point)

The club is situated at Barton’s Point on the NW corner of the Isle of Sheppey. The venue has a unique beauty where there are enough hotels and camp sites to house a sizable fleet, as well as a secure compound on site for camping and motor homes, and the sailing water more than makes up for the visual attraction. The lake is large and contains brackish water which caused several electrical issues across the fleet. We sailed from a point which allowed racing from most wind directions and the lake benefits from a lack of trees providing clean unincumbered winds.

The racing was extremely close all weekend and characterised by:

Punchy starts – Especially in the lighter patches where holding a lane was everything.
Aggressive first beat positioning – with the leaders often splitting sides to hunt for pressure.
Minimal mistakes – the hallmark of ranking event consistency.

Our PRO for the weekend was Wayne Stobbs who did a magnificent job, not only providing good courses but also keeping the fleet under control when the odd emotion occasionally got out of hand. Wayne also called the Start, Finish and was Observer Marshall on the Saturday. The event organiser Jim La Roche, manned the heat board, with the help of the Finish Team – Debbie La Roche and Ralph Wilkinson, Scorer – Mike Brand, Course Layer and Rescue boatman – Dave Adams and Observer Marshall – Mike Weston on the Sunday.

On Saturday, the seeding races were ominously won by Peter Stollery and Rob Walsh. Despite posting a great set of consistent results over the day in the top 6 with 4 wins to his name, Rob was beaten by Craig Richards who sailed immaculately all day despite claiming he kept picking up weed! Peter Stollery rounded off the podium followed by our new class captain Rob McIntosh, then Olly Murray and Tony Edwards.

On Sunday the seeding races were won by Rob McIntosh and Craig Richards, but the tables were turned on the day as Rob Walsh took the win from Craig Richards, with Tony Edwards third followed by Rob McIntosh, David Donin, and Austin and Tony Guerrier .

The main battles took place in the middle of the fleet, with the leaders rounding the weather mark in the clear, the mid fleet often arrived in a bunch and over optimistic port tackers would arrive at the windward mark to cause chaos. After that the slightest shift would see changes of place in the mid pack.

A look at the results showed that no one design dominated the weekend with Rob McIntosh’s and Peter Stollery’s Britpop’s still showing there is plenty of life in that design. To be honest there was minimal difference in speed between any of the boats.

There was general agreement that there was a need for more close racing like this to raise the standard of the UK fleet. There is no substitute for tight racing with the top competitors to sharpen one’s skills. Maybe we should be looking to double the number of these events at our tried and tested venues. Over to our class captain.

This was a very efficiently run weekend. Barton’s Point is turning out to be one of the go to venues in the M&S region. Great organisation, clean winds, on site facilities and our best racing in a while. A huge thanks to the Barton team

By Nigel Barrow.

Results – Ranking 5

Results – Ranking 6