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Newbie here 😁 So I bought an IOM.. with a certificate (2018)… Expecting to jump through a few hoops…. Followed the online registration process… WOW… 2 hours after submitting request… a nice new Certificate hit my Inbox. Impressed? Oh yes I am. Many thanks to Jim La Roche. 👏👏

All good points, but they still need a paper copy at the finish line as a paper and pen can write the results down quicker when there are a bunch of boats finishing together.

The latest World Sailing Case book contains a new case Case 140 which covers an incident on the start line when 30.3 or 30.4 are in effect. However the wording of Appendix E 3.7 prevents radio sailing from applying the benefits covered in Case 140. I have written a summary of the situation attached, together with a solution which the regatta organiser may apply to fix the problem. John Appendix E3.7 and Case 140.pdf

It's a wrap. Envelopes opened, all points calculated and confirmed in the presence of 2 independent witnesses. Obviously most had BG in 1st position, except for one entry, guess who, followed by RW, CR and PS, not necessarily in that order I may add ,but Josh sort of spoilt that party. Thanks to everyone that participated in a bit of fun, we will do it again for the Worlds, top 10 though. RESULTS....... VICKY..........13 POINTS GRAHAM.....12 POINTS ANDREA......12 POINTS JIM L R.........11POINTS MICKYBOY....10 POINTS TRACEY.........10 POINTS HARRY............9 DARIN.............9 JOSH...............9 WALSHY..........9 BRAD...............9 PRESIDENT.....8 JIM E...............8 ROB Mc...........8 Tiger................8 1 spoilt paper. Well done Vicky, spend it wisely with any radio sailing manufacturer in the UK.

It was great to return to Greenock MYC after about 30 years, since my last visit. John Taylor and his American wife Sarah, came home from Florida for a family visit and planned it to coincide with the Scottish DF65 Championship weekend. john's sister Helen was also visiting. It was a pleasure to head north on the M6 and not have to battle with the queues at M62 & M56 junctions, then Stoke, Stafford, Walsall, and of course the M42 which always seems to be a constant circular traffic jam!! JT still has his apartment over looking the Clyde at Greenock kindly offered to host Maureen & I for the weekend, and we were made most welcome. The 5 of us enjoyed the hospitality of the "James Watt" local Wetherspoons on the Friday night, where we ate & drank and learned about the town from the photographs displayed within. John & I went off to the sailing on Sat morning to find a very blustery SW wind, which was A+ A or B rig strength depending which part of the lake you were in when the gusts blew through, or didn't!! Stepping inside the clubhouse, I saw several faces I recognised Gordon Rae, Gordon Allinson, Richard Rowan, Robert Rooney, and of course Hughie Shields whom I first met in 1963 at the Fleetwood Vane A Championship! Greenock MYC has had an influx of new members from the nearby Royal Gurrock Yacht Club who, having no sailing in the winter months, all initially bought DF65's and several have now moved on to IOM's. 16 boats took part including 6 visitors. 3 from Fleetwood JT, Paul Middleton and I and 3 from Belfast loch. Richard Rowan the RO for the weekend, set a testing course for our small boats, with 2 long WW/LW laps and a reach to finish. Most sailors opted for A+ rigs despite the strong gusts as the lulls were windless! JT stamped his authority on the race from the beginning winning the first 2 races, he was enjoying the "free air conditioning" after the stifling heat of Florida. He continued to dominate the event for the rest of the day and came out on top after 16 races were completed. At lunch time the club fed us with a hot plate of Scotch meat pie (very peppery) mash, beans & gravy with tea or coffee and biscuits to follow, provided by a lovely lady Mary who looks after the clubs scale boat section. Very welcome & all included in the £10 entry fee. For Sat night Simon Thompson the race organiser had booked a table at a local "hungry horse" pub where several of us gathered. I went chatting to the Irish sailors & discovered that one of them a friend of Peter Baldwin, is an International Race Officer. Better be on my best behaviour tomorrow! Sunday dawned and a flat calm at 9.00 am for the second event which was a separate open DF65 race, with a few less competitors. By the start time of 10am there was a ripple on the water but it was constantly changing direction. However, Richard set a 2 lap WW/LW course and racing started. The race team pushed us hard and by lunch we had completed 10 races. Lunch on Sunday was a choice of 2 soups, assorted sandwiches, cakes and tea or coffee, again included in the £10 race fee. At lunch Richard suggested that after we reached 16 races we could stop for the day before the forecast rain arrived. The Irish lads and I agreed, they could get an earlier ferry and we could be home earlier, so we completed the last 6 races by 2.15 and on our way home by 3pm. Many thanks to Greenock MYC Derek & Maureen Priestley.

There’s certainly something Australian about the pictures…

Gary Dickens, That would be amazing. In 1976 there was a tie for 1st place between David Andrews (Whirlwind winches) and Derek Stevenson resulting in a sail off for the trophy with everyone watching. A much better, more exciting way to settle a tie than today's countback!!

As has been said, I think the principle is correct, the numbers are probably slightly off. It should also be noted that the actual ranking regulations can be amended easily, however the software to implement this has been in existence for a long time now and even a simple change like doubling the points has taken longer to record than was anticipated due to its complexity, hence why the 2026 ranking positions have only just been published. Any change that is considered requires either a simple solution, like Brad's option 3, or will require a complete rewrite of the software. Obviously there will be plenty of people who say "that's easy" but they will also have to follow up on their words... If we can agree on the weighting it can be introduced for 2027.

Results

Derek, Just an update from the IOM Registrar. It seems this IOM was originally yours. I have found an old photo of the boat sailing with your personal number on the sails (67). It must have been sometime after 1996. The registrar mentions below.... Hull 1667 is on the register as a Paracite named Para+, according to the register Derek was the original owner, first measured by A Kissick 23/05/1996. It was last owned by Iain Ferguson from 03/2008. JT

After a cracking weekend of Vane sailing we got ourselves back into the workshop on Monday to make some improvements to a few existing designs after some great feedback from customers, and also finalising some new products. Our aim is to create a one-stop-shop for all your component needs and bit by bit we are getting there. The main "Improvement" we have made this week is to our printed Clew Fitting . The older design could be over tightened to prevent it moving on the spar, but now it will snug up tight without needing the bolt that holds the clew of the sail to be too tight. Another item we revised was the Proteus mast heel. A very small change here to help the heel account for mast rake. On the "New" product side we have pulled out an Adjustable Fairlead design from our archives and, after some tweaking, made it available in the shop. Then we created a mast heel for the Vickers mast step. Thank you to that regular customer of our that pushed me to do this, you know who you are. Finally we have had added a z-hook and jib boom counterweights to our shop. We do not manufacture these ourselves, but we buy them in and resell them with a small markup. It's all about making everything available in one place. Thank you to all those Customers who visited our shop this week, whether you browsed, purchased or left us a review, we greatly appreciate your interest and custom. Next week we hope to bring you some good news on a new winch drum that we are working on. Keep watching, a number of you have asked us to do this, I only hope we can satisfy your wishes. Have a great weekend everyone. Regards Wayne

Last weekend, 52 skippers from all over America and beyond gathered in Hobe Sound, Florida. The regatta was set for four days, with sunny weather and temperatures in the 70s, although the breeze was a bit light and variable. We had four fleets and managed to complete 18 rounds of racing by the end of the event. There was a nice mix of IOM designs on display, including two wooden boats: my own 'Gillette' and a beautifully crafted 'Alternative.' One thing, I want to share is that sometimes, unexpected scenarios happen during a race that skippers can’t control. The top skippers seem to find a way to navigate those fine margins to achieve success, a quality I am missing. A big shoutout to Peter Feldman, who raced consistently throughout the regatta and took home the win! When I chatted with Peter, he mentioned he’s aiming to compete in the UK Championship this April. As for me, I’ll be heading back to the UK soon and I’m looking forward to racing with friends, both in the championship and the West Lancashire Ranking race in March. Those who follow You Tube, will know there is a lot of video footage of the regatta online provided by Dan Shier, so I invite you to browse at your leisure. Regards JT Gillette Alternative Alioth Version 4 K2 Proteus Solaris / Polaris V12 Venti VISS Skippers

Hi Richard, (I believe,in no official capacity), that as both the FRA and CRO proposals on differing kicker/vang restrictions were not passed, that the rules are as read prior to an emergency 2024 change that was not IRSA ratified. While it may have initially passed at events (by some measurers), there are equally a number of measurers around the world,(including myself), concerned that without genuine area restriction, that the kicker/vang may not be in line with a closed class rule set. Precedents and previous rule changes/banning of equipment due to size would support this. The recent IOMICA voting reflected the divided opinion on just how big a kicker/vang can be before it is considered larger than its purpose. I expect the freshly elected IOMICA Technical Officer will have this issue at the top of his to do list leading into the big events this year. Until that happens, the class has not officially ruled either way on the kicker/vang legality as an official class interpretation was never sought or given. In the meantime, as suggested above, both your supplier and MYA Technical official will no doubt keep you and others in the same position up to speed should any change be needed. Cheers Brad

It can be useful to set your failsafe to a slight turn, and sails mid way out, in case of loss of signal due to range, it may then sail back into range 😊

That Jim for you. A diamond (in the rough)

TIME TO REVIVE THE CHAMPION’S CUP? Back in the 1970’s David Hollom, donated the “Champions Cup” for competition amongst the class Champions in Radio sailing. . Invitations were initially extended to all National & District Champions and later when the Ranking lists were introduced ther were used to select the invitees. The event held over 2 days with day 1, 2 boat Match racing, and day 2 fleet racing and the scores combined to find the winner. Initially the Marblehead was used successfully for many years, and later the event was sailed in the IOM class. Interest from sailors fell away, and the event has not been held for several years. Readers of the Yachts & Yachting website will have seen the report of the recently held Endeavour Trophy, (Champion of Champions) in the Dinghy world. This annual invitation only event was held as usual at the Burnham on Crouch YC and for the first time for several years, all boats were supplied and were all the same Melges 15 Dinghys. None of the Champion entrants had the chance to sail the boats before the Friday of the event. It occurred to me that we in the radio sailing world could attempt to revive our “Champions Cup” by adapting a similar approach using one of our “out of the box” classes, Laser, DF95 or the new up coming IOM “Mint” from Joysway. So is now the time to bring this once very popular event back?

The CRYA IOM Class Championship regatta was just held at the Saltspring Island Sailing Club (SISC) on Sal Spring Island, on the west coast of British Columbia. links to photos and youtube videos of the races may be seen on the West Coast Radio Sailing Club web site https://westcoastradiosailing.ca/ There was a regatta within the regatta for a fleet of 'woodies'. Enjoy! John

Put a small triangle/ half circle of deck patch over the front of the pulley to allow the sheet to ride over the top.

Hi Simon Never used LiPo batteries are did not like the risk while charging plus the checking of discharge level! Went straight from NiMh to LiFePO4. I have found that 1000mah battery gives me between 2 to 3 hours sailing in anything except top end of rig sailing conditions. For the sake of peace of mind when racing I usually swap the battery out at 2 hours. Did contemplate obtaining a 1600mah Life to ensure a mornings sailing without concerns. I am either using a RMG or Hitech monster power arm winch and it does not appear to make any difference to duty cycle. Not had any issues with winch performance (speed or power). Happy with my choice. Regards Eric

Hi Andy, 40lb single strand wire is what i have used on all of my boats. Same Malin Stainless steel leader wire brand i use for shrouds and backstay. The issue with dyneema and before that dacron on leech lines is the amount of stretch under load making minute adjustments difficult and any setting moving under different wind conditions. Near imposible to get repeat consistent adjustments. Just loop ithe wire at the top over the hook that goes into the mast and put a loop in approx 100mm above the jib boom that leaves enough room for a dyneema and bowsie adjuster at the bottom. Cheers Brad

Identify the culprits, two strikes and you earn a demotion with a DSQ score.

Gents, Nowhere in this discussion have you mentioned the common problem where, with WW & spreader, the incidents where 1 lucky boat gets away and the rest is just a pile up caused by port boats not giving way to stbd. I agree that a mark say 6 lengths to leeward will reduce the problem at the WW mark, but it still creates the same problem at the new mark. (Believe me I've tried it several times) Until the umpires start giving some Rule 2 DSC's to the port boat chancers, (if they can identify them) the problem will never go away.

Action starts on Sunday 17th, with build up on site from today. All the results, reports and media can be found via the event website. www.iomworlds2026.com

A high modulus silicon..

HI Terry, There is no rule restricting when to deploy either 30.3 (U flag) or 30.4 (Black Flag). except that it must be shown prior to the 2 minute warning. This is to give time to boats on the course to get out of the 'forward triangle' before the Warning when the boats are 'racing'. My comment would be to prefer the use of 30.3 U Flag - it has the same effect as Black Flag, but allows any OCS boats back into the heat if there is yet another general recall. John

Welcome. The number will likely be the boat's registration number - the Registrar may be able to uncover further info for you: https://www.mya-uk.org.uk/iom-registration-or-certificate-requests/

Over 30 years ago, I created a Mark 2 version of my then-popular Paracite design. Two hulls were built just in time to compete in the 1996 European Championships in Fleetwood. Additionally, my IOM also raced in Portugal that same year. I often find myself wondering about the fate of my previous boats, and I must admit that I've regretted parting with some of them in the past. Today, to my surprise, I stumbled upon my old Paracite 2 design (it still has the Whirlwind Winch)! It was tucked away in the darkest corners of the Greenock clubhouse, forgotten for decades. Who knows how this 30-year-old IOM made its way back to me in Greenock? All I know is that I’m taking it with me to Florida; it’s going to be my ‘Pimp’ project, and it will return to the lakeside. JT (Today)

Great article publicising our sport by Mark Jardine in Yachts & Yachting this morning.

As do all our Open's ☺️ www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/294825/One-Metres-at-Huntingdon

I thought woodies had Andy written on the left boot. Planking always looks good.

Hi I'm a novice and sail/race twice a week with Kinghorn Fife Club. We race twice a week are their clubs in Yorkshire Lancashire that do the same? Thinking of moving South in next couple of years.

A straight plug connection is the easiest if you have a pot. Just make sure you “twitch” the rudder before launching to check you’ve plugged it in!

Gents, I've just returned from the US Championships, where the original VISS vang system was still in use. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time between the voting results and the US regatta for VISS owners to make any necessary changes. From what I’ve gathered from the US fleet, they are eagerly awaiting a decision from the newly elected IOMICA Officers. Before Christmas, there were some heated discussions online through the IOMICA Forum, and I’m sure the conversation will continue. It's true that the Croatian vote regarding the Vang system didn’t go their way. While they can reapply, that process might take another 12 months. The MYA will likely wait for guidance from IOMICA, but skippers will need some time if there are any changes to be made. If I was a VISS owner, I would have a Plan B in place for this season. JT

Hi Mark and all A class sailors ALL A class sailors are welcome. NOR will be published around April and entries will then be OPEN!! to use a Strictly parlance!! Meantime book your accommodation so as not to miss out. there's not too much choice in the town of Fleetwood but plenty within a 5 mile radius. We look forward to welcoming you & your Sword. Best wishes Derek Priestley.

For those looking at this when you buy your carbon tube a number of suppliers will sell matt or gloss finish, the gloss is exactly the same tube as the matt with a gloss coating on top so is oversized, if you want a reasonble fit buy the matt and make sure both diameters come from the same supplier, makes life easier and whilst it is very small, uneven sanding could make a difference to the bend characteristics of the mast

Hi all, After attending the AGM and jumble sale, I came away feeling quite disappointed. The MYA make a huge effort to organise this every year, and the traders dutifully turn up with their goodies to show and sell. There were some amazing bargains on offer from brand new boats to RMG winches at half price. Yet the members that did turn up were only interested in parting with a pound or two here and there. Personally this has cost us two days out of our production facility, and £200 in accommodation and fuel. I know others went to huge effort to bring their boats and rigs to the event with nothing to show for it. Another disappointment was observing members turning up, having a Quick Look round, then sitting down to eat the free lunch, and leaving while the jumble sale was still in full swing, not bothering to stay for the AGM. I personally didn’t eat as by the time I had finished and packed up, most of the food had gone. I always like to support the MYA AGM, and another observation was that most of the members in attendance were the regulars that you see every year. This brings me to these questions: Do we need a jumble sale or trade show at the AGM if it’s attended by pretty much the same members each year ? Should the AGM and jumble sale be in an area where some of the bargains to be had might be more appreciated . Should it be in a more central location, like it used to be. Your thoughts please. Nigel Brown.

You can use Afleet for the series as well. Create a new "event" for the series and insert the individual overall results for each round of the series. Change your discards as you require....

Thank you both for your help. Info much appreciated 👍

John Request a replacement from me -currently IOM Registrar prefer SAE for the return of the new certificate Nick Cowern

Good idea Derek👍 A great concept introduced by Dave H long before my time here that I enjoyed competing in. For reasons you mention it could never be a true reflection of a Champions Cup due to the top skippers in the class used holding a significant advantage over invited skippers possibly not familiar with that class. I made the suggestion many years ago that the RC Laser be used as it would take the largest number of ‘Champions’ out of their comfort zone much like the Endeavour event. The event would be held over an MYA AGM weekend at a suitable venue that bought a full weekend of activities including tuning seminars, trade show, class test sailing, an evening dinner with MYA yearly presentations to national champions and a Champion of Champions for those that come along to enjoy the weekend to take a look at. There were a good number of reasons offered as to why the idea could never work….. A good opportunity to bring skippers from all classes together for a weekend with a Sunday AM AGM.

Hi Mike The view of the hull upside down reminds me of my first venture into scratch building a 36, the plan was from Marine Modeller around the year 1991.

Its possibly a Marine Modelling magazine plan for the Twister 36R, vane or radio. There is nearly always a plan for sale on ebay.

Dimensions would help to identify it but its certainly not a Marblehead.

The Vintage Model Yacht Group are a good source of help and information on old models. You could try emailing the Secretary at vmyg.secretary@btinternet.com or the Chairman at Martinbandey@aol.com

I've found this with both my ARS808 and a friend's RMG. The trick that I found was to start fiddling from the centre of travel. What I mean by that is that you remove the winch drum, set the end points on the winch "equal" (i.e. both, say, 100). Set the winch stick to EXACTLY mid-position so that the winch itself is mid travel, then power off. Next move your sheet clip to EXACTLY the mid-point of its travel. Next, fiddle with your winch drum so that the sheets are still midpoint and get your drum back on the winch as close to that mid position as possible - don't put the screw in yet. Now, with the transmitter stick still mid travel, power everything back up, and GRADUALLY test the travel in both directions and adjust the endpoints so that your range of travel is correct and both endpoints should be within one or two of each other. Take care with this stage because if you sheet in or out fully you may wreck the pulley blocks amongst other damage, slowly and carefully is the watchword. On both the IOM's we moved from a single click on the winch stick (Futaba T6K) resulting in 1cm+ of sheet movement to small mm's of movement and even across the range of travel.

Continuing to work on autonomous hull flying. Now the weed at the lake has died down ( and also been got rid of by some hard working club members) I am getting enouraging results. Here is a video from last weekend.

Graham, I'll be at Weecher racing tomorrow. If you bring the boat I'll give you all the help I can. Mast heights were pretty standard Rig A mainsail luff 80" Jib hoist 68" Rig B main72" Rig C main 65" Hope I can help See you tomorrow Derek

IMHO, boat speed is your friend in light airs and I adopt your "if in doubt let it out" principle

Tom, essentially the deck limit mark can be placed where you want is my take. I would imagine any limit mark would need to be placed in a position that can be visually identified and relevent points checked for compliance against on inspection. I.e. could i readily check that the upper edge of your lower mast band point is within the required 60mm min and 100mm maximum range allowed? Before getting too far ahead, worth understanding the class rules what is mandatory regarding fittings, especially the kicker. You may find you need a mast well of some sort to allow for a kicking strap that meets the rules. The recommended notion that anyone trying anything new should ask for an interpretation from firstly their local measurer who if not clear will pass upwards to a National Technical Officer, then oneards to the International Technical Officer is a correct one. When we can expect that all will follow this advise instead of circumvention or that the playing field will become level for all designers, builders or manufacturers is anyones guess…