Huntingdon Radio Yacht Club IOM Open Meeting EDCS 2 Saturday 5th April

Huntingdon RYC hosted round 2 of the IOM East District series on Saturday 5th April and were delighted to have 33 entries which included 5 skippers from outside of the district. Attendance appears to be growing in the East District with both events so far this year Norwich and Huntingdon both having high numbers and pleasingly more of the district clubs are attending.

The weather was ideal with sunshine and a good breeze at the top end of rig 1 but the wind was extremely shifty with plenty of big gusts which caused many broachs and plenty of skippers occasionally struggling to control their boats. Many changed down to rig 2 during the day some because of rig failure some believing it was the way to go and at times it was but if you could hang on in the gusts rig 1 was generally faster.

Race officer Andy Baldock and his assistant Val Brooking and all the race team did an excellent job setting a nice long upwind downwind course and they kept the racing flowing at a good rate all day. The galley was run by the 2 Karen’s and as is now standard at Huntingdon events free cake was available all day baked by Stephen Brown who makes exceedingly good cakes. Thanks must go to everyone that was on duty and Huntingdon members who sailed but also helped in some way running the event.

With 33 entries the event was run with 2 fleets with the seeding races being won by Buzz Coleman and Dave Green. It was a difficult day with the conditions and the number of boats on the line so as normal staying out of trouble and consistency paid off. Buzz Coleman and Nigel Barrow both sailed extremely well all day and at the end after 9 races both were tied on 11 points with the same number of firsts same number of seconds, but Nigel Barrow won the event by having 1 more 3rd place than Buzz Coleman, 3rd was Tony Guerrier 4th was Dave Green, 5th was Pete Walters and the last of the Prize winners was John Gill in 6th.

A bottle was also awarded to Geoff Josey for completing all the races which given the amount of gear failure on the day was an achievement.

The youngest entrant Hayden Wallace celebrated his twelfth birthday but sadly had some teething problems with his new boat and had to retire from the event from race 5.

Nigel Barrow, the days deserved winner paid thanks to the race team and all the helpers and made mention how pleasing it was to see a healthy attendance with so many making the effort to travel.

Next Huntingdon Open Meeting is the DF 95 Open on Saturday 4th October.

There are a good selection of quality photos on our web site

https://hryc.co.uk/photos/

And a short video on our YouTube channel

https://youtu.be/cRZsjetmApE?si=CuBqMEaG8GlU-eYx

Dave Green