IOM MD Championship 2016

The Midland District circus did indeed come to Manor Park on 23rd October for the summer season finale – the Midland District Championship, this one off event to crown the IOM champion had been rescheduled from its original venue at Watermead with Manor Park kindly offering their water as a replacement. Laurie Brown did the honours as RO ably assisted by PJ and Emily Ballington with Gordon Sears adding support.

22 skippers lined up on the start line with the regulars from the District IOM scene but it was also good to welcome a few new faces. The seeding races starting promptly in a mid-top suit breeze won by Darin and Chris H.  This somewhat set the pattern for the day but in terms of top spots they didn’t have it all their own way with Rob Wilson, Don Charlesworth and Paul Stubbs sailing a borrowed BritPop managing to sneak a win each. (Shame no-one told Paul how to make a BP go fast!)

The wind remained fairly tricky over the day which meant a slight adjustment to the course after the first couple of races but Laurie managed to keep a good pace going with 9 races completed before a slightly early finish for the district AGM. Outside of the top spots there were some good results from most of the skippers;, Mick C with a solid set of top 4 places to take 3rd place overall and John Smith not far behind in 4th.  Rob, Steve and Graham W (sailing his relatively new V9) were all close for 5th to 7th places and a mention for Jen getting a 3rd in race 3. At the final count it was Chris Harris who took the honours by just 1 point over Darin.

Overall a great day with good sailing in the autumn sunshine. Thanks especially to PJ and Emily for heat board finish line and scoring, Manor Park for the loan of the water and all the competitors for making it fun and good natured event. Looking forward to the first of the Winter series at Sutton Park Birmingham on 19th November.

Laurie Brown.

The full results can be found under the Results tab.