IOM Ranking 3&4 2025 – Report and Results

08/07/2025
Met & Southern District, IOM, Racing Reports

Datchet Radio Sailing are hosting the IOM World Championships in 2026 so this ranking event would be the first test event to check the club logistics are in order. The organisers had put in a huge amount of effort getting two courses ready with all the facilities for starting, registration, food for the Saturday night barbeque and all the other paraphernalia that goes with an event of this nature.

There are, lies, damned lies and weather forecasts. Mother nature cooperated over some of the weekend but threw in a few curved balls to keep the PRO on his toes. Saturday saw winds of approximately 12 to 20mph from the SW for most of the day, straight down the East shoreline, until there was a near 90 degrees shift late in the afternoon. There was a debate as to whether we move to the other side of the reservoir, but as it was so late in the day, and we had achieved 8 races which provided each competitor with two discards, the PRO decided to draw stumps and retire to the clubhouse for the BBQ and the odd beverage. The direction remained unchanged until 7pm when it annoyingly shifted back to the SW. Oh, how mother nature can frustrate sailing events.

On Sunday we were blessed with light winds blowing straight down from Windsor Castle. It is a difficult wind direction as you must set the windward mark so far offshore, it is hard to for observers to read sail numbers if there are any incidents. The forecast was for North Westerlies which would have been perfect but sadly struggled to establish itself as a few thunderstorms moved over the lake to upset the regular wind pattern.

Amidst all of this, competitors had to wrestle the wind shifts to collect valuable ranking points for World qualification next year. Bearing in mind there were 5 past World champions in the fleet, competition for places would be tough.

On Saturday there were 38 competitors split into two heats meaning there was an excess of twenty boats on each start line. After a briefing from PRO Peter Baldwin and event organiser Phil Holiday, racing got underway at 10am. In the two seeding races, Brad Gibson and Darin Ballington lead the fleet across the start line. Brad was in his Post punk design and Darin in Brad’s 2011 designed Britpop. Close behind were Rob Walsh (Venti) and Roger Crates (Venti). From the results of the seeding races, the fleet was split into A heat and B heat and there would be a six-boat promotion from B heat and 6 boat demotion from A heat. As the day progressed familiar names lined the leader board with Brad winning four of the 8 races and with an additional 2nd and 5th, won the day. Rob Walsh was 2 points behind with 2 wins, a 2nd and two 3rd. Peter Stollery (Britpop) was 3 points behind in third, Craig Richards (Proteus) in 4th and Graham Elliott (Britpop) in 5th.

On cessation of racing competitors retired to the upper deck of the clubhouse with great views over the reservoir, for well-earned refreshments at the BBQ cooked by Graham and Elaine Hetem.

Sunday dawned cloudy with a forecast of a good breeze straight down the North bank of the reservoir. Why then was the wind blowing softly from due west from Windsor castle straight onshore. As the morning went on it did cooperate a bit, but racing was interrupted with periods of calms, thunderstorms, and light shifty winds. Only in the very last race did the wind fill in as promised. Because of the weather we only achieved 4 races. Such a shame because Zvonko Jelacik arrived to watch the racing whilst his family toured museums in London. It was his first visit to Datchet since 2017 and an opportunity to meet up with old racing friends.

Because of the variable conditions, it was hard to be consistent but again Brad Gibson did enough to win by two points from Chris Harris. Peter Stollery, Martin Roberts and Rob Walsh made up the top 5. There were only two points difference between 4th and 9th place.

As a test event, Datchet made a good start with many learnings taken from the weekend. The next IOM test event will be the National Championships over Easter next year with the worlds following in May.