MD IOM Championship “Mac Colyer Trophy” 2017.
13 skippers arrived at Manor Park to be greeted with a good top suit ESE wind blowing across the lake round the end of the sailing area towards the main club house. Darin (PRO) was in the boat laying out the course, whilst the skippers were enjoying a bacon sandwich.
The briefing over, Darin, indicated that we would sail one heat then take a break for 5 minutes before doing 3 heats back to back. The wind was close to the limit of top suit and unfortunately boat 35 (John Burgoine) was involved in an incident and his jib boom was damaged so he was unable to continue in the heat. David Alston had a spare jib which he offered John enabling him to re-join the race at heat 4.
It was at this time that new to the fleet Martin Taylor arrived – don’t ask – Sat Nav issues, however his entry was short lived as transmitter battery issues created problems that could not be overcome, it was good that Martin stayed around and watched the racing, he left determined to resolve his electronic issues and join the fleet in the near future. – We look forward to officially welcoming you to the fleet Martin.
During a short break Colin Walton measured the wind speed from the sailing area and it was showing an average of 12mph with gusts of 16mph, admittedly it would be less at water level, either way a brisk days sailing.
The next batch of 3 heats produced some very close racing with many different routes to the windward mark allowing for lots of place changes.
Heat 8 was another close one and an incident between boat 11 and boat 77 resulted in boat 77 getting under the boom of boat 11 and this caused the boom to fracture at the kicking strap connection point. Obviously boat 11 could not continue in the heat due to damage and 77 subsequently retired. A request for redress was lodged and found so a decision was made to take lunch to enable 11 time to make a repair.
During Lunch the race team saw that there had been a change in the wind direction so laid a new windward mark before we started the next batch of 3 heats. Mick (46) obviously had a good lunch as he quickly mastered the new course winning all 3 heats.
We went back to the earlier course as the wind had backed and the speed in the gusts had picked up. Mike Kemp (37) snapped his Jib connection line and decided to change down to the B suit and whilst he was quick up wind he could not hold them off down wind, unless they got hit with a gust and broached.
The top 2 places were very close, we were displaying HMS on a large screen so all skippers could see their position after each batch of 3 heats.
The race team conscious of the later MD AGM agreed that they would run 3 more heats at around 3.15pm, which would bring the number of starts to 17 by around 3.45pm. Mick (46) once again won the 3 heats, with David (11) coming second in 2 of them. Another skipper having a good afternoon was Tony Pickering (52) with no score less than 4th.
Boats were packed away and we gathered in the club house for the prize giving. We decided to do the prizes in reverse order as it was so close, and this year’s title of Midland District Champion going to Mick Chamberlain.
Darin also presented a bottle of Burton’s finest to Stephen Holbeche of the Fleetwood MY&PBC as the furthest travelled.
The consensus of the skippers was that the racing was good, along with the weather and banter.
All in all a cracking day out.
Full results are under the Results Tab.
Next date for the diary is the 8th Oct and the Clive Hand Memorial Trophy at Lincoln MYC, hopefully another bumper field will be there.
MP Race team.
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