Report for 2013-2014 Winter Series
South West Clubs IOM Winter Series October 2013 through to February 2014
The final event in the series took place on Saturday 1st March. This is the third year the series has run and it is proving very popular with all the Southwest IOM class skippers. The format is to race on the first Saturday of the six winter months (October – March) at Castle Semple and encourage competitive sailing and greater activity within each club. This series has seen a total of 20 skippers take part in the six events and this number is improving each year. The most active skippers accrue the most points toward the individual skipper standings. The top 3 performing skippers from each club have their points added up after each event and the lowest club score wins that particular event.
The weather obviously plays a big part in the events and this winter we managed to stage five out of the six events on schedule. Only one event had to be rescheduled due to the storms we all endured. We did proceed with the event in November with gusts of 60mph! Whilst few survived (!) it shows the enthusiasm of the skippers.
Over the six events, there were 5 different winners and each club had winning positions. Going into the last event, the top 2 skipper positions were separated by only 8 points. Although Paisley was leading the series, it was still very close and all three had a chance of winning the championship. All to play for!
Gordon Allison, who was only just leading the skipper standings, decided to race his newly acquired but untested Goth MX14 rather than the borrowed Lintel MMX that had been performing so well. Pat Johnston was very close behind and raced his new Ska design instead of his high performing Lintel. Bruce Davidson of Ayr Bay chose to race his self built Ska instead of his Italiko. This proved to be a good move as he won the last event with ease.
With Robert Rooney finishing 2nd, Gordon Allison 3rd and Terry Connell 5th, Paisley won the last event by only 17 points from Ayr Bay to give them the championship. The MYA Scottish District Chairman David Smith presented the awards after.
Final Club positions
| Place | Club | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Paisley | 823 pts |
| 2nd | Greenock | 935 pts |
| 3rd | Ayr Bay | 942 pts |
Final Skipper positions
| Place | Skipper | Club | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Gordon Allison | Paisley | 523.0 pts |
| 2nd | Pat Johnston | Greenock | 461.3 pts |
| 3rd | Bruce Davidson | Ayr Bay | 436.7 pts |
Skippers overall results table
All the clubs would like to acknowledge the assistance and generosity of all the staff at the Castle Semple centre. Special thanks to John Mason, Terry Allison and Gordon Winton, who gave up their time (and comfort), to assist in race duties. Last but not least, a very big thank you to Gordon Neil who provided the dinghy and equipment at all the events.