Round 2 of the 2025 Met and Southern District IOM Championship – Report and Results

We couldn’t have hoped for better conditions and competitors!

On 11th May, Hampton Court Model Yacht Club hosted Round 2 of the 2025 Met and Southern District IOM Championship. The day was blessed with warm, bright, sunshine. For most of the day, the breeze ran almost straight down the club’s Rick Pond. 9 skippers, representing Emsworth, Gosport and Hampton Court competed in an single fleet.

While the stragglers competing in the Hampton Court Home Park 10k “run” ambling round the lake past the race course necessitated a 15 minute postponement to the start of proceedings, several skippers took the opportunity to wet their boats and get a feel for “The Rick”. Racing got underway at around 10:25, only about 10 minutes later than planned.

The generally north-easterly breeze allowed the club’s interim Race Officer, David Cole, to set a course that utilised the full navigable length of the pond, with only a minor “dogleg” to give the boats a double beat up and single run down the pond. While some significant gusts hit the water, generally from the north, causing the odd broach, all skippers ran with A rigs all day.

The RO was relieved (and grateful!) that few skippers were over-eager at starts with only a few specific boat recalls and a couple of generals recalls. There were few incidents on the race course and, commendably, any penalties were taken without hesitation.

The racing quickly settled down into a 3-way battle between Julia Hancock, ably supported by her battery supplier Colin Boulding , Hugh Watson and Dave Cockerill of Emsworth RSC, with Julia doing so well that she had to discard a second place in winning overall!

The fleet’s prompt returns after breaks for coffee, lunch and tea, and rapid responses to calls of “Boats on the Water”, allowed 6 races both before and after lunch. 12 races, completed each twice round the nearly quarter mile course, held in strong sunshine and a dry breeze, were plenty for many present. Certainly they were for the RO, who while not following the full length of each leg, found he had walked over 8 miles in the day!

He and the rest of the HCMYC team would like to thank the competitors for coming, and for their positive approach to the day’s fun.

The racing results are shown below, along with the light-hearted photo of event winner Julia Handcock, whose flat batteries necessitated a retirement from race 11, next to the MYA’s “Fully Charged Racing” banner!