ROUND ONE

After the downpour last Tuesday, which should have been the start of this series, we had a reasonably nice day, although not a lot of wind, and race six had virtually non at all.  Brian Hartley started where he left of last year, with a full house, six races on the trot.  Having said that, David Johnston and Tony Watts pushed him all the way, but just failed to get the better of him.  David did finish in a very creditable second place overall, with some very close finishes. Unfortunately Roger was not with us this week, he is getting over a rather nasty bout of shingles, but he did pop down to say hello this afternoon.  Get well soon mate, we need you to knock Jammy off his top spot, and with your new Lintel, you are the fella to do it.

ROUND TWO

We were blessed with another good day for racing today, with a steady breeze covering 75% of the lake, which meant we had to sail exactly the same course as last week.  Brian started off as he finished last week, but I did manage to stop him getting a full house.  David and myself had a number of close encounters, which put us on equal points after round two, and if he had not had the misfortune to have a DNF in race six, things would have been a little different.  Roger popped down to see us again this afternoon, and I did see him having a sail with Brian's Tonic, just to get himself acclimatised , hopefully for next week.

ROUND THREE

 Another good day for sailing, with winds 20mph gusting to 25mph which meant No2 suit for all but one skipper, who as yet has not got his sorted.  I wonder if he will put a number on that one..............  Just a bit overpowered with No1 suit with some of the blustery weather.  Tony Watts cut Brian Hartleys No1 finishes down to four with is new Gadget for this series, and Tom Willgoss creeping up the leader board into third place today.  Roger came down but did not feel up to sailing just yet, but he hopes to be back at the helm next week.

ROUND FOUR

 Average wind speed today was 1.9mph with one gust of 4.7mph recorded, not ideal weather really for fast IOM racing, so it was decided to have the usual six races, but only one lap per race instead of two.  Nice to see Roger back at the helm again today, together with two of the skippers from Rotherham who joined in with us.  Jammy seems to have got things sown up for this series, but the other positions are still wide open, as two scores will be deducted at the end of the series.  The last race today saw a second place for Tony Friston who crept very quietly along the side of landing stage without many skippers actually seeing him, his best yet in this series, well done Tony. 

  ROUND FIVE

It was true Frostbite weather today with the temperature at times down to -2.5° and fog swirling across the lake, but thankfully no ice to contend with, and again very little wind, as last week, the six race one lap rule was adopted.  Has Mr Hartley given up with only two wins today, is he loosing his touch, who knows, Tony had two wins with Roger and myself one each.  Having said that, there were a few very close finishes.  Brian Harper and Tom Willgoss did not race today, one did turn up but he had apparently had a touch of the CRAFT syndrome, far be it from me though to say which person it was, but I bet he doesn't forget his transmitter again.  Just one more week to go so let's hope we get a little bit more breeze to finish off the series next Tuesday.