Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club

23/10

Oh dear – this didn’t get done last week... and I’m gratified that many of you noticed no news... Apologies - getting the Sailing Instructions ready for the working party and getting the actual results done took rather a lot longer than I had expected. Shame to miss Eddie’s purple prose though...

Please receive (last) Sunday's results which concludes this series.

16.10

4418   Quentin Andrews

4647   Mike Lipscombe

4073   Peter Cottrell

3457   Mervyn Cinnamond

3365   Frank Beanland

3325   Lorraine Lynch  [ Retired ]

A foggy start to the day which promised a fine morning and indeed it was, although the wind, breeze or zephyr's failed to materialised. 

After a delayed start, boats were launched to do battle with the elements [ or lack of ] and hordes of gnats that had hatched out just for the day. I think the gnats won the day.

After much milling about in the area of the start line, flags were waved and hooters were hooted and the race was on or should have been. Nothing stirred and nothing moved for about half an hour. At this point discussions were no doubt taking place as  to abandon or not , when a thermal showed itself on the water allowing boats to surge forward [ oh alright drift forward ] and join in a gentle and rather pleasant race to the finish.

By this time Lorraine [ bless her ] had managed to reach the end of the pontoon before drifting inshore to be pushed off by a fascinated spectator.

A gentle race for gentle people all thoroughly enjoyed by participants and spectators alike.

Well done everybody.

Regards

Eddie

So – overall results... The Solos did rather well which might mean our handicap is reduced for next summer. We’ll see what the RYA does in the spring, but this year we had amazing results so our club evidence suggests that our handicap at least for the summer may need adjusting.

Our Sunday series showed Gareth from Quentin by just a single point with Paul third. Missing the last couple of races very nearly let Quentin take the lead – if everyone had turned out last week he would have won overall. 

Saturday was also won by a Solo – this time Dave Lawton sailed a consistent series to take the series by a good margin. Again turning out is critical, the minor places changed on the last day because Roger Stafford popped in a couple of firsts but Richard Barker only managed a DNF and DNC.

The Anniversary series was dominated by the Solo fleet taking the top four places in the scratch fleet. Gareth, Quentin, Mervyn and Peter C respectively with the personal handicap going to Dave Clark, again from Quentin, Mervyn and Peter. In fact the first seven places went to the Solo fleet. Since the personal handicaps are based on actual past performance I think we can say that the conditions for the Anniversary were very Solo friendly this year. Especially well done to Dave C who like  good red wine is improving with age.

The Pursuit series also showed the Solos well represented with Gareth winning from Paul but this time Graham Potter’s albacore spoiled our clean sweep.

Finally the pm Back to Back Handicap series again showed Solos to the fore with Gareth winning from Paul – this time Peter Curtis just creeping into third ahead of Quentin.

Fantastic results everyone. I think this summer did produce some very Solo friendly conditions but you still have to sail well to take advantage.

I’m sure the standard of the whole fleet is improving – let’s see if we can do the same in winter conditions...

The clubhouse and grounds look great after the working party - Sunday sees the start of the winter season.... See you thereJ

Gareth