All posts by Chris Davidson

Feb.15, 2025-IOM & DF95 Points

Events, Sail, ,

Another great day on the pond guys!

Kicking off the days racing were the IOM’s with Commodore Pat Nevitt doing a great job as RD. First race was going to be our standard medium course just to scope things out but that was changed to a long course after some advice was offered to the VC of Sail from the Godfather of IOM’s, Mr. Mackey. Not wanting to wake up in the morning with a horses head in my sail bag, I kindly passed this advice on to the RD who willingly obliged. 🙂 

Long courses were the order of the day with some superb competition throughout the heats. 

Good to have Jason and Dennis back on the starting line with Dennis racking up four bullets and taking out the day, well done.

With the Region 8 Regatta on next week it’s sure to be a great couple of days.

But wait, theres more!

Next on the pond were the DF 95’s, 18 in fact! What a show.

With that many boats on the start line and on the course all at the same time there was bound to be ‘interactions’. Plenty of penalty turns and close avoidance measures being put to the test. 

All skippers conducted themselves very well, kudos to you all for sailing as sportsman should, the corinthian spirit is alive and well. 🙂

BUT…….

Oops, I forgot to mention the RD. Headmaster Mackey was back to keep things in order. Apparently word got out there would be a host of boats in the playground and anarchy was not to prevail. As most of you that sailed the January points race would know, Craig runs a tight ship and after a general recall or two, you guessed it, the black flag rule was invoked.Those skippers that weren’t up to speed on what the black flag means, definitely know now! :O

Heats were all medium courses in a very fluctuating breeze that kicked hard to the right at times making any venture out to the left somewhat perilous and not without risk.

Great to see so many boats turning up and providing some very tight racing. 

Welcome to John Lisenby who has only just got into sailing the DF 95 and by all accounts is having a ball.

A big thank to everyone who manned their rakes this morning to clear the shoreline of the dreaded slime. Very much appreciated. 🙂

Thanks also to Kerim, Jason and Dave for helping get the boat and buoys away.

See you all next time

Regards

Chris

January 18, 2025 Points Races- DF95 & IOM

News, Sail, ,

Fellow sailors,

Last week the ODOM’s & Soling 50’s opened their season with a bang but this week the bar was definitely raised by the DF 95’s & IOM’s! 21 DF 95’s and 11 IOM’s!

Craig Mackey certainly had his hands full as RD for the DF 95’s but he managed extremely well. Medium courses were the call for the day with the last heat being a long course finishing at the windward mark.

With 21 boats on the line, things did get a little congested at times and in general everyone played rather nicely together. BUT, with so many boats, the fight to not get buried in the second row saw several general recalls. Apparently there’s a lot of hair triggers fitted to numerous transmitters! :O

The RD was heard commenting that some skippers were just like naughty 4th graders! 🙂 Principal Mackey sure did make it clear that there would be none of that! No cane but out came the ‘Black Flag Rule’ with a total of 4 boats getting sent to the naughty corner between two races. I believe that may be an Argonauts record!

It was obvious that Jess Atkinson’s tuning clinic a couple of weeks ago has lifted the performance of the fleet in general with some extremely close racing.

It was great to see a few new faces and also to welcome some sailors back.

Enter the IOM’s with Kerim Baran doing a great job looking after RD duties for this quality fleet who didn’t seem to have the ’naughty kids’ in the mix? Competition in this fleet was super tight with some very interesting first mark rounding’s, with plenty of ducking and weaving. This didn’t change much around the entire race track with plenty of entertainment for the ‘peanut gallery’.

Congrats. to the place getters and to everyone who came out to the pond to ‘do what we do’. If the first two weekends of racing are a sign of what’s to come ahead in the season it’s going to be one Krakka of a year!

Thanks also to Bill Bridge, David Stong and Chris Staiger for pulling the buoys and packing away the dinghy.

Next week is practice day so ‘bring what ya got!’

See you at the pond! 🙂

Regards, Chris

Sending Fair Winds & Calm Seas to Kim Robbins.

We all send best wishes for a speedy and healthy recovery to Kim. We miss you on the pond!

January 2025- ODOM & Soling 50 Points

Sail, ,

The season points opener did not disappoint!

The ODOM’s were first to kick off, with Chris Staiger sending 12 boats off on the standard medium course.  Jess Atkinson bolted from the blue in the first heat, but after turning the leeward mark with the finish in sight his winch servo decided it was not to be, thus ending Jess’s day. Not to let a chance go by, Pat Nevitt said thank you very much and opened his day up with a bullet.

The heats were very tightly contested and is was great to see Paul Hart lead the fleet on a couple of occasions showing that he’s certainly up for the fight. 🙂

As they say.. The cream floats to the top and both Gerry Wold & Kerim Baran were on their game with both skippers taking two wins and in the end finishing 1st & 2nd respectively.

Second cab off the rank was the Soling 50’s with Gil Jansky and Jason Brooks sharing RD duties and again setting the boats off on the standard medium course. Hughie (wind for us in SD) was indeed kind to us and provided a good breeze for the entire day, albeit a little shifty at times. 🙂

8 Soling’s competed and it was obvious right from the get go who was the one to beat. Chris Staiger in his green machine clocked up an impressive 5 bullets with Gerry Wold taking the last heat.

Again competition was very close and lead changes repetitive throughout the heats; with at times ‘the pond’ deciding who was going to fill which position at the end. Great to have such a good turn out and hopefully we’ll see the same in the coming months.

Thanks very much to Gil, Jason and Chris for helping get the marks in and boat put away.

This season we’re asking that one or two skippers from the last class racing on the day help out with this activity. A couple of extra hands sure do make light work of things... When you volunteer you show you care about your club!

Also, this season we will be applying one drop to the class heats and the scoring of DNF, DNS, Etc. will align with the current RRS using the Low Point System Appendix A5.3 as modified by our Sailing Instructions. Yes, you read correctly, Sailing Instructions.

Please note:

In a move to provide better transparency and information related to the organization and management of our sailing events to members and visitors , we have been working on a set of Sailing Instructions that will be made available to all in the coming weeks.

Next Week – DF 95 & IOM points races.

SEE YOU at THE POND, Chris