IOM Winter Series Round 11 at Lincoln Model Yacht Club

Lincoln IOM Winter Series Round 11 © Mick Chamberlain

Lincoln IOM Winter Series Round 11 © Mick Chamberlain

Lincoln IOM Winter Series Round 11 © Mick Chamberlain

A very still morning greeted the skippers at Scotland farm with not a breath of wind at 0930, but after a short delay the breeze filled in from the forecasted direction, the favoured South West, light to start with, but after a couple of races we had what we wanted.

Tim H 134 with his very quick Brit Pop got things going and took the first race from Dave R 57 sailing his Vision and in third spot was Roger B 58 with another Brit Pop. We saw the launch of two brand new boats today, a Viss skippered by Richard J 89 and a new Venti sailed by the ever improving Mick Cooper 39, both will have mixed feeling's about their first time out, and both know it takes time to get the best from a new boat. Some of the usual suspects were missing today, but we still had a good fleet of 13, also helped by the return of Chris G 11 who despite his absence sailed well.

In race two Pete W 65 got a great start and went on to win the next two races, before the coffee break was called for. Radio gremlins affected one or two, and at the break batteries were changed in the hope of solving the problem, it seemed to, but further investigation will be necessary.

Race 4 straight after the break was a superb win for Mick Cooper 39 with his brand new Venti (don't touch it was the call) and you could see the smile from all the way from Lincoln, Pete took 2nd spot, to keep his averages low, meanwhile Tim was having a cold streak and recorded his worst two results, Paul Kelly however was quietly getting some good results and was keeping in touch with the leaders, his V10 proving a very good buy in recent weeks.

The breeze by now was up to a decent strength, and some great racing was being had. The next two races had Chris G taking a first and a second, race six had Criss E 74 take his only win of the morning, he was OOD and did a great job on that count.

Adrian Cripps is finally getting to grips with his Venti and we can expect more from him, the last three races saw Tim take a couple of firsts and a second to stretch his lead over Pete and win with a small margin, with Pete W second and Paul K third rounding off a great morning's racing in beautiful sunshine.

The quality of racing and respect was second to none and I doubt if anyone went home without a smile, As we all know the first ranking of the season is coming up in a couple of weeks at Scarborough with 57 entries and I am pleased to say ten skippers from the Lincoln club, so watch this space.

Many thanks to all who helped get the stuff put away and to all skippers for a fabulous morning's racing. Very well done to Tim on his win, he just keeps getting better and better.

Overall Results:

Lincoln IOM Winter Series Round 11 - photo © Mick Chamberlain