I.O.M Winter Series Round 12 at Lincoln Radio Sailing Club

Lincoln I.O.M Winter Series round 12 - Darin Ballington and his winning Brit Pop © Mick Chamberlain

Wow, what a day at Lincoln with a firm breeze straight down the lake. 18 skippers came to the start line, and I am pretty sure all went home smiling.

At the briefing it was always going to be a choice of A rig or with the strengthening breeze would you play it just a little safe and stick on the B rig, well have got to say it was an A rig start and a few opted for this and they were right.

First blood went to the visitor from Birkenhead, Robby Mac with his Venti, and in fact the top three in the first race all had A rigs including Rob Radbourne with his Proteus who took a third spot.

The breeze had picked up considerably and I'm not sure if we did one more race or not, but very soon the A riggers were rushing for their sail boxes, as this was now defiantly B rig conditions. Boy oh boy what racing we were in for. Brilliant course, three long beats with two good runs and a gate at the bottom.

Races two and three were taken by Darin B 98 with his Brit Pop. Tim H 134 had a sniff in race two, but it was not going to be his day, Rob W 97 was going well but with the strong breeze and waves, he was not going like he knows he can. Roger C 30 with his Venti improved as the day wore on and will be well happy. Paul M 52 from Fleetwood was going very well with his V12 and improves with every outing. Mick C had Winch problems which held him back in the first two races but then a miracle, and all was OK, not so Pete W 65 with a similar problem was forced to retire after race 9.

I just could not know where to begin with trying to tell you all how exciting this racing was. A few times the wind gods came out and gave us all a test, especially downwind, and at times it was max breeze for the B rig, with wipe outs a many and down in the gate area there were some decent sized waves to make it even more interesting. Darin B 98 was dominant but all through the fleet local battles were being had. The visitors, not including Roger C (as he is one of ours) had a great day, as did everybody.

Just a quickie here, there were an awful lot of ex-dinghy racers out there today, and all will say what a fantastic sport / hobby this Radio Racing is, and when you get days like this it is a fantastic advert for our sport. Young or old, Radio Racing is a challenge, so come and join us.

Very well done to Darin for the win, and in fact to all skippers for such a memorable day.

Overall Results: