(Photo – Graham and Phil run their F6s downwind)

We had six members in today, though two were on Worlds Team GBR IOM Training. I must say, they were simply fabulous to watch. Extremely close, tweaking their way to performance. Great.

If you bring your IOM, you obviously cannot race your `Marblehead !! That left four of us. Chris had phoned to say the Ramsgate weather forecast looked horrid and he couldn’t face the two hour drive each way in the rain !! Dave L called in but didn’t seem to be sailing – but great to see him!!

In the region, the morning was indeed rainy horrid, but Datchet was in a little micro climate of its own – we were on B Rigs (good choice) and pretty much the rain dried up by the end of the bacon rolls and tea session. There were supposed to be some 30mph gusts around, and sure enough as we were in for lunch the sun shone through and up the breeze went – sizeable waves too. Then by the end of Kit Kat bars, it subsided and IOM training continued.

So we had some breezy parts. Seven races I think. Richard lost his rudder post inside the hull which caused some spectacular goings on. You’d be surprised how much water a Marblehead can take in and still float. Saved by our alert Commodore suddenly shouting, “that boat is coming in right NOW…” There was gallons aboard. So Dr Hetem has said Marblehead in surgery as I type. Dr H’s managed to trip over a post and do a spectacular parachute type body-roll mid race… resulting in his TX battery pack popping loose. While GH sorted the battery, RJ – with his buoyancy aid invisible beneath his Rooster Robe obviously – had to nip out on the far end of the pontoon to sort the boat out. That left our Sailing Secretary HM, to suddenly lose control in a blowy bit – rudder all wonky. It drifted gently down to the Clubhouse – amazingly on-target at the main pontoon. This turned out to be a connector at the receiver and the rudder was fine!! On top of all that, NB lost his IOM jib tack (long story) just before lunch – and chose a blowy moment for that too. ….So a bit of a day.!!

Our IOM Team GBR heroes hard at it below….Congrats to NB for winning the DF95s at Chipstead yesterday !! Good for the Acersail stats!!