The IOM State Championship has now been run and won. Congratulations to Scott on winning yet another title. However, Scott didn’t have it all his own way.
Saturday commenced on time with a light-moderate South-Westerly blowing down the channel. We ended up with 14 entries after a late withdrawal, which given the timing with the Nationals was to be expected. It was nevertheless great to have a couple of Victorian visitors come across for the racing. The first race turned up a complete surprise with Grant Edwards showing amazing boat speed out of the blocks to take the win. From then on during the day the race winners continually changed across the top-5 with only Brett getting a couple of back to backs. As a spectator I can’t remember such an even performance for a days racing across a 5 person group. Whilst the wind was generally in the same direction we were continually getting gusts coming in from the west. This made sure the race-course was not one-way and those willing to take a punt on going across the other side could occasionally get some quick wins.
After getting 16 races on the Saturday it took the pressure off the Sunday. It looked early on like we might get some Easterly influence so we set the course with alternative top marks in-shore. However, the course quickly settled back into a familiar South-Westerly with the occasional westerly or easterly gust. Again, there was no ‘right’ way to go and the sailors needed to play the averages to avoid losing too much with the erratic shifts. After a very close first day we started to see some cracks at the top with Brett and Paul both having some worse results and boat issues. However, after a scratchy first day Alex was now starting to put in some strong performances. It was particularly great to see Scott and Alex go head-to-head with very little between them up the work. I’m sure we’ll see more of this competition in future. After lunch the wind strengthened, and all boats moved onto B rigs. We brought the bottom of the course in a bit closer with the westerly influence which brought the wharf into play. However, again there was no obvious right side and the results see-sawed during the afternoon. Ultimately consistency paid off and Scott held on for the win by 3 points closely followed by Brett and Alex. Paul was again unlucky for the second week in a row, narrowly missing the podium by 3 points.
Podium: L-R: Brett Osborn (second) , Scott Mitchell (Champion), Alex Scapens (third)
Thanks to Tony, Graham and Alan for running the racing and for all the competitors for turning up and making it a great event.
I lost count of the number of interested spectators I spoke to, but it is a very popular event down at the Port and a showcase for our sport. It is also now great to have the support of the Lightsview club with our racing program and as a low-cost feeder into the IOM, RM and 10R classes. We had a number of new participants down there who are now getting in via the DF program at Lightsview with a potential view to upgrading to the IOMs in future as their interest progresses.
Johan Bergkvist and Tim Paynter took the time to take some videos of the event from the ground and in the air. These are great and I encourage you to have a look at the different perspectives. You can learn a lot about the course positioning of the winning boats.
(3) Adelaide Radio Control Yacht Racing Club | Adelaide SA | Facebook – Johan’s videos of races 19-22 on Sunday
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mgh2FXvVAoU&feature=youtu.be – Tim’s aerial view of Race 16 on Saturday
Simon How