IOM THIRD FALL EVENT RESULTS –SATURDAY 26 AUGUST – MANSFIELD HOLLOW SITE

The weather forecast was just so so, but the day turned out to be pretty decent for racing. Ron Rhault set up a flexible course which worked well given the Easterly wind direction. The overcast sky made for a flat visual field which made depth perception difficult. We tried out Ron Rhault’s idea for a lunch break. It worked very well and seemed to make the sailing less of an endurance test for the sailors. The break allowed for a more relaxed meal, not the usual chomp and choke between heats. Thanks Ron for thinking.   Dick Laffraque’s MIOMI boat development seems to be coming along. People in general don’t understand that it takes quite some time to get the kinks out of a boat and to learn what the boat needs in terms of trimming. This week Dick’s boat suffered from a sheet wrapped around a shroud and the topping lift caught on a spreader. Next week those problems will be addressed. A special case of a boat with the kinks worked out is Jake’s IKON. That boat is ancient in IOM terms, but Jake has aggressively developed it to keep it competitive. Of course, making custom sails for the boat has done wonders for squeezing the last bit of speed from the setup.  John Whalen has likewise worked hard to optimize the Todd Brown designed boat. These results suggest that most of our boats are not maximized by a long shot so there is hope for those who keep at testing and changing things.