2022 Ranking 3 & 4

Ranking 3 & 4 - 3rd/4th September 2022

Ranking 3 and 4 will be hosted by Birkenhead RS&PC and take place at West Kirby Marine Lake over the weekend 3rd/4th September.

A total of 28 boats made it to IOM Ranking #3 on Saturday 3rd September. With only two heats and 6 promotion many sailors spent the day oscillating between Heats A and B and when they weren’t sailing had an observer duty to fit in as well. The breeze built during the day and there was plenty of rig changing between A and B suits, which was not the forecast at all. Along with a heavy rain shower for a short while, everyone had some difficulties in getting into a groove.

2022 IOM Ranking 4

After a delay of nearly 2 hours whilst the wind decided whether it wanted to blow and from which direction racing finally began. We had arrived to a SE breeze bordering on 3rd suit, which suddenly moderated to a top suit, then switched within 10 minutes to a NW of a similar strength with rain. This breeze lasted for around 25 minutes before dying and finally starting to fill from the SE again.

After a single heat, there was another shift and come from the S, requiring another course change. The wind could not really decide which direction to come from and also had a slightly different direction at the top of the course from the bottom. So a zig-zag two beat figure of 8 course was used with minor changes to windward and leeward marks to try and give decent beats for each heat.

Peter Stollery mastered the conditions and was Mr Consistency, discarding only a 3rd and finishing on 7 points and 11 points ahead of Rob Walsh in second, followed by Graham Elliott in third.

Only 6 races were completed after losing time at the start of the day.

Reports and results by Peter Baldwin