International One Metre Radio Sailing
Great Britain

The final two rounds of the IOM ranking series were hosted by the Two Islands club located at Furzton Lake in Milton Keynes.

 

The 42 skippers were greeted by club commodore Keith Coxon who then handed over to our PRO for the day, Darin Ballington, Rob Owen and his assistant Imogen were our umpires/judges for the weekend but luckily there were no show stopping protests over the weekend.

 

Sailing commenced at 9.45 with the two seeding races before the fleet sailing, the two seeding races were won by Martin Roberts and Rob Walsh. The wind was quite light to start with but built as the day went on with plenty of shifts and gusts for the skippers to navigate. It was Rob Walsh that sailed an exemptional day taking six wins from eight races sailing his BritPOP! design, a distant second was Chris Harris with Graham Elliott rounding of the podium positions.

 

In the evening a surprise 70th Birthday get together was organised for the MYA President Derek Priestley which was a great chance to meet up with old friends and make new ones. Sunday, the final ranking race for 2021 and with a change of PRO, it was Chris Harris who would take charge for the day, he also kindly chartered his yacht to Vernon Appleton for the day. The wind was pretty much from the same direction as the previous day but an awful lot stronger with some fantastic gusts that saw some nose diving and even the odd B rig appear and then disappear as there were still some big holes around the windward marks, the sun also came into play for the day, low in the sky and straight in the skippers eyes at times.

 

The two seeding races were again won by Martin Roberts and Rob Walsh but Rob was not going to be as dominant as he was the day before with 5 skippers all up there going into the final 2 races of the day, in the end it was Graham Elliott sailing his BritPOP! who took the day from Rob with John Tushingham sailing his Mark Dicks designed Vision rounding of the podium places.

 

Mention must go to James Hadden sailing his very well sorted home built 'Alternative' design of which the plans are available to buy from BG Sails and Design. Many thanks must go to the Two Islands club for a very well organised race and all the volunteers that made the weekend a complete success.

 

The 2022 season kicks off with the National Championships at Castle Semple just outside Glasgow at the end of April, this is always one of the best races and a warm Scottish welcome is guaranteed.

 

Graham Elliott