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NOTICE OF RACE – TOPPER CHALLENGE 2011

The Topper Challenge will be held on Sunday 30th October at Mooragh Park, Ramsey.

Eligibilty & Entries
Entries are invited from:

Ard Whallin Outdoor Centre
IOMYC
King Williams College
Maughold Venture Centre
MS&CC
7th Wave

Centres may enter one team of three people, competitors may only sail for one team. Entrants must be aged 16 or under on the day of the competition.

Closing date for entries is Friday 21st October please email teams / entries to jen@7thwave-iom.com

Venue & Format
Competitors briefing will be at 13.00 by the Mooragh Park Cafe. First race will start promptly after the briefing.

The Topper Challenge is a team racing event, all teams will race each other, the winning team shall be the team scoring the greatest number of race wins.

Courses, sailing instructions and rule amendments will be announced at the competitors briefing.

Boats will be provided.

It has been a busy summer this season with more young sailors joining our Youth Sailing Weeks and more adults taking the Dinghy Level 1 course than ever before. Our new Youth Powerboat Handling course also proved very popular and we ran a good number of RYA Powerboat Level 2 courses for the grown ups.

Looking ahead to the next few months, Saturday Club sailing sessions for juniors will continue until the end of October, then we have a full shorebased programme planned to take us through into the new year….

Youth Navigation Courses at Half-Term
During October half term we will be running a new two-day basic navigation course for youngsters aged between 11 and 16. This promises to be an interesting course which will introduce concepts including compass work and direction finding, latitude and longitude, basic chartwork, chart symbols, buoyage, position fixing and much more. As usual we will ensure that this course is pitched at an appropriate level for younger sailors. Theory elements for Stage 4 and some of the more advanced courses can be signed off after successful completion of the course. The course will run from 10am until 5pm each day, the course fee is £120 inclusive of VAT.

VHF Short Range Certificate
Courses for adults start in November with VHF courses on 5th November (full already) and 3rd December. The VHF course provides you with the knowledge, confidence and necessary legal documentation required to operate a marine band VHF/DSC radio. There is a short assessment at the end of the day. The course runs from 9am until 5pm, the fee is £99 inclusive of VAT. There is an additional fee of £30 payable to the RYA for issue of the licence.

RYA Essential Navigation and Seamanship
On 12th & 13th November we are running the RYA Essential Navigation and Seamanship course from 9.30am until 5.00pm each day. This is a great course for those who use small boats for coastal journeys. You will become familiar with basic chartwork, position fixing, compass use, interpreting tidal and weather information, some seamanship skills, GPS use and more! No previous boating experience is required. The course fee is £169 which includes all course notes, training charts, training chartplotter software and VAT.

RYA Dayskipper Theory
Dayskipper Theory starts on Saturday 19th November and runs on Saturdays (all day) and Thursday evenings until 10th December. This course is a comprehensive guide to essential aspects of navigation, chartwork, pilotage and seamanship. For details of the full course content please contact me. The course fee is £289 per person which includes all course materials and VAT.

RYA Yachtmaster Theory
In the new year we will be running the Yachtmaster Theory course over six Saturdays from 14th January to 18th February. This advanced course equips skippers with the knowledge required to make offshore and overnight passages and takes your theory knowledge to the standard required for the RYA Coastal Skipper and RYA Yachtmaster Offshore practical exams. Prior knowledge to RYA Dayskipper Theory standard is an essential pre-requisite for this course. The course fee is £289 which includes all course materials and VAT.

If you would like any more information or wish to book a place on any of our courses please contact me. Our shop is open 10.30am – 5pm Tuesday to Saturday right up until Christmas so you can pop in for a chat, call us on 836366 or email me.

What should have been a quiet day turned out to be rather exciting.

It started with a call to Dad who was in a very busy PSM lifeboat station, it turned out they had a party of guests and needed a crew to take them out on the boat. So at 1pm we took the boat out for an hour.

At 2.45 students from the Buchan arrived at the station for a pre-arranged visit a part of the Buchan Badge scheme. The students were great and had loads of really good questions about the RNLI and both the ILB and ALB on station. We were mid-conversation about rescues when our Mechanic Gordie came in and said “we’ve had a launch request”. So the Buchan Badge pupils were treated to watching both boats launch on service!

The shout was to a 26ft yacht who was off Pooil Vaaish with a lobster pot well and truly snagged in the propeller and around the rudder. Two crew members Mike and Tom Keggen went aboard the yacht and secured the tow line which was transferred to the yacht by the ILB. The yacht was then towed into Port St Mary by the ALB. At 5.30 the boats were back on station.

6pm home for a cup of tea!

7th Wave is delighted to be working with the Buchan School on their new extra curricular ‘Buchan Badge’ scheme.

We are providing advice and activities for the Nautical Element to their badges. Last week we ran two knot tying sessions and this afternoon the Form 3s have been at 7th Wave enjoying a kayaking session.

Great fun was had by all! Hoping the weather holds so we can get the Form 4s sailing next week (fingers crossed)….

The Manx sailors have a great weekend of racing with some very strong performances at the top of the fleet and some promising racers coming through the middle of the fleet.

Greg Kelly really did have a tough weekend with constant battles for the top spots. He series was so consistent that he finished in the top five in every race. Greg was disappointed not to have won a race, but to demonstrate such consistency at the top of a national fleet is an outstanding achievement.

Ffinlo Wright sailed like a rocket in several races clawing back places through the fleet after some poor starts. Again another fine demonstration of consistency, he finished in the top 10 in every race.

Matthew Petts showed a huge improvement on last years results moving comfortably into the top third of the national fleet. His best result during the series was a 10th place.

Ben Batchelor again showed huge improvement on last year. His goal was to finish in the top 20, he scored 9th place in two races yesterday and today he worked really hard in the breeze finishing all races in the top third of the fleet.

In the Pro fleet Amie Shute demonstrated some superb starts and looked really strong in the breeze today. Tony Pitt looked confident with the Pro rig in both lighter and stronger winds, he too had some excellent starts and was flying on the reaches.

Overall Results:
Sport Fleet

Greg Kelly 4th
Ffinlo Wright 6th
Matthew Petts 14th
Ben Batchelor 18th

Pro
Amie Shute 13th
Tony Pitt 26th

Greg Kelly made an excellent start to this race and was first around the windward mark. Again there were frequent changes at the top of the fleet, including Ffinlo there in third place for a while!

Amie had another excellent start, but incurred a 720 penalty at the leeward mark. Tony Pitt was back out on the water for this race and confidently sailing the Pro around the course.

Results:
Sport
Greg Kelly 4th
Ffinlo Wright 5th
Matthew Petts 15th
Ben Batchelor 22nd

Pro
Amie Shute 10th
Tony Pitt 24th

Greg Kelly and Matt Petts each got excellent starts in this race, both in the top five off the line in the Sport fleet and Amie Shute got away well in the Pro fleet. Ffinlo had a poor start but battled his way round the course to finish in 6th place.

Matt Petts and Ben Batchelor both held their own in this race to get some great results.

At the top of the fleet the competition was really tight with only 4 points separating the top four boats. Greg Kelly sailed another storming race, positions changed frequently between the top three with windshifts on the last beat being the deciding factor.

In the Pro fleet, Amie sailed her best race of the series enjoying the stronger breeze. Tony Pitt had an unfortunate capsize incident where another capsized boat got entangled with his. The rescue boat had to assist them so he retired from this race.

Sport:
Greg Kelly 3rd
Ffinlo Wright 6th
Matthew Petts 13th
Ben Batchelor 18th

Pro:
Amie Shute 6th
Tony Pitt RTD

There was plenty of wind for the racing today, which gave for some exciting sailing, fast planing reaches and a few capsizes!

Results:

Sport:
Greg Kelly 2nd
FFinlo Wright 9th
Matthew Petts 21st
Ben Batchelor 26th

Pro:
Amie Shute 17th
Tony Pitt 28th

Having completed five races today one discard has been allowed for in the overall standings, which moved Greg from equal first down to fifth place. Only 5 points separate the top five boats at the moment, so there could be some big changes after tomorrow’s three races. It is very tough racing at the top end of this fleet!

Sport Fleet:
Greg Kelly 5th
Ffinlo Wright 7th
Ben Batchelor 13th
Matthew Petts 20th

Pro Fleet:
Amie Shute 13th
Tony Pitt 27th

Sport Fleet:

Greg Kelly 4th
Ffinlo Wright 7th
Ben Batchelor 9th
Matthew Petts 10th

Matthew and Ben both had a great race after getting off the start well at the favoured committee boat end. They held their positions well and provided a tough battle for Ffinlo who chased them round the course catching Matthew on the run and reeling Ben in on the final beat!

Pro Fleet:
Amie Shute 16th
Tony Pitt DNC