IOM Nationals 2026 At Datchet Radio Sailing Club
Five club members braved storm Dave and attended this years IOM Nationals. This 3 day event was a warm up for the Worlds which are being held at the venue later this year. There were 52 entrants and the wind howled for the first two days and reducing somewhat on the last day. The change in the wind affected our members very differently.
Nigel Barrow who had been in the low teens had a 6th, 4th & 2nd in the last three races which gave him a 11th overall. Conversely Rob Dyer who had been having single figure results in the heavy winds had a 44th, 17th & 14th in the last three races dropping him out of the top ten to thirteenth.
David Donin sailing his Venti for only the second time away from home, had a very creditable 3rd in the 10th race but again the lighter winds were his undoing but he still finished a very creditable 19th in this fleet containing national & world champions.
Nigel Brown is still to get to grips with his Venti design IOM. Time has been against him with moving House & the Cat Sails Sail Loft whilst still supplying sails to the World Market. By the end of the event he made good progress up to 30th.
Talking of progress James Hadden, only competing in the 1st and last 5 races still managed a 39th overall whilst counting 5 DNS’s !!
So well done to all our members competing and thank you to Wayne Stobbs for the photo.
See some spectacular photos from Buzz Colman with close ups of David & Nigel: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipOYf0IxZCw9alfmKC3Yd4EN4LAyowkzmisrQ7WVKHW7YwABeGdUcY2Mv8N96hSj2A?key=bllkNFlPUmhCOWxfY2VyUWIyXzByMERZeF9sUWxn
