2005 RWO Sponsored Pro-Am Series

For the third year running, RWO Marine Ltd agreed to continue their support of the ISO Class Pro-Am series. Their contributions are money off vouchers for their products, as well as some accompanying hardware prizes

A brief reminder of what the Pro-Am series is all about.

The Pro-Am, it is run along side the actual race meeting ie Nationals, Inlands, Multi Gala etc. After day 1 of the event, the results so far are used to pair up the top half of the fleet with the bottom half. The idea here is for the top guys to coach, their Am partners and tune their boats up, getting them up to speed whilst getting them involved with the fleet.

Overall Results Here....

ISO & Buzz Training @ St Felicia Cerceo, Italy (22nd - 25th April 2004)

Thursday 22nd April, 10:30 local time and Team RWO landed at Ciampino Airport, in Rome Italy. Stefano De' Rossi (ISO 903) awaited our arrival in the freezing 25 deg c temperature!

St Felicia Circeo [Feleecha Cheerchow] is located 1hour 30 mins from Rome. It is on the west coast of Italy, half way between Rome and Naples.

Bags were dropped off at the house, then after a quick food and water stop, we drove to the sailing club, 4 mins away. With the eta of Buzz 452 of about 16:30, Stefano, Pete & Annie,set about completely kitting out ISO 903 due to it having all the fittings removed and refitted. 5 hours later and the boat was starting to look ready for the water. Paolo & Deborah Monciardini arrived with their Buzz and set about rigging.

As the sun was disappearing behind the hill, we all packed away and headed for Stefano's house for an evening meal and a couple of beers. With Pete & Annie being up since 08:30 the previous morning with only 4 hours kip since, there was no wonder they were dropping asleep around 23:15, so bed for all, ready for the next day of sailing.

Friday and all of us were down at the boats by 10:00 to finish tweaking and tuning. Deborah and Annie popped off to the shop for food and beers, then after lunch, Stefano and Annie went off in the ISO, whilst Paolo & Deborah launched in the Buzz. With an Italian only speaking rescue boat driver and a Northern speaking Pete, both were down to communicating through hand signals (not a victory sign was shown in either direction), the result was satisfactory. Marco, Paolo's brother, turned up with the family and stepped into relieve Deborah of her duties in the Buzz.

Windward leeward course set up and several starts, all as per the norm - except for the 25 deg c air temp (and Annie in her dry suit). As usual, the camcorder was put to use to make sure all the action and mishaps were saved for all to laugh at later, sorry, learn from later. Once ashore, a quick rinse of the boats and people and it was back to the house to get washed and changed for a meal out.

Six and a half people (Marco's daughter being the half) ventured up the hill in cars for a very pleasant meal out at the Grottino Restaurant. Pizza's, Pasta, Chocky Cake, Beers, Limoncela, all resulted in six and a half full stomachs.

Saturday was sunny with a force 3. Stefano had to rush off to the harbour to start a local yacht race due to being race office. On his return, Pete explained in true Tyke Italian, the rig set up and general tuning techniques. A bite to eat then straight onto the water. With Annie ashore, Pete initially helmed then crewed for Stefano. After about twenty mins, Pete swam aboard the Buzz and turfed out Paolo, so he could help Marco out with his helming. Next Marco was turfed out of his Buzz to allow Paolo to return and pick up a few tips on crewing techniques. Some good camcorder footage was taken whilst the camcorder was strapped to the space frame of the ISO, this included a bit of under water footage of the ISO during a capsize. It looked just like a program on TV where they go looking for ship wrecks - very eerie especially with the under water noises!!

Ashore, boats were totally packed away, then shopping for a couple of cows, pigs and chickens for a large barbeque back at Stefano's house.

Sunday, Marco & Family, plus Paolo & Deborah, left early for home up near Milan. Stefano, Annie and Pete tidied the house up and headed off up North to Rome for an excellent quick 5 hour tour of Rome, including the colosseum!  Stefano dropped Pete & Annie off at the airport to catch their 19:30 flight back to good old blighty!

An excellent couple of days sailing and great Italian hospitality - as always! Very tiring with early departures and late nights, but as a bonus, two more boats are booked for Garda!!!

ISO Open - Glossop & District SC (2nd & 3rd October 2004)

Glossop's ISO open meeting, part of the ISO Travellers Series was held over the first weekend of October. A severe weather warning of strong gales for the weekend meant that only eight boats turned up though the field did include Graham Shaw and Alan Jones, who were 4th at the 2004 Eurocup and 2003 National Inland Champions Pete Lindley and Annie Smith in ISO 1013 who had won this event for the last five years. The plan for the event was a six race series  results of five races to count. This being Team RTS home event hopes were high for a podium finish especially as they had been third for the last three years in this event. 

Racing started at 1pm in a gale force five south-westerly breeze, occasionally gusting up to force seven. Race one was a windward leeward course using the whole length of the 1 mile long reservoir. Dave Burke & Stef Lucas in ISO 682 Team RTS, used all of their strong wind experience to win the first race by over 5 minutes being the only boat not to capsize during the race. The blustery conditions taking its toll on competitors with a total of four boats retiring through gear failure or the inability to cope with the strong wind. Race two quickly followed on the back of the first race with fewer boats on the start line due to the severe conditions. Team RTS took the lead right from the start and powered away to win comfortably

As the wind built up to a steady force six with even bigger gusts Race three saw only two boats prepared to start the race. Once more, Team RTS lead for the whole race using their greater size to power away from the lightweight Shaw and Jones to win. Whilst waiting for the start of the next race Team RTS had their first capsize of the day and in the confusion missed the starting signal. This was to be the only blip on the weekend. Having given the other competitors a huge start team RTS tried to close the gap before retiring from race 4, which was won by Shaw and Jones. 

The forecast storm force winds for the Sunday didn't materialise and Race five was sailed in a fresh breeze over a simple two-mark course. Team RTS again lead from start to finish and now only had to finish race six to win the event Shaw and Jones were second and teenagers Chris Etchelles and Mike Melles were third. In race six, with the pressure off Team RTS again showed the rest the way round the course only being headed for the first 200yds from the start line before a quick tactical use of a wind shift opened up a lead that Team RTS never looked like losing. The 1,2,3 was the same as race five

A perfect score of five wins gave the event to Team RTS with Shaw and Jones in second and local youngsters Etchelles & Melles making it onto the podium for the first time in third place.

Full Results Here....

2004 Inlands & Gala - Datchet Water SC (9th & 10th October)

Unfortunately no report as the 4th placers couldn't be bothered to write one.

Full Results Here....