When you build a web site on all things IOM, one has the challenges to get feedback from visitors on how the site is perceived. It is always a pleasure to get great feedback and I would like to share it with you.
This is part of an email from John Crix of HMLYC writing to his members about the web site.
"However, the site which I've recent discovered and wish to commend to you is Nigel Barrow's 'IOM BUILD, SETUP, TUNE, RACE, WIN - Go Faster in the right direction' https://www.nigelbarrow.co.uk/
I was recently introduced to Nigel and his site. Like some of our own members, Nigel Barrow is an ex-top level dinghy sailor. He also has the practical skills necessary to have built his first two IOMs, although he's now moved on (up?) to a Britpop. This is all described on the site and Nigel has included all the useful reference pages and links you'd expect to find on a site of this nature.
But, as far as I'm concerned, the best part of the site is his 'Thought for the day' blog. It's a great mixture: boat building and rigging, gear set-up, tuning, race psychology and tactics. He constantly reviews his own performance, see, for instance, blog entries such as 'The Nationals 2021 - What did I learn'. When I first found this blog I scrolled and scrolled down to the very oldest entry and then spent a long but pleasant evening sequentially reading through every entry which looked at all interesting. And there were a lot of them in this category. At the end of this I felt as though I'd read a book, someone describing his journey into IOM racing from early days building his own boat to now being pretty competitive at a national level. Inspirational stuff - and also very well written.
I was hooked, have since signed up as a member and now get an email notification when Nigel updates his blog. This morning there was a particularly good addition, titled 'Racing an IOM - A Christmas fairy tale'. I won't be issuing any spoilers, suffice to say it set me off on a daydream about the time forthcoming, this summer we hope, when Janet and I take delivery and take to the water with our brand new Ceccarelii Venti IOMs and... well anyway, suffice to say that this morning Nigel's post was a great antidote to my slight gloom at having coming pretty well last in every race yesterday."
Thank you John
Tomorrow's post is about a very old wooden IOM driven by a rather smart sailor.