Interesting reading all of the above. I too have been coming for years (back of my Dads XL250 in the 70's), and now marshal the event. I was asked several times by locals as to what I thought of the new schedule. In truth I am an admirer of the organisers for taking the TT forward, but with two big caveats.

Firstly, the new schedule does not work. Too many races and on consecutive days. A hostage to fortune. I was there for nearly two weeks and only truly had one free day. Sure there were days where I had no duties, but as we were awaiting the cancellation we couldn't arrange other stuff. I used to enjoy the days off in-between. The island is awesome and the non-racing events were always a big part of the event for me.

Secondly, the safety/care for the marshals pendulum seems to have swung too far the other way. My racing experience is limited to a few years on the shorts, so I will defer to those of you with roads experience. It seemed that twice this time around the days racing was cancelled prematurely. Gary Thompson has done a great job of taking us away from the days when we would sit around at our post for hours awaiting an eventual cancellation. The call is now made much earlier, but I'm concerned it is sometimes too early which loses an opportunity for some action. Also, if the racers are the best then why can they not handle some wet sections? Put treaded tyres on and ride accordingly? Put the right wrist in rain mode. I'm not suggesting going back to the days of racing in bad weather, but the combination of the intensive schedule and cancelling at the slightest sign of damp roads is surely going to lead us to problems almost every year.