It’s that time of the year again folks, gone quiet around the coast, with most of the Island’s active dinghy fleet retreating to the hills for the ‘Watling Streetworks Winter Dinghy Series’.

Racing on the West Baldwin reservoir has a few advantages over the sea sailing during the winter, in fresh water, short commute to the start line and best of all the tide is always in.  Downsides are, just like the sea wind can blow from any direction, the Baldwin valley is special, it can blow from any direction at the same time!

We will have a quick catch up on the November series so far. Please follow this link for the full report – Watling Streetworks Winter Series – 17 November 2024

Manx Sailing & Cruising Club are pleased to announce that once again Manx Utilities are allowing us to use West Baldwin Reservoir to hold our Winter Dinghy Series.

Weather permitting the first race of the ‘Watling Streetworks Winter Series’ will be on Sunday 3 November and every Sunday morning starting at 10.00am through to Sunday 30 March 2025. Injebreck – Sailing Instructions 2024 2025 and Sailing-Area.

As part of the Conditions for Sailing and Boating on West Baldwin Reservoir (MSCC)2024 with Manx Utilities all boats must be cleaned before sailing on the reservoir.  This is particularly important for any boats that have been sailing off Island recently to avoid contamination by invasive species. This can be carried out on Saturday 2 November between 10.00 and Midday though cleaning solution will also be available each Sunday morning before racing. All competitors are requested to read the Conditions for Sailing which can be found at the above link.

You can book and pay here – Injebreck Boat Parking & Race Fee.

Many thanks to Manx Utilities for the use of the reservoir and Doug Watling of Watling Streetworks, who has very kindly agreed to once again be our sponsor for the season.

Manx Sailing & Cruising Club are hosting their annual Laser Regatta on Saturday 5 October in Ramsey Bay.

It will be a one day event with the option of switching to the Sunday if the weather doesn’t play ball. Standard, Radial and 4.7 Classes can compete for the overall honours.

Six short course races, with one discard. If you don’t own a Laser, beg or borrow one (there’s plenty out there). Sailing Instructions can be found at this link – Laser Regatta 2024-Sailing Instructions.

In windy and occasionally not so windy conditions, Game Changer won the Ellan Vannin Maritime Centre Round the Island Race on Saturday.

It was the Beneteau 40.7 from Bangor’s third time of competing in the Manx Sailing & Cruising Club’s annual race, and it managed to get round in just over nine and a half hours. The boat took the Ramsey Town Cup for first place in the Div 1IRC handicap, with Keith Lord’s  A Crewed Interest 2^nd.

‘Our boat is beautiful and took us round the corners,’ said skipper Shaun Douglas. ‘If we hadn’t hit a hole at Maughold we might have been on for the course record. That was a shame but we were just glad to finish.

‘It was 18-20 knots off the Point of Ayre and a bit bumpy. We were then reaching down to Peel and hit a bit of calm after the Calf. After Port St Mary we were flying with the S2 spinnaker, doing 8-9 knots.’

There was a big crew of nine, including some older members of the sailing fraternity causing them to call themselves the ‘Saga Tour’.

‘It must have been my thirtieth time in the event and it was exhilarating,’ said David Edwards, a former Commodore of the Manx Sailing & Cruising Club. ‘I had to do two thirds of the spinnaker.’

The boats set of in brisk Force 4-5 conditions at 11am on Saturday morning, and made rapid progress up the island’s north east coast. A Crewed Interest, the A-35 which won the IOM Breweries Cup and which was Overall Winner on NHC handicap, got a superb start.

‘We hit the start line at full speed with six seconds to spare,’ said skipper Keith Lord, who got back to Ramsey about 25 minutes after Game Changer. ‘It was tough going down the west coast.’

‘We had dolphins surfing in our wake around Jurby,’ said Mark Yell, who was crewing on A Crewed Interest. ‘We had rain chasing us all the way round too.’

‘But we kept pace with the other boats, and always had them in range. We took a big wave off Chicken Rock – it came out of nowhere, all over the front end of the boat. There was lots of teamwork with all of us taking shifts.’

There were several different winners in various categories among the eight starters.

‘It was great to see the trophies going far and wide – to Maryport, Bangor, Douglas, and the MSCC’s own James Bishop, who took the Coronation Cup for Div 2 , NHC Handicaps, with Goodrum 2^nd,’ said Jerry Colman, current Commodore of the MSCC, whose Sea-Pie of Cultra got back third on the water shortly before Kuba Szymanski’s 40.7 Polished Manx at 11pm. 

‘We had a really good crew. We were becalmed for an hour off Peel when the leaders slipped away. We put the spinnaker up by the Drinking Dragon and held it all the way to Maughold. It was cooler than I expected for July. It was windy up at the Point of Ayre. The crew did well in that and so did the old boat.’

It was Bishop’s first silverware in Cutlass of Man. ‘Elizabeth Callow is a superb crew. I wanted to retire but she insisted on continuing and I’m very grateful we finished. For the smaller yachts it was a beat all the way from the Point to the Calf.’ 

Goodrum and Skyfall also made it back in the small hours. Cadenza unfortunately had to turn back half way to the Point of Ayre after her mast spreaders broke.

Thanks to Ellan Vannin Maritime Centre for sponsoring the race, to race officers Andrew Dean and Yogi Quayle, and to Niamh Poole for organising the supper on Friday night and refreshments for the returning sailors on Saturday.

The MYA IOM Dinghy Championships 2024 will be taking place this year in Ramsey Bay hosted by the MS&CC. The first three races are on Saturday 7th September with a start time of 12.30 and the concluding races on Sunday 8th September.

The sailing instructions for this event can be found at this link – IOM Dinghy Championships – 2024 Sailing Instructions