At midday on Saturday the annual Manx Sailing & Cruising Club Ramsey to Laxey Dinghy race got underway with a ‘Le Mans’ type start.  This is a long-standing feeder race to Laxey for their annual Regatta held on the Sunday.

 

Whilst the boats were being rigged it was uncertain as to whether the race would start but slowly and surely the breeze built to about a Force 4 as the fleet were nearing Laxey for a perfect two hour beat into the wind.

 

Not long after the start it became evident that the boats fitted with Asymmetric spinnakers were making good time towards Maughold Head, so much so that when the trio of Lasers, Pridham, Kee, Pressley, rounded the headland Andrew Dean/Dave Kneale (RS 200) were a dot on the horizon.  As usual the wind died under the headland and by taking the extreme ‘inside’ line Kee overtook the other two Lasers, Pridham taking the ‘outside’ line and Pressley the ‘middle’.  Meanwhile Dean/Kneale tacked back towards the Island from Whitehaven to lead Pridham by only a couple of hundred yards, proving again that short tacking close to the coast is best when the wind is from the south-west.

 

Both on the water and on corrected time the race was won by Andrew Dean and Dave Kneale by 16 seconds from Mike Pridham in second, Ralph Kee a further minute behind in third and Simon Pressley fourth who never really recovered from the ‘Maughold Head doldrums’.

 

Roger and Helen Cave with James Allison (Stratos) had a good run together with Jason Hyett and Sacha Duchars (Vago) but they were unable to catch the faster boats.

 

Many thanks to Laxey Sailing Club for providing much needed showers, Don and Ed for manning the safety boats and Helen for OOD.