This write-up is courtesy of Jerry Colman.

The Manx Sailing and Cruising Club welcomed 23 entries to their annual dinghy racing regatta including fleets of Lasers, RS 200s, RS Fevas, RS Teras and handicap boats. Racing took place on Saturday and Sunday, with 3 races planned for each day. Saturday brought light and shifty breezes and a delayed start while race officer Keith Poole waited for the breeze to settle which it eventually did from the SE at 1 to 8 knots. These flukey conditions split the fleet into about 4 bunches according to the skills (or luck) of the wind searchers with Dave and Emily Batchelor in their RS 200 showing their skills were no lucky chance with a very competent performance and Phil Hardisty crewed by Ciara Kaneen close behind in their RS200. The wind shifted left, right, up and down so after 2 races and more delay Keith called it a day with the Batchelors having won both races.

Sunday brought a forecast of strong NW winds which duly arrived together with welcome sunshine and challenging choppy conditions. Wind speeds up to around 25 knots saw the crews fully hiked out upwind and for the asymmetric spinnaker RS boats downwind also. The roar of the wind and waves was punctuated by occasional sharp slaps as Laser sails hit the water hard, capsizing downwind as the helms fought to maintain control. The Fevas and RS 200s were very impressive flying their kites in the squally conditions, storming along in clouds of spray right on the edge between control and disaster, with quite a few going over at the gybe marks only to struggle back up and race on if they could. James Kelly and Anna Harding were especially impressive in their RS200 taking 2 wins in these conditions and staying upright throughout. The fleet split again with the Lasers going dead downwind while the asymmetrics zig-zag to get the best out of their rigs and this together with the experience in the Laser fleet allowed the single-handers to get back into the reckoning. Mike Pridham in his Laser, always confident in a blow, began to haul back some points from Simon Pressley after a difficult day on Saturday with a 3-2-3 to Simon’s 8-8-4 and Phil Hardisty took a 10-4-2. Meanwhile the Batchelors after taking a second in Sunday’s first race (putting them well in the lead) suffered a multiple capsize in the second, retired from that and did not finish the third race which was sailed in the strongest winds of the day.

There were quite a few gear failures and some retirements hurt or just plain overwhelmed and by the end the fleet was down to 13 boats crewed by the toughest bunch of sailors we have been lucky enough to see in action for a goodly while. Their age range from about 10 to 63 shows how really competitive sailing can be enjoyed right through your active life.  However although the Race Officer had planned to run 4 races on Sunday it was clear that the guys and gals had had enough so with just 5 races sailed in total the competitors returned to the shore. In the final reckoning the honours just went to Phil Hardisty & Ciara Kaneen (RS200) with Mike Pridham sailing a Laser Radial second and James Kelly & Anna Harding (RS200) in third. For more pictures please visit our Facebook page, the full results are as follows: MSCCRegatta2014_ClassMixedhandicapValidated.