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This write-up was very kindly done by Andrew Dean.

It was the Manx Sailing and Cruising Club’s turn to host the IOM Copiers IOM Dinghy Championships this year and the weather played more than its usual bag of tricks for the 15 boats competing.  The schedule was for six races between the Saturday and Sunday but wind changes allowed just two on the Sunday despite the excellent efforts of the race team headed by Keith Poole.

Race 1 was very windy with many capsizes including race winner Angus Jolly in the exciting RS100, second went to Phil Hardisty and Ciara Kaneen in one of four RS200’s competing. They had just returned from the Lake Garda RS Eurocup and had clearly learnt from the experience.  This result set a pattern of a close battle between Hardisty/Kaneen and Jolly with the rest of the fleet fighting for 3rd, and what a contest that proved to be.  Third in this race was taken by RS200 newcomers James Kelly and Luke Collins who enjoyed the wild water, 4th being taken by father and daughter combo Dave and Emily Batchelor in another RS200 .  Remarkably all starters managed to finish.

Race 2 saw a wind moderation but the same 1/2 result with James Walker sailing his Olympic class Laser in to 3rd .  This time the course was a triangle giving windy reaches for the fleet to enjoy.

A quieter P-shaped course Race 3 saw Phil and Ciara win from Angus, with Dave and Emily notching up their best result of 3rd.  In the meantime Simon Pressly in another Laser was notching up two fourths.

Overnight the leaders were calculating all sorts of scenarios, whilst watching carefully the weather forecasts which were to yield only an approximation of what was to come.

Sunday dawned a pleasant day unless you were trying to compete in the champs. The forecast had suggested wind NW backing gradually SE, moderate, but only the first and last bits happened.  On launching the wind was indeed NW light but immediately disappeared, then like a switch became SE light.  Keith set us off with little delay but the wind died during the race and it was a struggle to finish.  Phil and Ciara crept through to pip Gus in the front fight and junior Ben Batchelor secured 3rd in the junior section, putting together a brilliant regatta for this promising lad who had just finished 3rd at the RS Tera Nationals at Derwent.  Veteran Andrew Dean with daughter Katie Kneale in the RS200 notched up their best result with a scratchy 4th.

Drifting around for a while waiting for the wind meant only one more race, the Decider since Phil and Gus were tied.  The SE wind filled in suddenly but poor Gus had to yield to Phil and Ciara who had great ability to get the 200 to really plane downwind in the gusty conditions.

Recent past champ Mike Pridham (Sunday only) shared 3rd with young Ben but Simon snatched 2nd and therefore 3rd overall.  Junior Mathew Perry in the other Tera Pro took another 5th to secure an excellent 9th overall, second junior to Ben who is worryingly quick and fearless.

A great regatta with winners Phil and Ciara and second again for Gus.  Only 4 points separated 3rd to 8th so well done Simon who is off to the Laser Masters.

Keith Poole and Neil Rawlinson made a great job of OOD and extra thanks must go to Kev Christian OBE and the Lifeboat team and Juan Hendy and friends for the Safety boats.  Of course the finale was the Wonderful Regatta Tea and Bass Red Triangle.

For full results and more pictures please follow the link at the bottom of this page to Facebook.