Winners of the January Series – Eric & Joe Whitelegg ably assisted by Phil Hardisty

Write up by Jerry Colman

After Saturday’s gales and the evening’s Burns Night festivities at MS&CC and IOMYC, a somewhat diminished fleet of 9 boats took to the water on Sunday 25th January for the last two races of the January series. These took place under clouded skies and with a very shifty and gusty, allegedly South Easterly breeze. It is normal to point sailing dinghies into the wind when hoisting or handing (dropping) sail so on arrival your correspondent arranged the Finn on a South Easterly heading and hoisted the flapping mainsail. Moments later the flapping stopped, not because the wind had paused but because it was now blowing quite hard in the opposite direction, threatening to blow the boat off its trolley. Other sailors were experiencing similar problems and there were doubts all round the dinghy park as to whether sailing would be possible in these conditions. However, after a short hesitation, the Finn was launched (safer on the water than in the boat park) and the rest followed up the lake towards the start line. Click here for the full report – Watling Streetworks Winter Series – 25 January 2026