On Saturday morning Manx Sailing & Cruising Club started their famous coastal race from the beach at Ramsey with a ‘Le Mans’ style start.

The weather forecast was absolutely perfect, south westerly, force 3 to 4, for racing from Laxey to Ramsey!! So no speed records were going to be broken with 8 miles of upwind sailing.

The fleet of eight made brisk progress to Maughold Head and bunched up in the flukey conditions, but is was Danny Boyes, Angus “Gus” Jolly and Simon Pressley who found the wind first and made a break for it. A short while after this a small squall came through, from my commentary position, about mid-fleet this year, I lost sight of Danny and Gus, when the mist cleared they were dots on the horizon.

It was Gus that made the best progress in the very even wind to finish just ahead of Danny on the water in just over two hours. However, the Lasers of Simon and Ralph Kee made enough time to beat Danny on handicap.

Many thanks to all the competitors, for some it is a serious race and others an opportunity to sail one of the nicest parts of our coast line, especially when the sun shines, and it did in the end.

Thanks must also go to everyone who manned the rescue boats, a vital role for a race of this type and also to Barbara Jolly for acting as OOD.

Results

1st ​Angus Jolly (RS 600)
2nd​ Simon Pressley (Laser)
3rd​ Ralph Kee (Laser)
4th​ Danny Boyes/Juan Hendy (B14)
5th ​Richard & Deacon Lombard-Chibnall/Alan Agnew (Stratos)
6th ​Helen & Roger Cave (Stratos Keel)