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 25^th 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

The Manx Sailing & Cruising Club Frostbite Regatta took place on Boxing Day with a fleet of 16 boats (17 if you include Hilary the patrol boat with Andy Dunn and May Shiu Chan) who took to the water under brilliant blue skies and with a mostly light, allegedly Easterly breeze. Traditionally this is a pursuit race where boats are started at times related to their speed handicaps so that if they were sailed to those handicaps they would all finish level at a fixed time, 1200 hrs in this case. So the slowest boats, the RS Teras sailed by juniors Jake Walker and Charlie Watterson started first at 1100 followed at irregular intervals by James Walker in the Streaker, various Lasers, the Whiteleggs in the Enterprise then at 1116 the rest including Dave Batchelor’s Supernova, the RS Aero 7s of Simon Cain, Tom Watterson, Will Osbourn and Teddy Dunn and your correspondent in the Finn. Click here for the full report

Write up by Jerry Colman

A South Easterly forecast with rain could have put a few off especially those who know what a mess it can make of the breeze on the lake but after a little hesitation from the older hands, youth took over and a fleet of 13 dinghies set off up the lake for the start line through the gusts, lulls, shifts and showers.

There was a festive spirit about the whole event with welcome appearances from Will Osbourn and Teddy Dunn both sailing RS Aero 7s who we hadn’t seen for a while. Not to be outdone, the Hyett family added 3 more to the roster in the forms of daughters Lettie and Tullie with Dad Jason (mostly astern) in a selection of Lasers. Full Report – Watling Streetworks Winter Series – 21 December 2025

Write up by Jerry Colman

Attendance at the dinghy park at Injebreck on Sunday morning was a bit thinner than usual as might have been expected with a forecast windspeed of 30 knots and gusting over 40 from the South with rain. However, it didn’t look too bad on the water before the start although your correspondent did mention to Dave Batchelor (Supernova) that it looked a bit worse at the top of the lake when driving past on the way from Ramsey. Batch was just putting his mast back up after wisely lowering it for Tuesday’s Storm Bram and we started to convince each other that it would be ok. The full report can be found at this link – Watling Streetworks Winter Series – 14 December 2025

Write up by Jerry Colman

A forecast of increasingly strong Southeasterly winds and heavy rain in the Irish Sea did not deter the fleet at Injebreck on Sunday where 12 dinghies raced in the December Series. On arrival it seemed that again Injebreck had not been listening to the forecast with light and very shifty breezes, calm spots all over the lake and a welcome absence of precipitation. These conditions were not to persist for the whole morning, however.

Indeed as soon as the sails were hoisted in the dinghy park, the wind picked up from all directions and with notable strength causing us competitors to duck and dive as booms swung about threatening life and limb making it far safer to get afloat and away from the crowd. On the water the general meteorological mess was slowly developing with mostly Southerly conditions at each end and Westerly or nothing in the middle. The course was set from the middle to the South end, back to the North end then middle again so dodging calms thrice a lap would put you in the money. Watling Streetworks Winter Series – 7 December 2025