Sunday morning saw the final round of the February series of the Watling Streetworks Winter Series in conditions that have not been seen for some time – the SUN!!  The fact that it was half term and the forecast was not great meant that the crews making it to the start line were down from previous rounds.

With the forecast south westerly the wind (not a breeze) was blowing mostly up the valley with the usual Injebreck lumps and bumps.

Making by far the best of the conditions junior, Thomas Watterson (Aero 7) popped out to the front of the fleet early on and by the end had a commanding lead both on the water and after the correction.  Second place went to James Walker (Streaker) who could have, perhaps achieved more if he had been on the right side of the line at the start. Click her for the full report – Watling Streetworks Winter Series – 22 February

Write up by Jerry Colman

With threats of ferry cancellations, the mountain road closed due to snow and drifts expected anywhere from a few hundred feet up, it was not that surprising that only 9 crews made it to the start line on Sunday morning for races 5 and 6 of the Injebreck February Series. However on arrival we found the weather to be reasonably warm, cloud level a bit above the water and a gentle South Westerly blowing fairly consistently straight up the lake.  

The first race got away with a split in the fleet, some taking the West side and some going East looking for beneficial shifts and extra pressure on this upwind leg and finding rather more variation than we had previously observed. So Injebreck had not transformed into a steady sailors racetrack after all but retained its hard to read character and the effects of this soon became apparent as the very first leg progressed. Click here for the full report – Watling Streetworks Winter Series – 15 February 2026

Write up by Jerry Colman

After the week’s Easterly gales and the high tension invoked by the first round of the 6 Nations it was good to see a little soothing sunshine through the mist over Injebreck on Sunday morning with a light southerly wind driving a few ripples up the lake. (Better than last week when there was no wind at all so no racing.) 13 dinghies took to the water in very light conditions and drifted up the lake to the start line area only to see that the course would require them to sail back south into the doldrums v. Happily a little more breeze settled in just before the start, favouring the pin (East) end of the start line where your correspondent in the Finn found himself at the gun. Click here for the full report – Watling Streetworks Winter Series – 8 February 2026

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