Manx Sail Racer

The Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) was the venue for the 18′ Championship, 2nd to 7th August. The UK Olympic sailing centre now has fantastic facilities; acres of paved dinghy parks, concrete slipways like beaches, tie-downs, hosepipes, power points, marina berths, hoists, cranes and every possible convenience. There is a parking area for campervans, access to water, power and shower-blocks and further acres of car park are presently being created on the shore side.
The staff is helpful and a minimum of 300 children a day are being introduced to water activities (occasionally at great volume).

The Tamesis Club, Teddington was the organising host but their reach of the river Thames is hardly suitable for a National championship, so “English” venues are always away from home, in this case, in association with the Portland Castle SC.
26 boats entered the 10-race series, including 11 English, 8 Irish, 5 Scottish and 2 Manx.

The Sunday practice race was won by 344 Don’t Worry (Royal Findhorn) in a moderate SSW breeze. They showed astonishing speed on the shy spinnaker reaches. Maybe there’s something to do with the fact that they normally sail a 49er and have learned a way of soaking the power of the rig into speed instead of pressure; they weren’t even fully hiked out - very curious.

Three championship races were sailed Monday in a light to moderate SSW breeze. Oddly, the wind almost vanished in places for the middle race leading to huge losses and gains through the fleet - get the wrong side of a stripe and you were history.
356 Ball ‘n Chain, Davy O’Connell (Monkstown Bay SC) won race one from fourth finish, as the first three were OCS. Races 2 and 3 were won by reigning champions, Colin Chapman and crew sailing 370 Aquaholics (Royal Cork).
Manx boats: 332 Gorrum 3,10 and 4; 305 Miss D’Meanour 10,15 and 16.

Tuesday was wiped out by near gale force winds so, the idea of getting three races in whenever possible started to pay off straight away.

Three races were sailed Wednesday, to get back on schedule, in light and flukey NW breezes. The day belonged to the Scottish boat 337 Jafiica, Phil Hermiston and crew (Royal Findhorn) with three bullets. They always seemed to get on right side of shifts and consistently found more pressure. Once they got away, there was no catching them. This made the points situation very interesting overnight as no discards were yet applied.
Manx boats scored: Gorrum 6,6 and 13; Miss D’Meanour 14,17 and 17.

Thursday dawned a bit overcast (including several heads after the Class Dinner the night before). One race was completed despite the start of the Portland monsoon season. 370 Aquaholics got their nose through the finish line first, to improve the look of the points table, as they could now discard their OCS in race one.
Manx places in race seven: Gorrum 7, Miss D’Meanour 15.
The RO decided to try to wait out the forecast “isolated shower” while competitors drifted aimlessly in the downpour. After an hour, we were all very cold and were sent ashore. The promise of a second race was met with despair. After another hour or so, the skies cleared and we were sent back out to try again. A race was started and Jafiica trickled off into a two-leg lead (some boats had hardly got away from the start). Before a lap was completed, the flat-calm monsoon had returned, so the race was abandoned to everyone’s delight (not Jafiica). 100mm of rain fell on Portland that afternoon - some isolated shower.

Friday turned out fine, although it had rained all night and no-one had been able to dry anything all week. Three races were sailed in light to moderate NW breezes in the best conditions of the week. Portland had redeemed itself at last. With five of the top six boats carrying at least one OCS or DNF, the last day was always going to be a scrap. Aquaholics’ 7,2 and 2 was enough to clinch it as 358 Happy Days 2,3 and OCS used up their discard and Jafiica’s 1, 1 and 7 put them behind Happy Days.

So, reigning champions Colin Chapman, Martin Almond and Morgan O’Sullivan (370 Aquaholics, RCYC) were the worthy winners, runners-up Colin Barry, Dickie Mac and Dan O’Connell (358 Happy Days, Monkstown Bay SC) and Phil Hermiston, Martin Cruden and Ali Davis (337 Jafiica, Royal Findhorn) taking 3rd. Jafiica is the highest placed Scottish boat in the 60-year history of the event and could have won it with their five bullets - pity about the OCS and DNF using up the discards.

Dave Kneale attended and took plenty of photographs whenever the sun appeared so, look out for them soon.

The Championship comes to Port St Mary in 2010, the IOMYC centenary year. Monday 26 to Saturday 31 July are the provisional dates (depending on confirmation of the IOMSPCo Irish sailings).

Link to full results here

Mick Kneale

A fantastic gallery of pictures from the event from Volvo Ocean Race and MSR photographer Dave Kneale are available in the MSR Gallery, to order full resolution copies just email photos@manxsailracer.com with the image number.