Manx Sail Racer

The weather on Sunday had a spring-like feel up at West Baldwin reservoir, as opposed to the south of England which was gripped by a Siberian wintry blast.

The wind, on the light side with a bit of west in it, was patchy and interspersed with vicious calms, so racing even on the short course set by the OOD was never going to be fast.  Racing in these conditions on the reservoir always seems to throw up interesting and well deserved results.

In race one the fleet of 14 stayed close together with Simon Pressley (Laser) managing to get to the front and finish nearly a minute ahead of Andrew Dean and Lucy (RS 200). With two laps of half of the lake taking some 40 minutes, it was Jim Whitelegg in the mighty Gull dinghy that won (his first this winter) on corrected time followed by Simon in second and Angus Jolly (Laser) in third.

With the wind in danger of disppearing completely, race two was set on an even shorter course. Starting on the mid-lake end of the start line, Angus, Mike Pridham (Laser), Brian Quayle (OK) and Simon made a break for it with the group finishing nearly 10 minutes ahead of the rest of the fleet.  On corrected time Brian got his first win of the winter, with Mike second, Angus third and Jim only five seconds behind in fourth place.

Hats off to Paul Melling and his Ard Whallian Venture Centre crew, who sail all week on the reservoir and then come to race on Sunday mornings for fun- it must be the altitude!

Many thanks to OOD, safety boat crew and Ard Whallian for their hospitality after the racing.

Thanks to Ralph Kee for the report, more images here

Full Results

Race one

1. Jim Whitelegg
2. Simon Pressley
3. Angus Jolly
4. Mike Pridham
5. Andrew/David Williams
6. Andrew Dean/Lucy
7. Ralph Kee
8. Brian Quayle
9. Jerry Colman/James Penn
10. Rob Cowell/Phil Hardisty
11. Jason Hyett
12. Michael Moore
13. Owen Williams
14. Paul Melling and crew

Race two

1. Brian Quayle
2. Mike Pridham
3. Angus Jolly
4. Jim Whitelegg
5. Simon Pressley
6. Michael Moore
7. Rob Cowell/Phil Hardisty
8. Andrew Dean/Lucy
9. Ralph Kee
10. Jason Hyett
11. Jerry Colman/James Penn
12. Owen Williams