Isle of Man Midnight Race at Tranmere Sailing Club

Tranmere Sailing Club held the 90th annual race of the Isle of Man Midnight race on Friday June 12th. 22 yachts started the race accompanied by several cruising yachts. In a light SE this generated a magnificent sight with all yachts flying their spinnakers either before or immediately after the start and proceeding down river. Those yachts that chose the normally favourable Liverpool side of the river lost out to those that kept to the Wirral side and a similar story continued in the Crosby channel where the mid channel yachts were frequently almost becalmed. Part way down the Crosby channel the wind filled in which enable those yachts who had been becalmed to catch up and in some cases overtake those that had gone down the port side.

Once past Q2 the fleet split with some gybing to take a more northerly line and some going to the south of the rhumb line. Unfortunately during the night the wind disappeared leaving the fleet becalmed with at least one yacht anchoring in 30m of water to prevent the flood tide pushing them backwards. (The only downside to this tactic is that 30 m of water makes recovering the anchor hard work!) The wind filled in again and a good night time spinnaker reach was achieved by many boats. The wind progressively veered such that at the end of the race white sails were generally the order of the day. Douglas Bay proved a frustrating area for much of the fleet as lighter winds and uncomfortable cross swell enabled the fleet to bunch up again.

After a 72 mile race the fleet managed to achieve a blanket finish with less than 2 ½. hours covering the whole fleet. Neil Thomas’s Prima 38 Mighty Max II took line honours with a passage time of 14 hrs 33 mins and Dave Hughes’ UFO 27 being the last to complete the course at 17 hrs 2 mins but after handicap adjustment they beat all the class 1 and 2 yachts. Only one yacht retired the local DBSC yacht Cheetah Cub who had to retire as they needed to be in Port St Mary to start the Round Isle of Man Race!

With such a close finish there was an agonising period until the results were announced, at the reception hosted by the Douglas Bay Sailing Club and attended by the Deputy Mayor of Douglas, as to who had won. The overall winner of the Grand Challenge Cup and the class 3 Puffin Cup was Vice Commodore Annie Ward and Racing Captain Andy Napper’s GK24 Di-Rich. Class 1 and the 1894 Cup were won by Steve Carruthers and Geoff Whitaker’s Quarter Tonner Ragtime IV. Class 2 and the Milburn Trophy were won by Paul Hampson’s Sigma 33 Magic Moments. The Darthula Vase for the first yacht not to win a class was awarded to Vice Commodore Richard Baldwin in his Superseal Tango who was second overall 4 minutes behind Di-Rich.

Overall Results:

Overall winner
Annie Ward & Andy Napper’s GK 24 Di-Rich

Class 1
1st Ragtime IV, ½ Tonner, Steve Carruthers & Geoff Whittaker
2nd Pandanova II, Sigma 38, Derek Mathews
3rd Sleeper, J109, John Carrier

Class 2
1st Magic Moments, Sigma 33, Paul Hampson
2nd Skukusa, Impala, Stuart Lofthouse
3rd Musketeer, Sigma 33, Michael Inman

Class 3
1st Di-Rich, GK 24, Annie Ward & Andy Napper
2nd Tango, Superseal, Richard Baldwin
3rd Night Flyer, Superseal, Tudor Goodman