The weather forecast unsurprisingly reduced the fleet from last week’s 16 to only four in the latest round of Manx Sailing and Cruising Club’s Watling Streetworks Injebreck February series on Sunday.

Your correspondent might have competed as well had he not lost an argument with a drill!

With winds in excess of 20 knots in the Irish Sea, with a direction of just south of east, giving it a miss seemed sensible. A temperature of three degrees added to the unpleasantness.

But this did not deter Jerry Colman (Finn), George Pearce (RS Tera Sport) and Bob Love and Jason Hyatt (both Laser Radials), who seemed to enjoy the challenging conditions. The wind arrived in medium gusts from every direction, not always easy to see from the water surface’s appearance.

The course for both races used only marks two and six, the first leaving marks to starboard, reversing direction for the second.

Young Pearce made the best start but it was Love who powered through in the faster boat to win on corrected time from Pearce who had his best result to date in second.

Hyatt took third from Colman who found an enormous flat spot near the eastern shore. In between races, the wind filled in a bit enabling three laps for the three leaders in order - Colman, Hyatt and Love.

After three weekends, Ralph Kee still leads the series but Love and Hyatt have climbed many places to share fifth place on points and Pearce lies an excellent 12th.

With only 10 points covering the top seven, it’s all to sail for in the final round of the month this Sunday.

Thanks go to Keith Poole for race officer duties and the patrol boat crew of Graham and Adrian Wilson. Thanks are also due to sponsor Watling Streetworks who support sailing in the island.

ANDREW DEAN