tt4-2026-stewartby

SUMMER 2025: Life’s too short says Parki, let’s get organised next year and do 3 or 4 TT‘s and the Nationals and the worlds!

Great idea Parki! You’re on, let’s do it together.

By Mick & Freddie Singleton

Dec 25 Parki tragically and suddenly dies from a massive stroke, I am devastated.

April 26 TT 1 Dee. I’m not really ready for the season, busy getting our club ready to open.
April 26 TT 2 Carsington. I am going, its not far away either, No! its all gone pearshaped at work and I have to bail out!
May 26 TT 3 Stokes Bay. Still not ready, I haven’t even seen my boat since November!
June26 TT4 Stewartby. I haven’t been on the water yet this year! I’m definitely doing this one! The weekend before, my van goes into limp mode, aargh!!!!! Thursday morning I’m told it won’t be ready. The parts they fitted haven’t worked. Maybe this wasn’t meant to be. I ring my son Henry…

“can I borrow your Landrover for the weekend”

“yes of course”!

(what’s he after?)

Brilliant, we’re on, but the weather is looking very gusty, my guess is racing will be cancelled on the Saturday. Anyway, the ace up my sleeve is my son Freddie, who’s crewing but he’s 95 kg.! and I’m not the lightest helm on the entry list. We arrive late evening at Stuartby to a very friendly welcome and were shown where to pitch ourselves and where to leave the boat. After some introductions and catching up with a few friends followed by a few shandies we retire for the night.

Saturday

The wind kept me up much of the night, we rig the boat whist devouring very welcome bacon sandwiches and a few coffees. I’m worried this wind is too strong for me, the race briefing is called and the race officer declares "this is my first time", be gentle with me. Racing is delayed, there may be a window coming in an hours time.

R 1 One hour later, we’re nearly last on the water, Freddie forgot his watch, I forgot my water bottle.

We head out across the lake, a gust pick us up and we accelerate towards the starting line, as we approach boats are flying hulls all around us, looking for line byass and which may be the favoured side of the course the forecast is F4 Gusting F7! and it is!.

Looking over my shoulder, I see a boat capsised, it’s Jonny and Matt Williams, but there’s only one person with the boat. The Safety Boat goes to cover them and whilst under starters orders, Matt Exon retrieves Johnny who got separated and takes him back to the boat. Johnny is out for the day, too much damage. Mark, Max and Simon collide and Simons hull is split open, Simon is out for the weekend. someone is screaming “starboard!” We are 5 boats down now, this is carnage. One minute to go & I shout to Freddie “we need to get in survival mode, we need to stay out of trouble”

We drop down the line towards the pin end and get a reasonable start. We manage a 4th, I’m really pleased with that, and we are still in one piece

R 2 and we are more confident to get in the mix at the start. We arrive at the windward mark in 1st place and manage to finish in 3rd.

R 3 A similar start but we lose a few places and then get them back. However, I can’t quite catch Darren on the downwind leg and we finish neck and neck, it is a photo finish and we end up with 4.5 points each. The race officer is doing a great job, slightly shorter races lasting only half an hour creates fast paced racing with starting sequences beginning almost immediately for the next race.

R 4 Again we have a reasonable start and can gain places up wind but frustratingly we lose places on every down wind leg, and so we end the day in fifth position on equal points with Darren.

After getting a warm shower and dried off, we are fed and watered with a satisfyingly large portion of chilli and fresh salad, we retire to the bar again for a few more Shandies and discuss how Matt managed to get a bullet in every race and Joe got second in every race - I think they may have a cunning plan together, I tap everyone up and text my club mates for tips on downwind sailing.

Sunday

Day 2 Double rashers in the bacon sandwiches, marvellous, the wind has eased a bit overnight but still force F4 gusting F5. There are more boats out today so we’re going to have to keep our eye out for extra traffic on this short course.

R 5 We get a poor start so tack off straight away and guess what? We’re in the first boats at the windward mark but make an error in tacking and lose three places and three more on down wind legs finishing in 7th place.

R 6 Another good start but our starboard jib sheet comes undone so Freddie, helm’s the boat while I re-tie the sheet on, meanwhile, we lose three positions and after losing more positions down wind again, we come in 7th place. This is not going well!

R 7 We go in for a more aggressive start, and on the first beat, incredibly, our other jib sheet comes untied!!! We switch to the opposite tack and re-tie the sheet on while Freddie helms a second time. We hang on and managed to finish second! yippee!! my best TT result to date and satisfyingly I beat Joe Franks, COME ON RUNSWICK!!

R 8 Final race, again we had a reasonable start, and we managed to make the windward and the leward marks in first position, but once again lost places down wind. Closing in on the finish line, Joe and Amanda pipped us by what I thought was an inch, (Joe will claim it was 8 inches but then he always does!) we came in 4th.

It only deserves the breifest of mentions, but Matt and Jake got bullets again on every race! how do they do it?

Overall it was a fantastic weekend, great hospitality, meeting friends old and new on the circuit, and a super weekend of racing, and race officer, you and your team did a great job.

Why did I leave it so long to go sailing on the circuit? Anyway, I’ve got warmed up for our TT at Runswick in just over a weeks time. We came away, satisfyingly, beating Joe in one race and just beating Darren to 4th place, a result we were more than pleased with.