Anglesey Offshore Dinghy Race 2026

Anglesey Offshore Dinghy Race 2026 © Paul Halliwell

The Anglesey Offshore Dinghy Race came back on Sunday 9 August after a year away, with a new course, a new format and forty-seven boats entered. It was also a hard day for the club: a long-standing member died that morning as he was preparing to launch his rescue boat.

The family were asked, and were content that the race should go ahead, though the loss cast something of a long shadow over events. Competitors, volunteers and race team stood together on the beach for a minute's silence, and for many of us the day was sailed in his memory.

For most of its history the AODR has been a point-to-point: a start off Beaumaris, down the Menai Straits, out through Puffin Sound and across Red Wharf Bay to finish at the club's own beach at Traeth Bychan. The logistics of that historic race became hard for the club to sustain and entries had dipped over recent years. What came back this year is a different beast, with the largest fleet since 2017. The Four Islands course, Pedair Ynys, is named for Ynys Seiriol, Ynys Dulas, Ynys Moelfre and Ynys Môn herself. It starts and finishes off the clubhouse and runs out and back along two arms, south to Benllech and then east to the Red Wharf Bay quarry mark and Puffin, north to Moelfre and Ynys Dulas. Same bit of coast, longer distance and, very importantly, one beach.

Some had a long way to come. Richard Elliott and Simon Halliwell, from Devon and Chamonix, travelled over for the weekend and raced in a borrowed 2000. Other competitors came from Yorkshire Dales, Hollingworth Lake, Small Heath, Draycote Water, Carsington, Blithfield, Glossop, Etherow, Pennine, West Kirby and Halifax, with student teams from Liverpool and Lancaster universities, alongside a large and very welcome local contingent from Port Dinorwic, Llandudno and the host club.

The classes ranged from a Weta to a Flying Dutchman by way of six RS400s, six RS Aeros, four RS200s, a Supernova, a Solution and a scattering of Darts.

The start was held while the emergency services were in attendance. The fleet got away a little after 11:20, an hour or so down on the scheduled 10:15. By then the forecast west-south-westerly had filled in Force 3 to 5, depending on how far downwind of the Anglesey shore you were. In place of the traditional downwind start off Beaumaris there was a short windward leg to Benllech before the fleet turned downwind for a six-mile broad reach and run down to the turning mark. The steep chop at Quarry caught out a number of boats, with working the waves pretty much essential to keep boat speed up and the flappy sail bit above the surface. By the turn at the Puffin mark the fleet, multihulls included, was stretching out behind the class act of Jac Bailey and Tom Sinfield in their 29er. For some the return past the Quarry meant another swim, and for a handful it meant a tow home, but after that the water was flat in the lee of Benllech and Traeth Bychan, so deciding how far to loop offshore to get the best wind was the decision of the day.

Back past Benllech and north to Moelfre, Race Officer Jeremy Entwistle shortened the course and finished the fleet there, dropping the Ynys Dulas arm rather than push the tail-enders against the 15:15 limit.

Thirty-nine boats finished. Bailey and Sinfield took line honours and the overall win on handicap for Port Dinorwic SC and CHYF, their corrected 1:55:00 close to seven minutes clear of the field, and a second consecutive AODR win for Bailey. Steve Harvey's Weta from Draycote Water SC was second and first multihull, repeating his 2024 result. Third went to the Javelin of Eddy and Neil Reid from Carsington SC.

Behind them it was tight. Thirteen boats were covered by under twelve minutes on corrected time, from Matt Mee's RS200 — the first of the host club's boats, in sixth — down to Rebecca Knock of Port Dinorwic SC, whose RS Aero 6 took first single-handed monohull in eighteenth. Kieron Inman and Paul Jenkins of West Kirby SC were first GP14.

Ashore, the thanks go to the rescue crews, to the beach team who launched and recovered almost every boat, and to the galley, who fed the fleet twice over and were named in survey after survey afterwards. Every competitor who has returned one so far says they will be back.

Overall Results:

Full results and more on the race and the new course at angleseyoffshore.co.uk