Performance Sea Kayak

Crossings - Isle of Man

Situated in the middle of the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man seems tailor made as a target for a crossing. The 3 main routes give differing distances with Burrow Head at 16 nm, St Bees at 27 nm and Anglesey the longest at 39 nm - something for everyone! The Isle of Man is also situated at the confluence of the tides that flood the Irish Sea from both the South and the North, which can make for some sneaky planning. As a destination the island provides impressive coastlines, thrilling tide races and of course the opportunity to see basking sharks - if you're ready for your first long crossing then the Isle of Man should be on your list.

Photos © J Curgenven/R Hitchmough/J Krawiecki/C Murray/J Willacy

Wales
England
Scotland
Northern Ireland
Links

**Isle of Man - Wales**
Cat	Paddler	Elapsed time (Hrs)	Distance	Avg Speed	Date	Route	Boat	Escort	Link
K1M	John Willacy	08:21:12	41.37 nm	4.9 kt	23-Apr-10	Cemlyn Bay - Scarlett Point	Rockpool Taran	No	Here
	Keirron Tastagh **	14:00:00	~ 49 nm		30-Aug-01	Porth Dafarch - Port St Mary	SKUK Explorer	No
K1W
K2	Justine Curgenven, Barry Shaw	10:00:00			2007	Bull Bay - ?	SKUK Triton	No
Team	Phil Clegg, Barry Shaw, Harry Whelan	11:20:00			2004	IOM? - Cemaes Bay	SKUK Explorer x3	No
	Phil Clegg, Barry Shaw, Harry Whelan	13:10:00			2004	Cemaes Bay - IOM?	SKUK Explorer x3	No
SKI Single
Notes: ** Keirron's 2001 crossing is also noteworthy for the fact that he was only aged 22 at the time, the youngest paddler to have completed this route solo. I do not have an exact distance for his route so any innacuracies are due to my estimations. He also completed an overnight crossing in 2002.

**Isle of Man - England**
Cat	Paddler	Elapsed time (Hrs)	Distance	Avg Speed	Date	Route	Boat	Escort	Link
K1M	Martin Whitmill (& Charlie)	10:00:00			15-Aug-10	St Bees - ?	P&H Capella	?	Here
K1W
K2	Sean Jesson, Jim Krawiecki **	06:15:00	59 km	5.1 kts	10-May-08	St Bees - Mauhghold Head	Valley Aleut II	No	Jim Sean
Team	Mike Douglas, Rob Hitchmough ^^	09:15:00	33.2 m	~3.1 kts	25-Jun-10	St Bees - Mauhghold Head	Tiderace Xcite, P&H Quest LV	No
SKI Single
SKI Double
Notes: Martin made the crossing from St Bees with his dog Charlie perched on the front of his kayak - surely a record! Obviously this leads to puns over K1, K2 or K9 category! ** Apparently fortified by Beer and Chips there was no stopping Sean who did all the work (to quote Jim: "Sean J + Pie & Chips + Beers = Unstoppable 10 horsepower boat engine!") whilst Jim (in the back) took all the pictures and "got awfully tired" watching life go by. ^^ Rob mentions that he and Mike had always fancied paddling to the I.O.M. This was their first major crossing and "we wanted the paddle to be as enjoyable as possible so we stopped after every 50 minutes for 10 minutes to have a brew and check our course". Nice one.

**Isle of Man - Northern Ireland**
Cat	Paddler	Elapsed time (Hrs)	Distance	Avg Speed	Date	Route	Boat	Escort	Link
K1M	Paddy O'Donovan	08:10 (tbc)			01-Jun-10	Ardglass - Peel	Sipre Tintorera	No
	Sean Morley^^	~09:30			02-May-04	Peel - Ardglass	Kirton C-Trek	No	Link
K1W
K2
Team	Claire Hughes, Conor Murray **	11:30:00	30 nm	~2.6 kts	22-May-10	Kearnery, Ards Peninsula - Peel, I.O.M.	Valley Nordkapp, SKUK Explorer	No
SKI Single
SKI Double
Notes: Claire and Conor seemed determined to save on the ferry fare by paddling the return journey to Kearney the following day. The return took a slightly longer time of 14:25 ^^ To be fair to Sean he made this crossing with a boat fully loaded with exped kit, not as a record attempt but as part of his solo circumnavigation of the UK and Ireland, which makes the time even more impressive!

Notes are set in here