On the 20th of May, my son and I headed off to the Isle of Man with Dave Gorman. It was the first trip for us and I believe it could have been the 10th for Dave. We went from Belfast, as I believe the Sailings from Dublin are only in the summer months. When we got to the port we joined up with PC GB Region 27 members, I think there was 7 cars in total from Region 27 and they made us feel very welcome for the whole trip, a great bunch to travel with.
My turbo and a white GT3, had to gingerly make it onto the boat given our lack of ground clearance but in the end we go on OK. Smooth crossing. On the Thursday, we went for a gentle spin around the island and on the Friday, Daragh and I did a more extensive tour. Other cars from PC GB arrived on the Friday afternoon. I think there was about 50 cars in total, a great collection of cars, both old and new.
On the Saturday we had the dawn raid, which was terrific fun, as we left the TT Grandstand around 7am, did the TT circuit including across the mountain, We went out in groups of 6 to 7 cars with local marshals. Terrific fun and no incidents. After breakfast we had a Manx Challenge. We had to to visit at least 4 venues on a given map and get the stickers to qualify for a nice little prize. Good idea to see some of the far away or less known places. We had a gala dinner on the Saturday evening and then a 7am boat back to Belfast on the Sunday.
Both Daragh and I really enjoyed the trip and I would certainly do it again, maybe we should organize a PCI tour there? Its only a couple of hours by boat.
Donal Daly