July opened with one of the Island’s finest traditions: the famous Isle of Man tin bath races in Castletown, in which brave and questionably advised competitors take to the harbour in craft that would make a marine surveyor weep. Paddling a tin bath is exactly as difficult as it sounds, sinking is less a risk than a scheduled feature, and the crowd lining the quaysides would frankly feel short-changed without it.
As the owner of an actual boat, I watched with the smugness of a man whose vessel has a keel, while privately acknowledging that the bath racers were having at least as much fun. It is daft, it is soggy, and it is exactly the sort of thing the Manx calendar does best.
Charlton Krentz 