Category Archives: race reports

Opening regatta

The forecast for the Opening Regatta on Sunday 23rd was not good, with suggestions of a strong Northerly, with gusts of force 5 increasing to force 6 in the afternoon. The wind on the inch was indeed Northerly, though on the loch itself the steadiest direction was Easterly. A course of C, E, X, A was initially set by the race officer, but after boats were on the water, and conditions observed, the course was reversed to X, E, C, A. This proved to be the correct move.

An excellent 11 boats were on the water. 5 laser radials, 4 fireflies (3 from Aberdeen University), a solo, and a Wanderer. This made the starts exciting, with much jockeying for position and cries of ‘starboard!’ as everyone tried to get the best start.

For the first race that person was Helen Brown (laser radial) followed by David Smith (firefly) and Malcolm Heron (laser radial) who rounded the first mark in that order.  The first unplanned swim, by Jamie Brown (laser radial), happened before the first mark, but he quickly recovered and didn’t trouble the rescue boat (ably manned by Sebastian Kimber). The extremely variable breeze, both in direction and strength, caused much pain to the sailors, eventually being the undoing of David in his firefly. He capsized after rounding E mark and his mast stuck in the mud in the shallow water, resulting in his retiral from the race.  The remainder of the fleet had a very close fought race, with only 20 seconds, on corrected time, between the first 5 boats.
1st Helen
2nd Malcolm
3rd Tony Walker and Bill Myles (Wanderer)
4th Jill Reid (firefly AUSC)
5th Becci Oosterhoorn (laser radial)

The wind abated slightly for the second race so was initially less exciting at first. The fleet was joined by Connor Hyndland and his daughter Charlotte, who quickly rigged a club Feva, just in time for the start.  Mark Kimber (laser radial) was first round the first mark, followed by the Wanderer, then Helen. The down wind section to E saw several casualties, all of whom recovered without assistance. At C mark, Helen took the lead, which she later lost to Malcolm. It was another very close race, with 5 seconds, on corrected time, between the first 5 boats.
1st Malcolm
2nd Stuart Dallas (firefly AUSC)
3rd Jamie
4th Mark

As the first two races were very hard work, the third race was shorter – 2 laps of the course instead of 3. Helen made an excellent start, less than a minute after capsizing behind the line. There were more capsizes (mostly ‘dry’) as tired sailors found the conditions demanding for tired bodies, and everyone was very glad to come ashore at the end of the race.
1st Helen
2nd Malcolm
3rd Mark
4th Jamie

End result overall:
1st, and winner of the Inch Cup Helen Brown (laser radial)
2nd Malcolm Heron (Laser Radial)
3= Mark Kimber and Jamie Brown (laser radial)

Tuesday evening sail with a close finish.

Last Tuesday’s sail was almost called off, the wind was whipping the shores and made us contemplate if we should go out or not. We decided to go onto the water and ‘see how it goes’. With 4 Lasers and a Solo we did shorten the course to keep within a short distance of each other just in case. After the countdown with 5 seconds to go, Becci capsize. The rest managed to get away (Helen, Jamie, Conor and Erwin) followed shortly after by Becci. Direction C, F, K and G.
All struggled to keep their boat upright, all capsizing at least once, except for Erwin who managed to keep the sail out of the water although he did take on a large amount of water at on stage.
Becci retired halfway due to the strong wind and wanting to keep herself from more damage to her shoulder.
Helen managed to snap the toestrap, but fought back to get alongside Erwin, asking how much longer. The clock showed 39:58,.. 39:59,.. and 40:00 minutes of sailing had passed. Helen had managed to get about half a boat length in front, followed by Erwin and then Jamie less than a boat length behind Erwin. Conor was just into the channel, proving this a close race.

Race report

Tuesday series 3

Tuesday 3:4 was sailed as a 40 Min Pursuit race, ZFC all on port, in a generally Easterly light 1-2

With the start line significantly misaligned with A mark. Becci in her laser radial was due to start 10 seconds ahead of the solos but using A mark was well down on the line so one solo headed for the line ahead of the laser causing confusion – the second gun @10 sec was assumed by the second solo to be a recall which created an unsatisfactory start. Eventually, Tony, Becci, Erwin, Bill, and Dennis who appeared to be well handicapped on start time came through to eventually take all but Becci on the run to F.

After Tony hit Z in a still mark in a drifting moment and did his turn Becci regained first later in the run but Dennis made good on the beat. Tony almost caught Becci and had to duck on Port within the last 30 sec. Bill enjoyed the sail, however, Erwin did not recover from the starting confusion.
A lovely summer evening, but not for consistent sailing!
Result:

Dennis 
Becci/Tony
Erwin
Bill

Race report

Sunday series race report

Wind direction: All over the loch
Speed: 1-3 Miles p/h
pursuit race, course: F, E, D, C all to starboard. Starting at normal start line.

The wind dropped away just as the race started. With the Solo start just 10 seconds after the Laser and the Streaker only 25 seconds after that, the Lasers had hoped to make more ground. The so called windward leg to F was very slow Becci and Conor stayed in the lead but Helen fell behind as she drifted closer to the spit. Fortunately the breeze picked up just a little as the boats all headed to E. Conor was in the lead approaching D but somehow Becci managed to sneak past just as the wind dropped. Conor sailed backwards for a time allowing Helen to move into second place. From D to C Bill moved into third place and Conor managed to stay ahead of Erwin as the final whistle blew.

  1. Becci
  2. Helen
  3. Bill
  4. Conor
  5. Erwin

Race 2
Wind speed: 4-7 Mile p/h
pursuit race, course: F, C, K

Again the lasers started first, this time with a reasonable breeze to get going up to F. Helen made a good start but seemed to struggle going across to C allowing Erwin and Becci to overtake. Heading back through the gap Erwin took the lead and stayed ahead down to K. Helen and Becci were close behind, followed by Bill and Conor. The breeze filled in a little and it was close as the leaders rounded F and headed back to C. Helen managed to stay upwind of Erwin and rounded C just ahead and kept the lead until they were back through the gap and the final whistle blew.

  1. Helen
  2. Erwin
  3. Becci
  4. Bill
  5. Conor
Race report

Race report Sunday series 1.4 & 1.5

Wind direction: West
Wind speed: 12-14 Mile p/h
Handicap race, course E, D, K to starboard, A to port.

David Mark and Jamie got a flying start while Tony was caught out on Port tack and had to avoid the fleet. Helen chased across the line having had to rush up the loch from a rescue mission near “Z” and was soon in 3rd place. Tony capsized on the 3rd Lap and Dave ended up briefly encountered on the spit leaving the Radials to romp home in the first four positions with Jamie, Becci, Helen then Mark showing how it’s done.

  1. Jamie
  2. Becci
  3. Helen

Second race, same course but windspeed reduced to 4-7 Miles

The wind was still lively as we started Race 1.5, but by the time the fleet had reached “E” for the first time the wind was dropping. The second lap was dire, with the wind falling to nothing as it edged to the South. Much determination was needed to finish, especially Lyall in his Topper who managed to scrape in just under the hour in 59:45 (for 8th place)

  1. Tony W
  2. Conor
  3. Mark K
Race report

Tuesday series 1.2 *

The excitement was tangible, we were finally getting back on the water to race. And what a turnout for 1.2 Tuesday points, Helen in a club Laser radial, Becci in her newly acquired laser (immaculately kept and with an incredible reputation from TC) with a radial sail and Conor with his new Laser from ”down south” and a brand new radial sail and rigging… that’s all going to be some competition this season! Joining the fun Erwin concluded that the boom acquired whilst his was repaired did not pass muster forwent his Solo and joined Bill in his Wanderer for their first time together. Nick Whyte’s Solo had appeared during the week after a  full years absence suggesting his potential presence which was not to be a disappointment and Tony W joined him in another Solo.

An interesting undulating breeze that had turned quite cold but from ESE, an unusual direction welcomed the fleet and to keep the numbers up  a pursuit race ensued with the Wanderer starting on time, Laser Radials 1min 56sec later and the Solos 2min 9 seconds after the Wanderer. Because of the wind direction and the lack of buoys in the right places (where has G gone what’s A mark doing marking the gap?) the course was set as h port, k starboard, L starboard, and f port… and a lot of puzzled faces, but we thought we’d all got it sorted out.. not completely though!

Bill and Erwin got off to grand start demonstrating the best point on the line.. we all thought, then Helen started further South, found the wind and was off apparently very quickly catching up on Bill and taking a march on Becci who started further down the line. Nick very quickly made up the Solos handicap time whilst Tony made the wrong choice going lower than Becci. Where was Conor… well when you have all that new rigging you’ve got to enjoy putting it all together…. but it can mean you miss the start of the race… he enjoyed the sailing when all assembled!

Helen and Nick lead the race 1 and 2 until Nick decided to take L to port and had to revisit it to give everyone else a chance. At that point Bill was Third and Tony and Becci were having a chat at the back! In total only one lap was completed in the 40 minutes, Helen , with a significant lead running to F lost the wind completely and allowed the rest of the fleet to catch up significantly and was overtaken by Tony and Nick on the last leg. Giving a result of:

1 Tony
2 Nick
3 Helen
4 Becci
5 Bill and Erwin

But enjoyed by all
(* the first Tuesday series was not raced due to stormy conditions)