Guest report
A truly perfect day and a lifetime memory.
Luckily, with favourable conditions, along with such a wonderful welcoming from the Gareloch One Design owners, I crewed ( of sorts) in Dione on Sunday afternoon. My husband sailed in Athene enjoying some photographing of the race in addition to the informative commentary/history from John Blackie.
Enormous thanks to John Blackie for organising our visit and to Barrie Choules for kindly volunteering Dione in his absence. John Campbell certainly didn’t know he would be risking evading the potential of first position in this race by agreeing to allow me this experience. To race in a boat our family used to own ( over 50 years ago) was a huge honour and privilege.
For anyone who may have remembered our family between 1969-1971 we consisted of Pat and Dick Connock, plus three sisters – myself, Sandra and Sally (all of whom attended St Bride’s School). Dione was moored outside our house (Aikenshaw, Rahane) and was very much a family focused boat – sailing/racing (members at RNCYC), fishing trips etc. Even the dogs accompanied us (occasionally Dione even acted as a rescue boat in order to retrieve one!)
All I can add to the technical part of the race is that John’s expertise, in the beautifully restored Dione, allowed us first position at the start, much to our joint satisfaction. Little did John know my teenage skills and agility had somewhat lapsed in over 50 years and weren’t quite what a second crew member could be relied upon to contribute! Once the spinnakers were hoisted our lead prevailed, however unfortunately not for long. (I’m afraid I’d already explained to John I didn’t have the confidence to master our spinnaker adeptly enough). We proceeded without a spinnaker and watched as the ever hungry Catriona (Charles/Lucy) engineered winds from somewhere else to proudly take the lead for the second half of the first course. Following this Halcyone, Thalia and Dione took varying options on the second course to vie for a worthy place. The results of this exhilarating race were as follows:
1 Catriona, 2 Halcyone, 3 Thalia, 4 Dione ( with semi novice Jenny Stevens), 5 Teal, 6 Zephyrus, 7 Ceres, Luna DNF, Athene DNS ( with novice Paul Stevens on board)
President: