Category Archives: Race Reports

A delightfully sunny evening with steady wind [editor – well, initially!].  Race officer Barrie Choules took advantage and set one of the longer courses with a windward leg to the northernmost mark on the Clynder shore.

Athene, who was at the bottom of the order in the weekend’s championship, had just been lifted out for a routine survey.  She had barnacles and, in the gap between the keel and rudder, mussels.  Her skipper John Blackie took the helm of Catriona for the evening.

At the start, Catriona found herself pinned below Thia.  Not wishing to remain there, she bore away sharply so as to be able to tack away behind.  With the urgency of her initial approach to the line now lost, she later crossed behind Hermes and then Teal.  The others had gone a different way but most looked ahead too.  John used Catriona’s boat speed to squeeze to windward past Teal and was comfortably first at the mark.  Despite confusion over the location of the second mark, F off Shandon church, Catriona was never challenged.  Teal and Hermes had a battle on the spinnaker reach to F.  Teal, with an advantageous inside overlap at the mark, took second place and managed to hold onto it by a slim margin at the finish.  Dione, with guest helm Reay Mackay, was able to take a place from Luna under spinnaker.

1 Catriona, 2 Teal, 3 Hermes, 4 Thalia, 5 Dione, 6 Luna, 7 Ceres, 8 Thia.

Many congratulations to our winner Catriona (Charles Darley) and in a very well deserved and popular 2nd place Hermes (Carol Rowe)!

Full race results and report to follow.

Race Officer Shane Rankin took advantage of a steady wind from the north west to set a course beginning with a windward leg to D, north of Clynder.  The shore end of the fixed starting line was favoured and Catriona took to best place.  Dione was close behind but tacked away down the line and was well to leeward at the gun.  Most of the fleet ventured across the loch to begin with and were keen to stay in touch with each other. Luna thought to try the Shandon shore (often a tactic of Hermes) and it paid in spades.  She crossed the loch to D well to the north of the fleet and in much better wind than the rest.  In that group, Hermes and Ceres looked strong, Dione struggling to recover from her start.  Thalia went close to the Clynder shore on a sight seeing trip (that is what her skipper said afterwards) and predictably lost wind.

This was Luna’s to lose.  She rounded D with a large lead for the spinnaker reach to G on the Shandon shore and then home.  Her first error was to be led astray by the Sonars, who sail a windward/leeward course and were not going to G.  By the time she realised, she was too low on the mark to keep her spinnaker and a charging Catriona closed the gap.  The mark rounding was easy, needing just a large bear away rather than a gybe.  By the time Luna had re-hoisted her spinnaker, Catriona was past.

Hermes, meanwhile, had photogenic trouble with her third sail at the beginning of the reach.  To the advantage of Dione and Ceres.

Dione was too far behind to make any impression on Luna, barring further errors of which there were none.

1 Catriona, 2 Luna, 3 Dione, 4 Ceres, 5 Hermes, 6 Thia, 7 Thalia.

On the water Race Officer Barrie Choules selected one of the longer courses, zig-zagging across the loch.  A good wind blowing from the Shandon shore meant a start with spinnakers.  Catriona got away well with Thalia and Halcyone close by. Dione’s start was less than ideal, her skipper’s excuse was that he was distracted by being Race Officer.  Anyway, he took a flyer, going early towards the Clynder shore. As is usually the case, it might have paid but it didn’t.

Just after D, the first rounding mark, it began to rain.  Water bouncing off the surface of the loch.  That dampened both wind and crews.  As it eased, wind filled in from behind and brought Thalia, Halcyone and Dione up to the leader.  Luna not far behind. Athene and Hermes had found a lull on the Clynder shore.

Catriona managed to accelerate away and kept her lead at G, the second mark, ready for a fetch back across the loch to E, the most northerly mark on the Clynder shore. The chasing pack were held back by ever lighter air, especially around E.  Catriona was half way back across the loch on the way to the finish before the chasing three had rounded.  In the way of the Gareloch, a line of good pressure formed near the west shore so that the three made rapid progress to windward (Halcyone catching Thalia on port tack to take second) whilst Catriona contemplated the subtle ripples of her bow wave.  She picked up speed as the breeze moved across the loch.  It was sufficiently on the beam for a spinnaker to work, which helped to save her first place.

Hermes, meanwhile, suffered confusion at D and continued on to E before making her way across the loch to G.  Fancying herself in a sketch by Morecambe and Wise, featuring André Previn, she went round all the right marks, but not necessarily in the right order.

1 Catriona, 2 Halcyone, 3 Thalia, 4 Dione, 5 Luna.  Athene and Hermes DNF

There was next to no wind as we stood in the car park.  The Sonar sailors went home. There was sufficient enthusiasm in the Garelochs to go out to the boats and trouble Race Officer Neil Isaacs.  He set the shortest course, to A, off the club and back.  We sailed one round, after which there was a good wind to take us home.  The finishing order depended on effectiveness in responding to large changes of direction in the currents of air.

1 Catriona, 2 Thalia, 3 Hermes, 4 Luna.

We began with rain and little wind.  At least it was not cold.  On the water Race Officer Shane Rankin chose a course up and down the Shandon Shore so as to avoid the Clynder side of the loch which had detained us for so long on the previous Thursday.

Catriona made the best start, played the shifts in the wind and reached the windward mark with a good lead.  It ought to have been downwind to A, off the club, but somehow it wasn’t.  Leeward side decks were now getting wet in the gusts.

Wind in the Gareloch is often unpredictable but this day was an extreme example.  There were holes of course but also instantaneous changes in direction of more than 90 degrees.  Light air around the A mark allowed Ceres to catch the leader.  Just after the end of the round (there was time for a second) she found a streak of pressure and began passing Catriona only a little further out in the loch.  She was pointing in the same direction but on the opposite tack. Hermes was now in a line of wind next to the shore and passing on the other side. Catriona was able to get going again and leave Ceres.  She was overlapped to leeward of Hermes all the way to the mark.  The variable wind meant that Hermes was never quite able to blanket Catriona so that she was obliged to give mark room.

It was another reach to A.  This time wind was steadier.  There were no extreme changes of direction although sails required constant trimming.

1 Catriona, 2 Hermes, 3 Ceres, 4 Halcyone, 5 Thia.

Four Garelochs came to the starting line with crews on the helm.  The evening breeze was welcome after the hot day.  The Gareloch was uniformly rippled which encouraged us on a windward leg up the Shandon shore, then a broad reach to C, at the north end of Clynder.  At the start of the reach, Catriona increased her lead from Hermes with a comparatively repaid hoist of the spinnaker. Thia and Dione some way back.

The water off the Clynder shore had become glassy smooth.  Catriona ran out of momentum and was carried the wrong side of the mark on the ebb tide.  Hermes saw what was happening and went high.  She looked good for a while but she too succumbed to the tide.  Thia and Dione arrived next and did their best but in no wind could do nothing.  For a long time, we all tried to respond to every capricious movement of the flag at the top of the mast. It was Thia who made it back to the mark first, from Catriona, Hermes and Dione.

What, when we started, would have been a leg downwind was now a beat to windward to A, off the club.  Thia began with a good lead but was drawn into the partial vacuum of the Clynder shore.  Hermes made a good mark rounding and looked strong to windward of Catriona.  Wind, though, was kind to the light blue boat.  She had a large lead at A and sufficient pressure for the fine reach to the finish.  Hermes, now second, and Thia set spinnakers for this leg.  Thia got hers to fill and draw first but it was not enough.  Dione never really escaped from the Clynder shore.

1 Catriona, Lucy Forrester.  2 Hermes, Wendy Jones.  3 Thia, Peter Brown.  Dione, Diana Jasperse DNF.

(Guest report from Shane Rankin – Halcyone)

Race Officer Charles Darley had to wait for the wind to fill in from the South, even then it was light. He opted for the shortest course possible, Z to A and back.

The downwind start was tricky, Athene hadn’t reached the start by the gun. Halcyone, Hermes and Thia all started well, close to the Z mark, and hoisted spinnakers quickly. Halcyone’s spinnaker halyard let go, they sailed over the kite and Hermes slipped past.

Further inshore Thia had a good line and clear air and made the A mark ahead of Hermes. Without her spinnaker Halcyone was slow, Luna’s was flying well and looked threatening.

Rounding A Hermes was too quick and tapped Thia on the quarter. Halcyone rounded well close to the mark and upwind of the boats ahead. Hermes did her penalty turns letting Halcyone past. Thia was pointing well, Halcyone couldn’t catch up and tacked off for clear air. Thia tacked to cover. After crossing Athene with her kite pulling well Thia tacked back, it looked like she could make the Z mark. Halcyone stood on before tacking.

The shortened course signal sounded. Hermes had gone inshore looking for less tide, she found it. When she was well ahead she tacked out to cover Thia and Halcyone.

The wind dropped further and headed the leading boats. It looked like Hermes would make the line first. A header pushed Thia behind the moored Captain Michalis, Halcyone scraped past ahead. Hermes getting close to the finish line looked like she would run out of water, she tacked off and lost momentum. Halcyone stood on towards the beach and caught a lift along the shore that took her across the line first. Hermes was close behind. Luna had stayed out and for a long time seemed stationary against the tide.  At the end, she found pressure which eluded Thia took third place. Athene got no further than the A mark in dying air..

Positions. 1. Halcyone 2. Hermes 3. Luna 4. Thia.  Athene DNF. (Catriona RO)

After a dry morning, five Garelochs went out to sail in rain which was unusually wet and gusts strong enough to concentrate the mind.

On the water Race Officer Carol Rowe sent us on a windward leg to B, off Silvers, followed by a long run downwind to Shandon Church.  Catriona got the best start at the favoured end of the starting line.  Dione behind and the rest inshore.  It was the end of the flood tide and Catriona thought there would be advantage in going down the Shandon shore so as to find a back eddy.  Dione followed and was lifted dramatically so as top take the lead.  Catriona tacked out, expecting to have to duck but Dione tacked too.  Constant heading of the wind put Dione, who was to leeward and ahead, even further in front.  As Catriona fell into disturbed air, she tacked away.  Dione failed to cover and paid the price in the light and changeable wind on the Clynder shore.

Ceres, meanwhile, was establishing a strong lead over Hermes and Thia.

A gybe was needed at the F mark, at the end of the downwind leg.  Thia did this with her crew on the foredeck trying to recover the spinnaker bucket.  The crew lost his footing and ended up in the water, although still holding on to the boat.  It was not possible to get him back on board.  MOD Police boats from Faslane responded very quickly indeed and rescued the crew.  Who was now even wetter than the rest of us.  He was taken ashore and checked over, he was and is fine.

Thanks are due to the MOD Police for their very prompt and professional response.

1 Catriona, 2 Dione, 3 Ceres, 4 Hermes.  Thia DNF.

This was a race in a perfect South to South West wind.  Race Officer Craig Macdonald set the course L6.  The first leg being a beat down to the B mark on the other side of the loch due South, there was inevitably a tactical decision as to what the best route would be.  The tide was at slack water at the start.  

Catriona, Dione and Teal tacked immediately onto port and crossed the loch, as did Athene. Thia, Hermes and Ceres for differing periods continued down the Rhu shore, before tacking across.  Catriona, Dione and Teal were round B first with Thia not far behind.  Hermes, Ceres and Athene, met at the mark, the latter having come down the Clynder shore on the opposite tack.  It was revealed in the bar after the race that Athene thought she had a right to protest but failed to do so.  

On the broad reach, sometimes a run, to the G mark all set spinnakers and the fleet became clearly separated into the four who were first round B, and the other three. Teal got past Dione at G. With the wind having veered a little to the west, and the tide now coming in it was a true beat from G to C and hard to judge laying the mark; it could only be done in two tacks by going so far down the loch as to have a very long journey. Wisely, all bar one resisted that temptation.  A beam reach from C with spinnakers produced a finish with Teal and Dione a minute or so apart, but in all other respects there was a pleasing mathematical regularity of two minutes separating each boat  from the next.

1 Catriona 2 Teal 3 Dione 4 Thia 5 Hermes 6 Ceres 7 Athene