Category Archives: Race Reports

(Report from Charles Darley – Catriona)

There was sunshine and good wind.  Those who are never satisfied might have liked it to be a few degrees warmer.

Race Officer Craig MacDonald sent us on a beat across the loch to D, north of Cylinder.  The shore end of the long starting line was favoured.  Circe, Dione, Arke and Catriona were near  that end at the start.  Catriona, last of the bunch, carried on towards the shore after the others had tacked out.  It paid, by the time she tacked out on starboard, those who felt attracted to the Shandon shore and tacked back took her counter.

Some went for the Clynder shore and were nowhere.  Circe stuck to the Shandon shore, which was better than Clynder but not as good as Dione and Catriona a  little further out.

Dione goes well to windward, Catriona could not stop her pulling away.  In the changeable air of the Gareloch, Dione thought she was at a lay line and tacked towards the D mark.  David Du Boulay, who crewed on Catriona 20 years ago, advised sailing to Garelochhead before tacking for marks north of Clynder.  Catriona stood on.  When she tacked, she saw Dione below her, struggling in changeable air.  Dione tacked out again and crossed behind.  Catriona was easing sails and pointing above the mark.  She was led astray.  Afflicted by large headers and light air near the mark, Dione reached in with elan and nearly caught her on starboard.  

Circe rounded in clear air with no challengers. Athene beat Arke round D but dropped a place in the argy bargy of the run to G, on the Shandon shore.  Halcyone and luna were similarly swapping places.

Craig considered a second round.  Those who had gone early to the Clynder shore were so far back from the front that he finished us.

1 Catriona, 2 Dione, 3 Circe, 4 Arke, 5 Athene, 6 Halcyone, 7 Iris.

(Report from Peter Elias – guest crew aboard Catriona)

Strong gusts from the southwest, forecasted up to 17 knots, was the subject of discussion with the conclusion that conditions were borderline for Gareloch racing. Wind conditions would have greater impact than the incoming tide. Four boats elected to proceed to race.

Race officer at Blairvadach, John Campbell, selected a windward course to B. Dione had the better start over Catriona and Hermes, with Athene being a late start. Both Dione and Hermes made progress along the eastern shoreline to minimise tidal effects. Catriona elected to sail upwind mid channel hoping to maximise the strong gusts. Arriving at B first was Dione followed by Catriona, Hermes and Athene.

For the downwind leg to G only Catriona flew the spinnaker. No change to race order arriving at G.

The beat across the Gareloch to C saw Catriona make up some ground on Dione. The beat back to the race line saw Catriona further close the gap on Dione. The Race Officer signaled a shortened course (which was well received by a few given the blustery and wet conditions!!) with Dione maintaining lead over Catriona, followed by Hermes and Athene.

Appreciation to the Class Convenor for a packed, and multi-skilled, afternoon: launch operator (including tender rower and overcoming launch start issues), Race Officer and GOD fleet bilge pumper. This makes racing in blustery conditions seem the easier, and more enjoyable, alternative. Thank you John!

1 Dione, 2 Catriona, 3 Hermes, 4 Athene

Race Officer Chris Beale was an RO newbie but was ably assisted by Reay and Jean MacKay. Faced with an unusual westerly wind from the direction of the C mark and a slightly lightening forecast they plumped for a special course to C and back. (A straight westerly is unusual: the wind is either more from the SW or NW and funnelled up or down the Gareloch by the topography.)

Charles Darley – skipper of Catriona – had been his characteristically generous and infectiously enthusiastic press-ganger of sailors. Catriona was helmed by one of the crew of the beautiful Fife moored near the start-line and another was crewing on Ceres.

Catriona – under her guest helm but with Charles’ long familiarity with biased Gareloch start-lines – made a good start along with Arke and Circe. Catriona somewhat unfortunate to have to pinch above a moored yacht. Others tacked off up the Shandon shore to clear their air. More later!

The three headed across to Clynder. Circe ahead but low and Catriona higher behind, with Arke in between. It became clear that there was a quite unusually pronounced wind divergence as Arke climbed well above Circe, and in turn Catriona climbed above Arke!

Catriona and Arke tacked as they approach the Clynder shore (and less ebbing tide). But the wind was lulling badly and shifty. Circe stood on, heading even further in-shore out of the tide. Arke tacked again on a horrible header but Catriona continued back out in to the middle of the loch. It did not pay. Poor wind and tide against. Arke did well against Circe and both prospered against those in the middle.

However there were boats who hadn’t gone up the middle at all! Both Athene and Hermes had gone right up the Shandon shore. And it turned out had gone towards the wind shift which was now coming from the NW down the loch. Athene tacked left and headed across for the C mark – miles ahead of Arke, Circe and any of the middle of the road loch boats! Athene rounded C first, ahead of Arke and Circe, and made no mistakes with a slick spinnaker launch for the run back to the line. And it turned out the finish line as the RO made the decision – in the face of the forecast and an already fickle first round – to end proceedings there. A nice victory for Athene.

1 Athene, 2 Arke, 3 Circe, 4 Catriona, 5 Ceres, 6 Thia, 7 Halcyone, 8 Hermes

(Report from the Convenor on Circe)

Dear Reader, make sure you’re sitting in a comfy chair with a cup of tea for this one!

A dry Sunday afternoon, and a bit of a breeze from the north west that freshened as the boats were leaving their moorings and heading for Blairvadach.

The usual call for an On The Water Race Officer (OTWRO) went out, but a resounding silence resulted in Circe becoming the RO. The untrained, voluntary RO!

The course was from start to D, then G and back to Y. I don’t know if Y has moved but it did appear quite far down the loch, resulting in a line which, when starting on a windward beat to G, favours the shore end. Remember that for later.

Catriona, Arke and Circe tucked tight into the shore line, with Dione a bit further down, and Athene and Thia further out. The boats set out on the upwind leg, most boats heading for the centre of the loch, whilst Circe took off along the Shandon shore followed by Catriona.

All was good until boats started to make their way from the centre of the loch towards D, and then the wind died and started playing games. Arke, who was more towards the Clynder side made good progress, Dione stayed centre and headed late into D and also made good progress and at D Catriona led from Dione, Circe, Arke, and then Athene Hermes and Thia.

Failing wind and running tide allowed Athene to touch D, and in the process of re-rounding gave way to Hermes and Thia before rounding. Between D and G, the wind went truly rogue, wind vanes span 360 degrees, spinnakers went up, then down, after beating to D it was then some more beating towards G and big holes appeared from nowhere. Dione overtook Catriona by G, Circe sat in a hole and watched Arke and Hermes sail on by even though she had been ¾ of the loch ahead and so at G it was Dione, Catriona, Hermes, Arke and Circe, Thia and Athene.

Rounding G, the RO in Circe checked the time…it was getting towards the hour cut off, and I (for it was me who was the RO) thought there was going to be no way that a boat would cross the line before the hour which means it would only be one round. However there were bits of wind and the boats kept moving. There was then a call from Catriona asking for clarity on whether we were going round again, and I then heard some verbal shouting between boats about whether we were going again (in reality, I don’t think anyone wanted another tortuous round given the variable and lacking wind).

So, how does the RO on the water, who can’t see how far away anyone is from the line, decide what to do? Catriona would be happy finishing after one round (a 1st), Dione, Arke, Hermes would all be happy, but Circe (having felt a bit hard done to by the wind holes) would have relished another round and a chance to re-coup some places, but I remembered the sage advice from Iain MacGillivray on a previous occasion that the SIs state how that decision is made, and it’s on the basis of the 1 hour cut off. I also realised that a second round was not favoured, so the instruction was made that, if a boat had crossed the line within the hour, the 2nd round would be YCY (to avoid that dreaded D mark) BUT that if no boat crossed the line within the hour then it would be one round. This complied with the SIs.

With 59mins and about 20 secs of elapsed racing, Catriona informed the fleet that she had not crossed the line yet. Given she had a bit of space, she had elected to sail down the line towards the Y, without crossing it. To aid the fleet, I counted down to the hour, whilst then seeing that Hermes had realised what was happening, that Catriona was not going to cross the line, so immediately bore away and headed for the shore end of the line. Whilst counting down, I followed, pointing straight towards the line.

At 1 hour and 1 second, Catriona announced that she was over the line, Hermes crossed 2nd, Circe 3rd, followed by Dione and Arke.

Between G and finish Athene overtook Thia.

To say that there was controversy would be an understatement. Dione was unhappy and suggested voiding the race, Arke pointed out that the OTWRO had no right to amend the 2nd round.

In my defence, I would say that I stuck to the Sailing Instructions (stating that the hour finish time remained) and I interpreted that ability of an RO (to be able to change the 2nd round course) as also being available for the OTWRO. Announcements were made over the radio, clearly and gave a countdown to the hour time limit. Anyone who didn’t hear the announcement on the radio has no defence (also stated in the SI).

Contributory issues were the angle of the line (a finish after one hour would have favoured the shore line, a 2nd round meant you had to stay heading towards Y), and also Catriona’s decision to stall from crossing the line (which she was quite within rights to do, and she had the space to do it).

Any boat could have headed into the shore to cross the line and secure the 2nd round, but that would have disadvantaged them.

Lessons learnt all round, and maybe a time to re-consider the wording of the SIs to clarify what the OTWRO can and can’t do. One negative impact will be that, when asked for someone to volunteer to be OTWRO, there will be even less takers!

1 Catriona, 2 Hermes, 3 Circe, 4 Dione, 5 Arke, 6 Athene, 7 Thia. RET Thalia.

PS poor Thalia suffered a rudder stock failure and retired.