Category Archives: Race Reports

A lovely afternoon for a sail.  There was cloud over The Cobbler and the wind was steady for a lot of the time.

On the water Race Officer Barrie Choules chose a long course, visiting many of the marks in the loch, beginning with a leg to windward to B, off Silvers.

Teal was early at the starting line and obliged to circle.  Catriona got the best of it with Dione and Halcyone to leeward.  Teal quickly recovered from her start and took the lead with starboard tack advantage.  Wind was variable, however, and she was a close second at the mark with Dione chasing hard.  Teal was super slick launching her spinnaker for the offwind leg to F, off Shandon Church and took back the lead.  Dione had trouble with her third sail, which compromised her challenge.

The next leg upwind to Clynder.  Again Teal dropped to second due to the variability of pressure in the Gareloch.  The leg back to the starting area a reach where overtaking is not usually possible.  We were just in time for another round.  Again Catriona and Teal swapped places.  Wind on the approach to B was outrageously variable and Teal was round first.  Dione, meanwhile, had made a poor rounding of the mark at the starting area and dropped a place to Halcyone.

There were no further changes of place at the front.  Unaccountably, Halcyone let Dione past again on the reach to the finish.

1 Teal, 2 Catriona, 3 Dione, 4 Halcyone, 5 Hermes, 6 Zephyrus.

Race report to follow (once it is written by the winner Dione!)

(Guest report from Teal – largely because a week later she was the only one who could vaguely remember what happened!)

It was a nice sunny afternoon and tempting to dress summery. This would have been and was a mistake. As we left the moorings ominous dark clouds threatened and as we sailed to the start a squally shower started and was soon spitting hailstones followed by mere soaking heavy rain. The wind swerved around bit too which didn’t help Teal (volunteer on-the-water RO) decide on a course. Given the wind, a tide, and a reported submarine (although it has perhaps happened) and various naval exercises afoot, it was decided to stick to Z-A-G course which kept us away from the narrows and main channel.

Various boats made a reasonable start including Dione slightly more inshore and to windward and with Catriona – helmed by Convenor Prof Blackie – and Zephyrus starting closer to the Z mark. Teal was concentrating on the start sequence as RO and sailed a little too far away in light air but followed behind Dione in the windward pack. The boats in the leeward pack however looked good since they would have the inside overlap at the starboard rounding at the A mark. A header shifted the balance however and now Dione was in a clear lead and reached A first. Zephyrus still made an overlap count with Teal following tightly round in third. Halcyone rounded fourth, with Hermes and Catriona suffering from their leeward position in the header.

Dione was away and never looked back in the race. Teal managed a quick spinnaker launch and broke through to windward of Zephyrus. Halcyone tried the same to Teal and was succeeding for a while before a lack of wind too far inshore stymied her. Hermes also managed to look too like she was also going to undertake Teal to leeward with a nice streak. Catriona now surfed her very own wind from the back to squeeze through between Hermes and Halycone and was threatening Teal. Teal however maintained a windward position and cover to the G mark to round in second. Halcyone suffered badly from her decision to go too far and rounded last.

It was now a case of covering back to the finish. Dione waltzing away. Teal covering Catriona home. Zephyrus covering Hermes. Halcyone trying to catch all.

1 Dione, 2 Teal, 3 Catriona, 4 Zephyrus, 5 Hermes, 6 Halcyone

1 Catriona, 2 Halcyone, 3 Teal, 4 Dione, 5 Zephyrus, 6 Hermes, 7 Thia, 8 Thalia

The last race of the year.  As the light faded, the Gareloch was delightfully atmospheric.

On the Water Race Officer Michael Knox avoided the shortest possible course (a temptation given the limited time) and sent us upwind to A, off the club, then downwind to Clynder.

Catriona got away best at the favoured shore end of the starting line with Dione and Thalia in pursuit.  As we rounded the windward mark, it was necessary to head up the Shandon shore so as not to impede a frigate on her way to Faslane.  It did not interfere with the racing.  Dione tried to pass Catriona to windward, but helm Lucy Forrester responded to protect her position.  Ceres, meanwhile, was affected by underwater growth and not on the pace.

Back at the line, Catriona would have been happy to finish but there was time for another round and Dione pressed on.  It was a good sail, wind was steady, no places changed.

1 Catriona, 2 Dione, 3 Thalia, 4 Thia, Ceres Rtd.

(Guest report from Teal.)

The forecast was for steady wind from the SE and rain. One of these was, with the benefit of hindsight, accurate. But let’s go back to the beginning.

Teal, Thalia (with Peter and a guest-starring crew) and Hermes (helmed by Mike Lidwell since Carole was on holiday) turned up to race. A good few other helms were on a jolly – sorry, at a regatta – to Seawanhaka YC near New York. The series was all to play for with Teal and Hermes on level points. Teal offered to act as the on-the-water Race Officer and so with the SE wind, and a preference from others for avoiding a downwind start, selected course H4 which would take us from Z on a fine reach to A, then a long run to D (N of Clynder), then – with good luck – a good beat back from D to the start line. At Z. Remember this. Z.

Thalia and Teal both hit the line well but with Thalia just upwind and ahead but with Teal possibly having the advantage of the inside if she could maintain the overlap. In the end Thalia’s position paid off and she broke clear to reach A with Teal following. Hermes following. Teal however rounded wide and got on top of Thalia and hoisted early to pass to windward. At this point however the steady wind seemed to abandon us and perhaps swing to the S. Difficult to be certain however as it became almost non-existent and D started to look very far away indeed. Teal gybed – thinking to perhaps get better wind and tide and headed across towards Clynder. Thalia then managed to get some good wind and looked very good and clearly ahead although a long way to the right. Hermes continuing to follow. At this point the wind decided to completely forget the forecast. Perhaps due to the rain front and a very cold mass of wet air approaching from the west? In any event the wind swung to the SW and Teal was clear on a fine reach to D. The wind shift was enough that Thalia had to eventually take down her kite early just to get there. She still rounded just ahead of Hermes.

It looked as if the excitement was over and a slow, long, wet reach in procession back to the finish was in order. However there were two further developments before we were finished: one natural and one man-made! The first (natural one) was that the wind kept swinging slowly S and eventually re-established back from the SE. Teal however still had the others covered and kept herself between them and the finish. No issues. You’d have thought. The second (man-made) development however was that Teal checked the finish and read that it was Y. Which made sense since that gave a fairly square finish line. At some point well past Z on the way to Y, Teal’s skipper decided to double-check and spotted that it was not Y but Z! (The confusion coming from the unique situation that the Light-wind course which went to C then finished at Y but the High-wind course – which we were on – went from D to Z.) After a sharp bear away and now reaching, Teal and Thalia were both going to get to Z at the same time. Teal had in the end realised her error just in time to make it inside of Thalia (with mark-room rights if necessary) and a sharp turn took her over the line ahead. So close to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (of both the race and the Sunday series!).

1 Teal, 2, Thalia, 3 Hermes

The forecast was for very little wind but as it turned out there was enough for a good race.  Finding the best of it was key.

On the water Race Officer Roger Kinns set a course up and down the Shandon shore.  As is so often the case, there was a compromise between being far enough out to get good wind and close enough in to get the best of the back eddy as the tide ebbed.  This is usually a speciality of Hermes,  This time, she ventured too far out and let Dione have it all her own way.  Teal went out with the intention of covering Hermes.  To no avail.  Halcyone looked strong initially but found a hole close inshore which let Hermes into an unassailable second place.

Halcyone and Teal had a torrid time rounding the windward mark, fighting the tide as the wind died away.  Halcyone made it round first but Teal took the place with slicker spinnaker handling downwind.

The leaders crossed the start/finish line with time for a second round.  Thalia got in front of Halcyone by omitting the start/finish line and staying in better air out in the loch.

1 Dione, 2 Hermes, 3 Teal, 4 Halcyone.  Thalia RTD.

A wet night, but there was good wind.  On the water Race Officer Iain MacGillivray selected a course to B, off Silvers, and back.  It was a good leg to windward.

Catriona set out to cover Teal at the start and got the best of it at the favoured pin end.  Others who were earlier were obliged to bear away down the line.  Teal was blanketed by Halcyone and suffered badly, she never fully recovered.

As Catriona set off across the loch in response to Teal, Dione prospered on the Shandon shore.  It was soon clear Dione was leading with Catriona chasing.  As the pair crossed tacks, Catriona ducked twice but on the third occasion she had had the best of a lift was able to cross ahead with starboard advantage and tack into a covering position.

There was time for a second round, although some were not enthusiastic.  Athene strayed too far to the Clynder shore too early and lost her third place to boats which approached the shore close to the layline for the mark. Downwind, she had a crack at Hermes.  She slowed her opponent by getting on her air but tried to pass too close to windward.  Hermes’s luff did for her.

1 Catriona, 2 Dione, 3 Teal, 4 Halcyone, 5 Thalia, 6 Hermes, 7 Athene, 8 Thia, 9 Ceres