Category Archives: Race Reports

Race officer Jock Fleming read the changeable wind as well as anyone could have. As well as changing direction, there were light spells. Jock set a windward/leeward course across the loch. We got three rounds. It was a good race, the sun shone too.

Thalia made the best start, Teal was over the line at the start and lost time going back. Catriona had to pinch to clear the pin.

By the windward mark, Catriona was leading with Ceres on the pace, a strong second. Teal had gone left and was severely disadvantaged in the variable air. Zoe, who has pretensions, was last. Athene, recently afloat and in her first race of the season, was on the pace.

At the end of the second round, Thalia saw a flag sierra somewhere in the car park at Blairvadach, thought the course was shortened and went home. She took no notice of two boats in front continuing to race. The crew of Thalia is known for listening to cricket commentary whilst racing. That is why she seldom wins. The race did coincide with a cricket match.

In the third round, Catriona did what Teal had done in the first. Ceres dropped a place too.

1 Teal, 2 Catriona, 3 Ceres, 4 Athene, 5 Zoe, 6 Thia. Thalia DNF.

Mid-Summer but that required some imagination in view of low
temperatures and strong winds. The West Coast of Scotland has endured its coldest June since 1972.
In a stiff NW breeze, Race Officer Peter Proctor set course L8 which
gave a testing beat from the start line to D mark. The wind direction and strength varied as only it can in the Gareloch. Teal (Iain MacGillivray) and Catriona helmed by visiting airline pilot Thad Burr chose rightly to head for the Rosneath shore and quickly built up a big lead. However, Hermes (Carol Rowe) did reasonably well persisting with the Shandon shore but Halcyone sailed single-handedly by Shane Rankin,
Ceres (Neil Isaacs) and Thalia (Peter Proctor) got the worst of both
worlds by repeatedly tacking in mid-loch. And the rule that those who round the windward mark first get the best down-wind applied as the fleet of six was divided in half – Teal, Catriona and Hermes with spinnakers set leaving Halcyone , Ceres and Thalia, almost becalmed for a few minutes, well behind.
The second lap again again proved that winning skill (luck?) is as much about choosing the best route between marks as it is about upwind sail-setting and responding to every lift. This time, the Shandon shore let Hermes down as she slipped to last place whilst Thalia found strong winds towards the west side of the Gareloch and moved from sixth to fourth place. Teal and Catriona continued to press each other at the front of the fleet. Positions remained unchanged on the final down-wind leg except that Thalia and Ceres passed Halcyone who was not flying a spinnaker.

Result: 1 Teal 2 Catriona 3 Thalia 4 Ceres 5 Halcyone 6 Hermes

Athene (John Blackie) made a welcome ‘guest appearance’ as the fleet
returned to their moorings.
Galatea is scheduled to launch on 30 June bringing the number of
Garelochs afloat for the season to eleven.

Only two competitors but that is enough for a race.

Callum Walker on Thalia made the best start for a beat across the loch to C, off Clynder. Lena Sutter on Catriona fought hard and played the wind shifts to good effect. Eventually it paid and she took the lead on the final tack into the Clynder shore. Once in front, Catriona made sure to cover so that Thalia’s only chance was down wind. Spinnaker handling on Thalia was insufficiently slick to take advantage.

1 Catriona, Lena Sutter. 2 Thalia, Callum Walker.

The Gareloch is famous for variable wind. That is why boats of the Gareloch One Design are especially responsive. This evening reminded us.

The starting line was heavily biased towards the pin end. By pure chance, Catriona was on pole and squeezed out Teal.

Wind was so variable on the way to B, off Silvers, that covering was ineffective. Boats close together, pointing in the same direction, could be on opposite tacks.

Thalia looked good for a while, but fell away. Teal and Thia were first round B for the the downwind leg to G, across the loch. Thia’s crew, Rona Prentice, only began sailing in Garelochs this year so that teasing the spinnaker to keep drawing in wind constantly changing in strength and direction did not come naturally. Catriona gained a place.

The third leg, to C, off Clynder, was similarly afflicted by variable wind. Places changed and changed back. Teal was first round for the reach to the finish. Thia got the better of Thalia, Zoe set a spinnaker to beat Hermes.

1 Teal, 2 Catriona, 3 Thia, 4 Thalia, 5 Zoe, 6 Hermes.

The forecast was for no wind and so it turned out. A few of us left our moorings but needed transits against the shore to measure progress.

No Race

The summer is here. An evening of sunshine and good wind. Sufficient for a comfortable two rounds of the course but not so much that there was any nervousness about setting spinnakers.
Race officer Jean Mackay changed the course which was displayed. Every boat but Catriona spotted the change in time. The light blue boat was making her final approach on the wrong starting line when her crew, Penny Davidson, noticed we were all alone. Not for the first time, Catriona’s start was pedestrian. Teal was on it and got away well. Thalia and Ceres also in the fray.

The gap between the leading pair closed a little over the first round but Teal was well established in the lead. Ceres, on the pace, had dispensed with all but Catriona to take third. Thalia lost another place to Hermes and had to fight hard to get it back.

On the windward leg of the second round, Catriona followed Teal towards the Clynder shore and tacked first to be to leeward but in clear air. Concentration on the two boats was intense. More and more headers, going up the loch, were to Catriona’s advantage. Eventually, she was able to tack and cross and that was that. The leg downwind to the finish was sufficiently off a dead run for the leader to avoid being blanketed.

1 Catriona, 2 Teal, 3 Ceres, 4 Thalia, 5 Hermes, 6 Thia.

A good day for sailing, especially after the preceding Saturday. There was a brisk wind with gusts weighty enough to wet the lee deck, some sunshine too.

The course began unconventionally with a broad reach to B, off Silvers. That was done to achieve a true beat up the Loch to the F mark, off Shandon Church. Catriona allowed herself to be distracted with the setting up of the spinnaker and, as a result, started late and to leeward of Teal and Thalia. The ballooner (as George Findlay, former yachting correspondent of The Glasgow Herald, used to call it) worked for Catriona and took her clear ahead for the mark rounding.

Thalia rounded in second and threw away two places by sticking to the Clynder shore where wind was light and changeable. The competition for the lead, closely fought, was between Catriona and Teal. Until Teal lost her jib sheets and dropped back to last in the re-rigging.

At the end of the first round, Thia had kept the place she was gifted by Thalia. Thalia tried to imitate Catriona by setting her spinnaker on the reach to B at the start of the second round. The wind was a little finer this time so that the only effect, not a positive one, was a small tear in that ballooner.

Thia did two things wrong on the next leg. Firstly, she failed to cover Thalia. Secondly, she went in to the Clynder shore which had been the undoing of Thalia on the first round.

1 Catriona, 2 Thalia, 3 Thia, 4 Teal.

The Gareloch Class entertained the Freundeskreis Klassische Yachten and the Mersey Mylnes over the weekend. The FKY has member all over Germany, their common bond being a love of classic boats which they keep in the most magnificent condition. The Mersey Mylnes are day racers broadly similar to Garelochs but ten years younger.

There was a three cornered team racing match on Saturday. In a match last year, we had gone out to the east patch, off Helensburgh, in search of wind. The Gareloch being free of ripples. It was so successful that we did the same this time.

Race officer Simon Jackson, assisted by Dick Taylor aboard Tim Henderson’s Blue Iris set simple windward-leeward courses. Nine races were scheduled, so that each team raced each other team three times. Simon was able to get them all in.

The FKY won the first race against the Mylnes and then came up against the home team. We took the win. We beat the Mylnes in the third race too.

In the second group of three races, both FKY and Mylnes found form. Garelochs dropped a race to the FKY and were equal on points with the Mylnes, winning by virtue of not having the boat in first place. You need to read the scoring system for team racing.

In the final series of three, there were some instances of friendly fire. Notably when FKY crack helm Sven Foerst made a good start on port tack but was forced to give way to Janina Blöhdorn who had started conventionally on Starboard. Your correspondent cannot report the conversation between the two boats. Whilst audible, it was in German.

In summary, the home team beat the two visiting teams, the FKY beat the Mersey Mylnes.

Thanks are due to Ted and Jane Warren for providing Longbow as a superbly comfortable hotel boat for the crews not racing. Also, Bill Inglis who operated the RIB for crew transfers.

At the celebratory dinner on Saturday evening, the Gareloch racing captain was presented with a magnificent silver cup provided by the Mylnes. For the FKY-Gareloch match, there is the David Ryder-Turner trophy. It was David who arranged the very first match between us.

A fleet race was planned for Sunday but the weather was against us. Gusts over 30 kts. Those who were keen and mostly young joined a team race training session in Sonars. Janina Blöhdorn could not understand why so many had stayed ashore.

Perhaps the best race of the year so far. There was plenty of wind, but not too much. Six boats at the start. On the water race officer Peter Proctor sent us on a beat to E, the most northerly mark on the Clynder shore. He concentrated too much on the stating signals so that his own boat’s start was compromised.

Teal and Catriona went for the favoured shore end of the start line. The rest, perhaps through force of habit, began at the pin, which was substantially to leeward. Teal and Catriona trended toward the Clynder shore and were surprised when Zephyrus and Thia, who had gone further right up the beat, crossed ahead on the starboard lay line to E.

Downwind, across the loch, to F, Catriona prospered with the spinnaker. It brought her up to Zephyrus. A shift in the wind led to some difficulty with boat handling at the mark. Zephyrus maintained her position, Catriona dropped her kite without losing too much ground. This was still strong. Teal lost a little handling her third sail. Hermes kept Thalia (who had not recovered from her start) at bay. On the reach back to the starting area, there was no effective change of places. Thia was furthest inshore so finished the round first, but she was poorly placed for the start of the second round and dropped to third.

On the next beat, Zephyrus kept her lead, Teal pressed hard but could not pass Catriona. Thia complained about poor performance to windward.

Zephyrus was not setting a spinnaker, which cost her the lead on the downwind leg to the finish.

1 Catriona, 2 Zephyrus, 3 Teal, 4 Thia, 5 Hermes, 6 Thalia.

A pleasant evening. No sunshine, but that would have been spoiling us.

The course began with a beat across the loch to D, north of Clynder. Three of the seven strong fleet realised the shore end of the starting line was favoured. Catriona was heading there when she was luffed out of the way by Zoe. Zoe and Catriona went to the left side of the loch, Zoe in the lead. Thalia went to the right and, not for the first time, came in on the starboard lay line with speed. Downwind, Catriona was the only one to keep her spinnaker at the gybe mark and prospered from it. Not enough to gain a place but the three leaders were close at the end of the round.

On the next beat, variability in Gareloch wind was again influential. Places changed and changed back again. Zoe was leading for the start of the downwind leg to the finish. Catriona lost her spinnaker halyard, which ended her challenge. Ceres, who was always in the hunt, took a place.

1 Zoe, 2 Thalia, 3 Ceres, 4 Catriona, 5 Hermes, 6 Halcyone, 7 Thia.