Category Archives: Race Reports

At lunchtime the Gareloch had a glassy, windless look. However, four boats thought things might improve. They did. The course was a sausage down from Z against at first a very light south east wind and back. Athene was first over the line, hearing as she went an intriguing hail from Thalia to windward that she was (also) on starboard. Hermes was going faster further in to the shore and got ahead with Thalia further out. Thia was some way behind and never quite caught up the others. At the A mark Thalia was first followed by Hermes. The spinnaker work on Athene got her into second place for a while. But eventually, having had to bear away from Hermes she fell back to third. On the second round the wind improved to a consistent breeze and it was the final run from A to Z that was the decider. Hermes and Thalia sailed in a near embrace close inshore with Hermes as the outer boat. From a distance a going aground looked possible. But there was water and Hermes got first over the line. Athene hoping a better wind would compensate went for further up the line but the wind did not compensate for the distance, as it did not also in the case of Thia.

Hermes 1; Thalia 2; Athene 3; Thia 4.

Race Officer Andrew Nicholson set a short course, across the Gareloch to C at Clynder and back. In the steady breeze at the start, it seemed pessimistic but he was quite right.

The wind was behind us for the first leg. Iris got away first, Thia and Thalia were strong. Somehow, and for no particular reason, Catriona was able to sail between Thalia and Ceres and then avoid being blanketed by those two and Iris, further to windward.

As the Garelochs approached C, the Sonars and Pipers were just leaving it. It is not as if the Garelochs got there quickly, there was a hole around the mark of spectacular depth. All the boats leaving had right of way. Catriona was able to thread herself through them. The rest of the fleet took some time to drift round them. With wind filling from the middle of the loch, being away first was crucial. Thalia did well, Iris took a little time to break away. There was never any possibility of a second round.

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

Eric Boinard, who has restored Zephyrus to magnificence, has been reading wonderful old reports of yacht races in the Glasgow Herald by their correspondent George Findlay. He was taken by stories of races to Rothesay and suggested we should do that again to celebrate the 90th anniversary. There were ten Garelochs at the starting line (between Race Officer Tim Henderson’s Blue Iris and a fixed buoy) on Saturday morning.

Wind was light and patchy to begin with. Some were seduced into Rhu bay and suffered a loss of momentum. Thalia more than most. Judging things to get round the point at Rosneath is always tricky. Close in to the caravan park there is usually less wind, but then wind is good to the Green Isle buoy. Teal and Juno did well here. Iris and Catriona were further out. Zoe was far too close to the Helensburgh shore and lost out.

Soon after the Green Isle, Catriona ducked behind Teal and was leading thereafter. Juno’s Fraser Noble has raced in these waters before. He knew wind would be best on the Greenock shore. Those of us who went with him prospered.

Iris, always one to watch, was in fourth some of the time. Shortly after the Cloch, she cemented herself into second.

Ian Nicolson, who’s Rival 34, St Foy, was one of the support boats told us of 6 metres breaking their masts in the curious gusts off the Bullwood on the Dunoon shore. It is thought that wind from the East Kyle meets wind on the Clyde just here. We could all see the point. There were gusts to dip the lee deck and lulls which had us looking at the racing flag to assess direction.

Approaching Toward, Iris went very high into the shallow bay there. Catriona, inexperienced in these waters, did not cover thinking Iris would have to bear away to clear the point. As Catriona was headed, Iris was an immediate threat. Catriona’s tack to try and get above was not the best and Iris passed to leeward.

The finish, on the Rothesay shore between St. Foy and an Admiralty mooring buoy, was further up the Kyle than we were expecting. In her search for it, Iris tacked away early. By now the others had arrived. Juno and Teal were close behind Catriona. Circe and Zoe a little further out. There was fluky, strong wind on the shore north of Rothesay which made The Gareloch look like an amateur. Juno got into it and raced past Catriona who was only five boat lengths away. No suggestion of breeze extended to the unfortunate Iris.

1 Juno, 2 Catriona, 3 Teal, 4 Circe, 5 Zoe by one second from 6 Iris, 7 Thalia, 8 Zephyrus, 9 Athene. Hermes had been lured too close to the shore east of Rothesay by a line of moorings which falsely implied a depth of water. DNF.

The forecast was for one of those drifting evenings with 2 knots of wind, gusting 3. As it was, there was good breeze, enough to wet the lee decks, all evening.

The first leg, a beat to D, north of Clynder. The fixed starting line biased towards the shore end. Most reached in on port tack, intending to tack close to the line and cut it fine regarding depth of water. Only one boat can achieve that perfect start. Iris as usual. Catriona and Zoe were not far behind. Hermes thought to approach the line on starboard. It discomfited many of the port tackers but it took her away from the favoured end.

Naturally, Iris was away best as the fleet sailed for the Clynder shore. Catriona chasing hard, both in clean air. Catriona went a little closer to the shore than Iris. On the long tack up the loch, they seemed evenly matched for most of it. Approaching D, Catriona found better air.

Two spinnaker legs back to the starting area and time for another round. Spinnaker gybes at the F mark were mostly good. Teal had trouble with her running rigging and retired. Iris concentrated on keeping Zoe at bay. Thalia was on the pace. Ceres quietly making her way up the fleet, she gained two places on the second round. Hermes and Athene were crossing tacks sufficiently closely for the port tack boat to have to give way. Approaching the finish it was close between them. Spinnaker trouble on Hermes allowed Athene to cement the place.

1 Catriona, 2 Iris, 3 Zoe, 4 Thalia, 5 Ceres, 6 Athene, 7 Hermes. Teal DNF.

Crews for 5 Garelochs arrived at the car park. Thia’s helm thought better off it because there was so little wind. Catriona was single-handed and late at the start but the others very kindly waited. On the water Race Officer Peter Proctor sent us on a very short course to A, off the club, and back. Catriona badly mis-judged her tack to turn and approach the starting line and was in collision with Circe. She took the penalty turns. Thalia, meanwhile, was well away. Ceres and Circe gently taking each other high on the windward leg to A had the effect of slowing both, Catriona crept past to leeward.

Back to the starting area, the apparent wind was well forward, spinnakers working well in the light air. Thalia was misled and thought to gybe hers at the leeward mark. She did not do it well and then found herself on a beat to windward. Catriona took the lead.

There was time for two more rounds in light but consistent air. No further excitement, though.

1 Catriona, 2 Thalia, 3 Ceres, 4 Circe.

In a steady breeze, Race Officer Gordon Mucklow sent us on one of the longer courses, beginning with a beat to B, off Silvers. Athene, recently afloat, joined us but was not prompt at the start. She had trouble with rigging.

Catriona rudely squeezed out Teal at the pin end of the line and got away well. Most of the fleet stuck to the Shandon shore so as to avoid the worst of the flood tide. Thalia went out early, which seemed wrong, but she was close behind Catriona at the windward mark. Next a spinnaker leg to F, off Shandon Church. Good air from behind brought Thalia up to the leader. A late running Piper complicated the rounding of the leeward mark. Thalia ended up taking penalty turns. Wind had now begun to diminish and become fluky. The remainder of the fleet took some time to reach F.

The next leg, a beat to Clynder. In the middle of the loch there was a suggestion of breeze but adverse tide. On the Clynder shore, even less pressure but out of the tide. Pipers prospered in the middle, Garelochs did not.

No boat reached the finishing line before the time limit. A Broadley finish with results taken as the order at C, the last mark to be rounded.

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

Race report by John Blackie

This was another Tuesday of rather light winds and some variability of direction. With a falling tide and a beat to the B mark some, the ultimate winners, stood right down to near the narrows, and fetched the mark. Iris, who had been squeezed out at the start, Teal, and Catriona helmed by Miriam Sutter and crewed by John Blackie of Athene went across the loch and then down. Iris improved her position among the three. On the run up the loch Catriona’s crew was slow in getting up her spinnaker. There was little change over to the C mark. Thalia, Zoe and Zephyrus were well ahead of the rest of the fleet. On the way across the loch. Hermes had a torrid experience with the wind lessening and fell to the rear. Iris got well clear of Teal. Catriona adopted her owner’s practice of using the spinnaker with the wind just forward of the beam. Her crew having got better at managing it and she caught up on Teal somewhat.

Zoe 1 Thalia 2 Zephyrus 3 Iris 4 Teal 5 Catriona 6 Hermes 7

The first of the big celebratory events for the Gareloch’s 90th birthday. Teams from the Fairy Class at Cultra on Belfast Loch and the Howth 17 Footers visited for a three cornered team racing match.

We were all bright eyed and expectant on Saturday morning but the Gareloch was its usual self. There were ripples here and there but no air to speak of. The decision was made to take the boats to the East Patch, off Helensburgh, where there was a steady and reliable breeze.

The plan was for six races and Race Officers Bill Inglis and Simon Jackson, aboard Tim Henderson’s Blue Iris, got them all in. Albeit the last three were shorter than they would have liked. Two teams of four boats raced at a time with the third on Bill and Jane McLaren’s Vagrant of Clyde, enjoying hospitality and listening to tales of adventure sailing round the world. If it has a coastline, Vagrant has been there.

The visitors raced each other first, with Howth taking the win. Both were feeling their way and aggression was muted. The Garelochs, on the other hand, had been practicing and had benefited from coaching by expert team racer, Mark Greenhalgh. We knew where we wanted to be on the starting line and we knew how to slow an opposition boat so as to promote one of ours. We won our next two races.

In the fourth the Fairies got the better of Howth. Howth won the match on aggregate. By now, things were getting a little tighter. The Garelochs were still winning starts but not with as much conviction as earlier. There were times in the last two of our races where the home team was in trouble. Delaying tactics going upwind and turnovers downwind brought enough of us through for a series of four wins.

The dinner on Saturday evening was especially good. These team racing matches began more than 30 years ago so that we reminisced and remembered all those characters who were so central but are no longer with us.

A fleet race on Sunday morning. The idea was that helms from the team racing should crew for members of an opposing team. Six boats competed. For some, it was the morning after the night before. The Gareloch at first teased us with large, glassy areas of water. In the end there was wind for a good race. Howth 17 sailor Seamus McLoughlin in Catriona got to the better air on the Clynder shore first. He made good use of Catriona’s spinnaker downwind and was never in any danger. Even from Vagrant, who had a few of the more delicate aboard and sailed the course.

There was good breeze as we left the moorings, but that was it. We were all ghosting about before the start, which was complicated by the lack of a race officer on shore. The other classes chose a short course across to Clynder and back. We all tried extremely hard. Boats prospering, then dropping back in the light and variable air. We tried spinnakers on both legs, but mostly there was not air to fill them. The extra anticipation needed when boats are travelling very slowly and not answering to the helm eluded many. The ‘windward’ mark was left to starboard, so that right of way boats approaching had to tack onto port to round and so became give way. Complicated when several boats, a mix of Garelochs and Pipers, are overlapped and not manoeuvrable.

As it turned out, we over ran the time limit, no Gareloch finished.

Luna, newly afloat and looking very smart, was sailing around the starting area but did not come to play.

With wind blowing from the Shandon shore, on the water race officer Peter Proctor was obliged to set a course with a running start. Downwind to D North of Clynder. In a good breeze Catriona got away well with Teal and Thalia in hot pursuit. Slick spinnaker work by crew Lasse Sutter prevented any overtaking and, by D, Catriona could relax.

For the beat back across the loch in the usual fluky air, Catriona did not cover Teal sufficiently closely and briefly lost a place. Teal, though, did not learn from her opponent’s error and dropped back shortly afterwards.

The start of the second round was a run, this time to B, off Silvers. Teal still fancied her chances and thought to gybe her spinnaker at B for the reach up the loch along the Clynder shore. Catriona had dropped hers, which was the right move. Wind was too strong for carrying spinnakers on a fine reach. The trouble Teal had stowing hers allowed Thalia to pass. Thalia was careful to keep close cover for the beat to the finish and Teal, not for the want of trying, was unable to retake the place.

1 Catriona, 2 Thalia, 3 Teal, 4 Zephyrus, 5 Hermes, 6 This. Ceres DNF. She went home because the distaff side of her crew had insufficiently waterproof clothing for the heavy showers.