Category Archives: Race Reports

Report from Shane Rankin (Halcyone).

An afternoon of frustration and surprise.

There was good wind and sunshine. The gusts were prolonged and brought big shifts.

Teal acted as on–water race officer. Course H7 was chosen, a complex of zig zags starting at Y mark and finishing at Z.

The start was a scrappy affair. Y is probably too far inshore so there isn’t much room for 7 boats. The line wasn’t quite square to the wind with a bathing platform half wayalong. All boats came charging in for the start in the fresh breeze, running the line, waiting for the gun. Most boats were close to the shore when the gun went and then tacked out. Catriona made the cleanest start, although slightly down wind of most of the others, but in clear air. Thalia had barged in at Y and was heading straight for the bathing platform, when she spotted the obstruction she tacked and forced Halcyone to tack.

The first leg was across to C at Clynder. Catriona made the mark first, she had kept her clear air and pointed higher than the others. Closing the mark Teal and Halcyone looked like they weren’t far behind. They tacked to make the mark, they were too early and were headed. Thalia and Hermes had anticipated the wind shift close to the shore and held on well past the mark. They tacked, Thalia rounded in second, Teal followed and Hermes closed on Halcyone.

Teal caught Thalia at the next mark. After that a procession set in. On the last legfrom D to Z final positions looked set until the Offshore Supply Vessel, Kingdom of Fife decided to leave Faslane and come down the loch. Teal was forced to round up and drop her spinnaker to let this 60m vessel past. Meantime Thalia slipped astern of the ship and left Teal waiting to follow.

Teal had been carried down the loch waiting for the ship to pass. When she was able to make for the line she forgot the start line wasn’t the finish line. By the time she realised Halcyone was closing on the line.

Meantime the rest of the fleet had been caught on the Clynder shore when the wind dropped, they had a slow sail home.  

A frustrating afternoon for some, surprising final positions for others.

1 Catriona, 2 Thalia, 3 Halcyone, 4 Teal, 5 Hermes, 6 Athene, 7 Thia.

Report from the Secretary.

A sunny afternoon with good wind, except that it was at the more variable end of the spectrum.  On the water Race Officer Barrie Choules was faced with the problem of wind having an easterly component so that a windward leg to start was not feasible.  He set one of the longer courses beginning with a spinnaker leg to D, north of Clynder, then zig-zagging across the loch.

Some elected to start at the pin end of the line, some at the shore end.  Either could be made to work.  Circe, Teal and Halcyone from the pin end were first to D, Thalia from the shore end next.  Catriona found herself pinned on starboard tack from the shore end when she would have liked to sail across the loch.  Ceres and Athene blanketing her.

There were errors at D.  Athene hit the mark which irritated her helm,  the penalty turn set her back.  Ceres had to sail round the outside of all that.  Circe, who rounded first, mistook the course and sailed further up the loch towards E whereas the rest hardened up to G on the Clynder shore.  On this windward leg, wind frustrated.  There were holes, gusts and, especially, large changes of direction.  Close to G, Teal was in prime position to round first but was thwarted by a huge header and was fourth around.

A broad reach next to E, the northernmost mark on the Clynder shore.  Catriona had insinuated herself around G first, from Thalia, Circe and Teal.  Wind had become more consistent so that it was hard to pass on this leg and the next a fetch to the finish.

1 Catriona, 2 Thalia, 3 Circe, 4 Halcyone, 5 Teal, 6 Ceres, 7 Athene.

Summer Points 2 – Report from Peter Proctor (Athene).
This was the second series of Tuesday evening Summer races for Garelochs. Little racing however was expected according to wind forecasts and virtually no race seemed possible minutes before the start of race preparations at around 6 pm when the Gareloch water was utterly calm. Miraculously, a mild blow happened minutes later so the race could take place after all and, furthermore,wind strength improved during the event. This meant that Race Officer Charles Darley, assisted by Jean Mackay, was able to extend racing duration to two laps of S2 – start line to mark C and back – instead of the anticipated one lap.
Seven Garelochs raced, a slightly lesser number than normally because of crew Summer holidays. The start was well achieved by six vessels but Hermes crossed the line a little early. This was exacerbated by a failed assumption that the vessel would achieve a law- abiding start even at the second attempt which wasn’t the case.
Beating up to the C mark across the Gareloch was via an ideal course adopted by Circe and Dione which put them considerably ahead of the rest of the fleet. Hermes also chose a similarly successful run after their seriously delayed start so that they impressively closed in on the rest of the competitors. Spinnakers got all back to the start line with time differences overall of some five minutes and then a welcome second lap. Gareloch positions varied for all except the first three finishers throughout and total times were of around one hour for completion.
Equally unexpectedly, wind strength vanished after completion of racing and the returns to yacht moorings. Almost as if there existed a devine wind beneficiary!
1 Circe, 2 Dione, 3 Thalia, 4 Hermes, 5 Athene, 6 Thia, 7 Luna (RO duty – Catriona)

It was a bit windy.  Several went out to check the boats and three of us decided we might race.  A gear failure on one and a hefty, wet, squall from the head of the loch put paid to that.  It was a struggle to stow the sails.  No race.

Report from Julian Forrester (Luna).

No Sonars were in play, so the GODS had the loch to themselves as Race Commander Commander Peter Proctor RN (ret.) ably assisted by Roger Kinns sent ten of us on Course L6 in a gentle SW breeze on a grey but dry evening.

On the first leg some went left, some went right and met again at B, the field still quite tight.  The run to G began to separate the fleet and, as your correspondent was as ever near the back somewhere was able to enjoy Dione doing a penalty turn for doing something unpleasant and Hermes veering off to the north west on her own private race.

The spinnaker jibe to reach G produced some heroics from the single-handed (Circe) and then it was off to C and, as ever on the Clynder shore, the wind did some funny things, though not funny if you are still snuggled up to C’s  shiny backside watching the others vanish in the gloom.  

1 Catriona, 2 Circe, 3 Teal, 4 Ceres, 5 Halycone, 6 Dione, 7 Luna, 8 Hermes, 9 Thia, 10 Athene. (RO Thalia)

Some Notes:

1) Halycone’s skipper was just visible in the cockpit. Often this is not the case.

2) Half the fleet made it home in just under one hour, the other half in just over.

3) Circe and Ceres were both in the top four which is perhaps a first?  

Report from Shane Rankin (Halcyone).

Earlier that afternoon had been wet and windless in Helensburgh. On the Gareloch the sun shone, a light breeze blew from the south.

There was a good chance of a decent race, the abrupt ending was unexpected.

Race Officer Paul Blackburn set course L4, from Blarvadach to the A mark amongst the moorings, across to the C mark at Clynder and back to the start.

It was a small fleet of five boats and two guests helming Catriona, Lucy Forester, and Reay McKay on Thia.

The pin end was favoured at the start, and congested, even with only five boats. Catriona and Circe were early for the gun. Catriona sailed along the line to avoid crossing too early. Circe eased her sails to slow down, stalled, got squeezed by Luna to leeward and covered by Halcyone to windward.

Catriona and Halcyone stood on inshore, the wind was lighter but there was some lift. The others tacked off for clear air.

Beating towards A Thia made good ground and Circe had got her momentum back. Halcyone was caught on port tack between them and had to tack away. Circe and Thia followed Catriona closely round the mark for the long reach to C. Catriona and Circe dualled across the loch. Circe flew her spinnaker for a while with little benefit. Halcyone chased Thia, established an overlap before C, and rounded in third. Thia made a wide rounding in the hope of maintaining momentum and squeezing Halcyone on the next leg. Luna kept coming, losing a little ground at times, gaining at others.

At the end of the first lap Catriona led Circe, Halcyone, Thia and Luna. There was time and enough wind for another lap. At A Thia had caught Halcyone. By C Halcyone had overtaken again.

Crossing back to the finish line at Blaivadach, a Police launch bore down on the leading boats Catriona and Circe and asked if they hadn’t noticed the Frigate Northumberland waiting to come down from Faslane. I guess we hadn’t, it wasn’t in front of us and we were racing. After brief negotiations the boats stopped and made way for the Frigate. The race was abandoned and the positions at the end of the first lap were taken as the results. A good race despite the abrupt end.

 1 Catriona, 2 Circe, 3 Halcyone, 4 Thia, 5 Luna (RO Ceres)

Report from the Secretary.

Shirtsleeves sailing.  Today there were gusts of wind and unpredictable changes in direction.  A couple of the boats were sailing one up so that it was suggested we might not use spinnakers.  Thalia, not an enthusiast of the third sail, leapt on that.  On the water Race Officer Iain MacGillivray was persuaded by his crew to go along with it.

With wind from the East, a start to windward was not possible.  Iain set a course beginning with a fetch to A, off the club, downwind to C at Clynder and a beat back.  In changeable air like this, we all know not to get too far away from the line.  So (except for Circe) what did we all do?  Catriona made the best of it to start second.  Teal was set up for a fine reach to the pin but was badly headed.  Halcyone and Thalia were timely but closer to the shore which was not favoured.

Offwind, Catriona could not get past Circe.  From A to C, spinnakers might have been overly sporty in the gusts which were often on the beam. Halcyone went right to find good wind and move up.  Teal went left with the same effect.  Schoolboy error, Catriona tried to luff Teal not registering they were on opposite tacks.  Teal on starboard.  Following the penalty turns, Catriona watched from a distance as the rest rounded C.

There was a bit of luck to the beat in the changeable wind.  We were caught in headers which induced tacks towards the Shandon shore.  Immediately after which there were gusts with strong lifts on the previous tack.  Anyway, Catriona was back behind Circe at the line and again unable to overtake on the way to A and thence C.  Halcyone found her good air to the right again and was close to achieving an inside overlap to round C second.

Circe chose the Clynder shore for her first tack of the beat.  The rest went out into the loch to begin with, which paid.  Halcyone and Catriona resisted the temptation to tack on the headers and were rewarded by the lifting gusts.  Sufficiently to get back at Circe.  Approaching the line, everyone had remembered to cover the opposition.  We were just in time for a third round but the consensus was to finish.

1 Catriona, 2 Circe, 3 Halcyone, 4 Teal, 5 Thalia.

Report from the Secretary.

The first race of the secondary points series.  A magnificent evening, sun and wind.  Wind was from the east so that Race Officer Julian Forrester was obliged to set a course beginning with a downwind leg.  To D, north of Clynder.  There was inevitable congestion at the pin end of the starting line and thereafter some blanketing.  Catriona got away reasonably cleanly. Teal and Circe, who were also timely at the line, indulging in luffing which was helpful to the rest.

Off wind, under spinnaker, the boats had similar speed so that after the leading three or four had rounded D, there was a gaggle and issues of mark room.  Catriona, usually the source of intra-boat shouting, and Dione who was on a charge listened with detached interest.  The two legs back to the starting area were both fetches (maybe a short tack needed near to the line) and so essentially uneventful. [The Secretary seems to have completely forgotten about the two reasonably good beats back from D – to G in the first round and to Y to finish – in which, at least for the first, there was a curious feature that heading L to the Shandon shore there was much better wind. Whoever went left benefitted. And the further  left the better! Teal, ladies and gentlemen, went right. At least on the first round…]

There was time for a second round. Two fine-ish spinnaker legs.  First to B, off Silvers, then along the Clynder shore to C before a beat to the finish.  No places changed in the second round but Dione, Teal and Circe had a close (and photogenic) fight under spinnaker between B and C.

The beat, in air that was consistently strong but changeable in direction, was a matter of maintaining cover.  Guest helm on Thia was Reay Mackay.  Those who like to finish in front of her knew they were up against it.  Hermes is sharper, after her helm’s workout at the Mudhook regatta.  Beaten by Thia by a dog length.

1 Catriona, 2 Dione, 3 Teal, 4 Circe, 5 Halcyone, 6 Ceres, 7 Thia, 8 Hermes, 9 Thalia, 10 Athene.

A dry, sunny afternoon after the overnight rain.  Wind was gentle, a pleasant change for those who competed the previous day in the Mudhook Regatta,

On the water race officer Barrie Choules was able to select one of the longer courses, beginning with a windward leg to A, off the club.   The shore end of the starting line was favoured regarding direction of wind (changeable) but there was always the risk of light air near the shore.  Catriona took the gamble and it paid.  She was able to tack out and cross Halcyone, the leader of those who opted for congestion at the pin end of the line.  Hermes tacked immediately after starting and did well out in the loch.  She was second round A for the run to D, north of Clynder.  She found herself blanketed by some of those chasing and dropped back.  Teal went left and found better air (clear of the shadow of the hills above Rhu and perhaps better flood tide) so as to relegate Catriona and the rest of the fleet. Circe had kept lowest of the bunch heading right and eventually followed Teal left.  Thalia tried the same but as the wind went forward of the mast nearer the Clynder shore her spinnaker, and thus her challenge, lost shape. Teal and Circe’s approach was good but then benefitted further from a stroke of luck: the wind swinging – completely against the forecast – to the SW.

It now looked like a fetch back to the starting area.  Teal went high to protect her lead from Catriona and Circe so Catriona steered below both her and Circe.  It should not have been possible to overtake on a fine reach, but the Gareloch is a funny place.  As the leaders approached the line, wind was lightening to drift condition and Barrie signalled a finish after one round.  Circe tried a spinnaker and Catriona was moved by example.  It would not fill for either.  Next, the wind (such as it was) changed from blowing up the loch to blowing down it.  Catriona went from being in with a slim chance against a strongly placed Teal to comfortably ahead in the new conditions.  Bad luck, but Teal had gained from some good luck earlier. What the Gareloch giveth, it frequently taketh away. Or vice versa.

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