Category Archives: Race Reports ’17

The Gareloch was at its most attractive.  Scenically at least, a little more wind would have been perfect.

On the water Race Officer Peter Proctor was faced with a direction of wind which made it difficult to find a leg to windward.  He selected a course which began with a fetch to A, off the club.  Catriona chose the shore end of the starting line.  Teal chose the pin end which was to leeward, thinking to benefit from slightly better wind and advantageous tide.  She was right and rounded first with Thalia, who had followed her, second.

Catriona drew level with Thalia offwind to C but could make no impression on Teal.  Thalia was caught by the fleet following a penalty arising from not giving Mark room to Catriona.  This group suffered from dying wind on the Clynder shore and dropped back.

On the fetch back to the starting area, lightening air at the front gave encouragement to Catriona, but it was not to be.  At the beginning of the second round, Gareloch air reverted to form.  It was possible to do well or badly by sailing inshore or by staying out. At the start of the second round, Thalia lost several places on the leg to A for no particular reason.  Zephyrus and Ceres prospered in the loch, Hermes on the shore.   We finished at A.

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

Report kindly provided by Jens Sutter

It was a blustery afternoon.  The Qualifier for the British Keelboat League, sailed in Sonars on the east patch, had been canned at lunch time because of high wind.

Three boats turned out, Halcyone, Teal and Catriona.  One of the longer courses was set, zig-zagging across the loch to E, near Rahane.  With wind from the Shandon shore, the start was downwind.  Lack of practice and very changeable wind led to no one starting well.  Teal was the best of the bunch.  Catriona tried all she knew to get a favourable inside overlap at the next mark, ready for the beat back across the loch.  None of it was fruitful but she did make a fair rounding and steadily worked to windward of Teal thereafter.  By the windward mark both Halcyone and Teal had had enough and retired.  Catriona, benefiting from a crew of three, carried on and finished the round.

1 Catriona, Teal and Halcyone DNF

An evening when events conspired against us.  At the key moment when people wanted to get out to the boats, it was low water of a large spring tide so that we had to wait before the launch could come in to the jetty.  Meanwhile, the rowing dinghy used to get to the launch had been swamped in the large waves being blown down the Gareloch.  The upshot, everyone was late.  Hermes, Thalia and Zoe all suffered from those teething problems which characterise the start of the season and did not race.  That left Halcyone and Catriona with guest helm Thad Burr.