Category Archives: Race Reports ’18

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