Gareloch One Design

Report from the Secretary

The last race of the season.  The usual points series race was run in parallel with the  annual Dog Race.  The weather was again kind to us.

Dogs assembled in the car park.  Fergus (Catriona) and Jasper (Zephyrus) were old hands.  Rio (Dione) took part in her first dog race.  She managed the steps at the end of the jetty with growing skill and confidence.  The official measurer, Archie Horn, also measured himself as crew on Athene.

Dogs entered a preliminary Bonio eating competition with Jasper the clear winner.  The ‘chasing the Bonio’ part of the event had to be cancelled because Jasper grabbed the biscuit before it was thrown.

Cognoscenti will know rule regarding handicap (2 seconds subtracted from elapsed time for every cm of dog).  Measurements were as follows:

Rio 150cm, Jasper 130cm, Archie 130cm, Fergus 120cm.

On the water Race Officer Iain MacGillivray grappled with wind blowing from the Shandon shore (requiring an offwind start) and the Z mark being so out of position as to be unusable.  He set an excellent course beginning with a spinnaker leg to D, north of Clynder.

Ceres and Catriona were the only two near to the line at the gun.  These two sailed a little way up the Shandon shore on starboard before gybing to cross the loch.  The rest gybed at the pin.  Thus the fleet was separated.  As it came together at D, Catriona had a clear lead from Arke.  With crew Niki and James Horn on Catriona, there was no fumbling the spinnaker, the lead increased on the leg back across the loch and then down the Shandon shore to the end of the round.   Careful covering needed on approach to Y, wind was lighter and more changeable towards the shore.  There was time for a second round.

Results and times (duration in excess of 1 hour), recorded by the Race Officer were as follows:

Catriona at 2m 15s

Arke in 5m

Hermes at 7m 20s

Athene at 9m 20s

Zephyrs at 10m 15s

Dione at 10m 20s

Ceres at 13m

Halcyone at 14m 40s

Report from the Secretary (on Catriona)

Towards the end of the sailing for this year, the weather has helped maintain enthusiasm.  Champagne wind from the north west,

On the water Race Officer Iain MacGillivray was able to start us with a windward leg to D, north of Clynder, which used  the starting line from Y mark to the shore.  Helpful because the Z mark was curiously out of place next to a moored boat.

After some pushing and shoving on the line, the shore end was favoured, the fleet split.  Some sailed up the Shandon shore, others went further out into the loch in search of clear air.  In this direction of wind and with an ebb tide, the Shandon shore if often better.  Not on this occasion.  There were lifts and headers out in the loch.  Catriona had not made a good start and tacked out for the clearer air.  In the lifts, she was way in front, in the headers in the middle of the pack.  Avoiding the temptation to tack on the (short lived) headers paid and she was first at D.  Offwind to G on the Shandon shore Arke was slicker with the spinnaker and took the lead.  Her gybe at G was better too.

Time for a second round, just to D and back.  Catriona tacked to go up the Shandon shore so as t get away from leader Arke’s disturbed air.  Unaccountably it paid this time.  Catriona had enough of a lead at D for imperfect spinnaker handling (even worse than the first round) not to matter.

Athene has been going well but was undone by the failure of a turning block for a spinnaker sheet.  There was a rumour of a broken plastic clip.  Anyway, Hermes took advantage.

1 Catriona, 2 Arke, 3 Dione, 4 Hermes, 5 Athene, 6 Halcyone.

Report from the Secretary (on Catriona)

Five Garelochs came to the start last night, Catriona, Athene, Thia Zoe, Dione.  Thia, Zoe and Dione all retired.  Catriona and Athene did not complete one round of the course but both completed two legs of the course, rounding C and g.

Catriona and Athene request the race be scored in accordance with SI 16.5:

Catriona 1, Athene 2, Thia Zoe and Dione RET.

Report from the Secretary (on Catriona)

An afternoon of vigorous wind.  On the water Race Officer Barrie Choules set one of the longer courses, beginning with a windward leg to E, the northernmost mark on the Clynder shore.

It appeared to many that the shore end of the starting line was favoured but some who started towards the pin did well.  Probably stronger wind further out.  it was variable in strength and direction during the whole race.

When things had sorted themselves out after the start, Catriona was looking good out in the loch (against the worst of the ebb tide) along with Thalia.  Another group of contenders, Dione to the fore, was closer to the Shandon shore.  They looked to be in front when those further out were badly headed but on average further out looked better.  A position which improved with big lifts nearer the mark.  After Catriona had rounded, there was a gaggle of boats with Hermes well positioned and calling ’starboard’ more than once.

Offwind, across the loch to Shandon Church spinnakers would have been beneficial most of the time but there were strong gusts forward of the beam which dampened enthusiasm for the third sail.  Similarly from Shandon Church back to the starting area.  Dione and Arke indulged in some luffing.  To the benefit of Thalia who went straight on.

There was time for a second round, this time to D (not so far up the Clynder shore) and back.  The pattern was roughly the same as the first round except that as Dione came across the loch from the Shandon shore, she was leading.  Only for a moment.  She stood on into lighter air on the Clynder shore, short of the mark.  Hermes made a couple of ill judged tacks (her helm said afterwards) which let Athene pass.

Dione and Catriona set their spinnakers for the run home.  A gybe was needed.  Dione dropped her kite and wisely left it below.  Catriona was trying to gybe the pole as a sustained gust arrived leading to a spectacular heel to windward.  The attempt was abandoned and the spinnaker taken down.

Approaching the finish, Thalia benefitted from being nearer the shore.  Dione did not sail close enough to the shore end of a finishing line which was diagonal to the direction of travel.

1 Catriona, 2 Thalia, 3 Arke, 4 Dione, 5 Athene, 6 Hermes, 7 Zephyrus, 8 Ceres, Thia DNF.

Report from John Campbell (on Thalia – confusingly!)

I didn’t use to be a gambling man, but the Scottish summer is making me reconsider.

Saturday the 10^th August, roll the dice, a 6! The RNCYC regatta for one-design classes and cruiser-racers was held on the East Patch, or rather it wasn’t as the wind was gusting up to 35 knots and proved too much for the fleets.

Sunday the 11^th August, roll the dice, a 1! The Gareloch Sunday afternoon race, and the boats drifted off the moorings at 14.30 and rode the tide down to Blairvadach in no wind.

Roll again, a 2. 14.45, and a bit of wind filled in from the east, and provided a decent wind for a start, even gusting nicely. A random event also occurred, odds of 100-1, the sun was shining!

9 boats were ready for the race, but either the crews didn’t have a stop watch, were single handed, or had no whistle / horn, so Thalia’s crew (well Circe’s crew IN Thalia) selected a course ZAGZ and started the race using an improvised sound signal / radio system. It seemed to work.

The tide seemed to hold the boats up a bit, trying to get over the line, but there were no mishaps. Catriona had the best start, followed by Luna and Thalia, but Dione started last and spent the race playing catch up. Some boats elected to head out into the centre of the loch (and full flood, but probably in the hope of more wind), others hugged the Rhu shore, and round the first mark Catriona led, from Thalia and Luna. Athene had some good speed, and Arke (her helm freshly returned from a Scandinavian road trip) was in the mix.

The run down to G again saw some boats heading out into the middle and covering more ground in the hope of more wind, and others sailed directly. By now the wind was gusty, a little patchy and crews had to read the water to see where to go.

The first round took some 25 minutes, and Catriona was leading (sometimes only just) from Thalia, but they had developed quite a space from the remainder of the fleet. Dione was up to mid fleet and Arke had come to the fore, as Luna dropped back progressively. Athene maintained her good speed, possibly due to her recent sojourn in Costa del Marina, or her new streamlined rudder stock.

Round 2 continued to be a gamble between in shore and centre loch, but it did seem that the inshore option worked a bit better. By the end of the 2^nd round, the leading boat (Catriona) was at the line before the hour mark, and therefore a 3^rd round was called for. By this time Arke and Dione were in 3^rd and 4^th, Luna continued to drop back, and Athene maintained her speed and bettered her position. Ceres and Halcyone dropped back, whilst a 3^rd round proved too far for Hermes, who decided to abandon the remainder of the race.

Round 3, and on the downwind leg, Thalia sailed into a mysterious wind hole and then sat stationary whilst Catriona sailed into the distance, and Arke and Dione (who were further out in the loch) sailed serenely by. Round the final leeward mark, Catriona was away, but Arke moved to 2^nd and Dione to 3^rd. A short leg up to finish at Z, Thalia threw the dice, gambled, tacked on a few horrid wind shifts and regained her 2^nd position by the finish line.

I think enough allusion to gambling – for now!

1 Catriona, 2 Thalia, 3 Arke, 4 Dione, 5 Athene, 6, Luna, 7 Ceres, 8 Halcyone. DNF Hermes.

Report from the Secretary (*with corrected results*)

A windy day  Some forecasts said gusts of 30kts, others 20kts.  Maybe there were a few gusts a cat’s whisker over 20.

Five of us turned out, some people are on holiday.  Wind was blowing from the south, with an element of west in it.  A course was set down and up the Shandon shore.  Visiting F, off Shandon Church, in the first round and G, a little north of Gully Bridge subsequently.

Iris, with Bess Homer at the helm,  made by far the best start.  She was at the favoured pin end at the gun.  Catriona a little way down the line.  If the rest start like they did when we team race against the Freundeskreis Klassische Yachten in September, we shall have brought a knife to a gun fight.

Catriona set off down the loch close to the shore and soon realised further out was favoured.  From being to leeward of the fleet and taking counters, she found the better clear air in the loch and was first to the windward mark.  Partly because the rest did not follow her out and partly because she had scrubbed below the water line.

Downwind it was undoubtedly a spinnaker leg but it was gusty.  Catriona set hers and amused the fleet.  As Dave Perry says in his excellent ‘Winning in One Designs’ “if your rig is rocking and rolling a bit dangerously, over trim your main, put more weight to leeward, move aft and head up a bit. If you want to go faster, reverse all the above”.

Anyway, the competition was between Zephyrus, Dione and Iris.  Ceres at the back.  Zephyrus led the group convincingly for the first two rounds.  She let Dione have better air out in the loch at the start of the third.  She had mark room at the windward mark but thereafter was behind Dione.

No one set a spinnaker downwind, which they easily could have.  Wind had moderated.

1 Catriona, 2 Dione, 3 Zephyrus, 4 Ceres, 5 Iris.

Report from Julian Forrester, Luna

Course L6, Wind variable, SW

Sunshine and a fickle Gareloch breeze took us on Course L6, a beat first across to B at Silvers and, whether crossing the loch early or late to reach the Clynder shore, the fleet remained relatively together. The long run up and back across the loch to G saw something rather different as Catriona stretched into the distance ahead. Crossing back across the loch to C one could have been forgiven for assuming she had gone home early.

The rest of us meanwhile had a great race; getting across from G to and around C and home to Y provided some close competition – and the variable breeze perhaps explained why some did better than others. Possibly also seamanship had something to do with the result, in particular towards the finish at Y where Zephyrus, Dione and Hermes crossed the line almost as one. It was not possible to hear if there was any shouting.

1 Catriona, 2 Zephyrus, 3 Dione, 4 Hermes, 5 Luna, 6 Halcyone, 7 Thia.

Report from the Secretary.

A warm afternoon with wind.  In the way of the Gareloch, direction of wind was fickle but it would be churlish to complain.

The on the water race officer chose one of the longer courses, zig zagging across the Gareloch with a Boinard start.  Named after the skipper of Zephyrus, the starting line was taken between the Y and Z marks so as to have a line square to the wind.   The first leg, a beat to C, off Clynder.

Catriona and Dione started on starboard tack and continued down the loch, so as to cover each other.  When they tacked boats which had gone up sometimes looked favourable.  Circe especially.

90 degree wind shifts approaching C added uncertainty.  Dione’s helm was preoccupied with preparations for the spinnaker.  He put his crew on the helm and gave strict instructions not to hit Halcyone.  The penalty turns set them back.

Meanwhile, Circe was first at C from Catriona and Ceres.  Circe kept her lead across the loch to Shandon Church and increased it by keeping high on the fetch to Silvers.  Ceres comfortably ahead of the rest.

We had been sailing for just over an hour as Circe, running downwind under spinnaker, approached the line at the end of the round. Hence no second round.  Building pressure from behind brought Catriona close enough for blanketing and then a pass to windward.

1 Catriona, 2 Circe, 3 Ceres, 4 Dione, 5 Zephyrus, 6 Thia, 7 Halcyone.