RACING 2009
SCOTTISH IRC 2009
John Highcock June 30, 2009
(All photographs for the Scottish IRC 2009 are courtesy of Neill Ross - neill.ross@neillross.co.uk)
This is the 4th year for this event organised by The Mudhook yacht club, with a change of venue to Largs. It saw an increase in boats participating with 4 class bands for the Fleet.
Day 1 (Saturday)
After the Kip regatta PRO John Watson must have thought he would need to burn a few more sacrifices for the wind gods to be on his side again. The North easterly for any one who knows the Largs area was predictably unpredictable. The breeze was 15kts increasing to 30kts during one rain squall. He did a great job in getting 3 races in, all with the correct leg on each course. The first race was a triangle course and saw the most extreme of wind and weather conditions.
I was racing with team Corson on Salamander XX in Class 2 and after a reasonable start we built a nice lead by the windward mark. Ken Grant’s J109 Tigh Soluis II pegged us back down the 2 reaching legs and by the leeward mark it was game on again. For the first part of the beat we were trading shifts and tacks. We got a break 2/3rds up the beat when the wind died briefly. We tacked on top of Tigh Soluis forcing them back to the right hand side. 5 minutes later the new breeze started to fill in from the left and all we had to do was tack and consolidate before the windward mark. Good breeze down the run helped us to regain time to go on and win. The next 2 races were beat and run courses in slightly more settled conditions with the Élan 380 "Animal" putting on the pressure in the next race and being first round the windward mark closely followed by us and Iain and Graham Thomson’s Swan 40 Sloop John T with Ramsey Dunlop on the wheel.
We managed to get our noses in front by the leeward mark and slowly extended our lead by the finish. Up wind in these conditions we were finding it really important to press on the headsail to keep the speed up and let the shifts give you the height. Sloop and Animal put together some consistent results to end the day in 2cd and 3rd behind us. A special mention must go to "Tanit" who on one hoist managed to hoist there spinnaker side ways and with some great trimming by Alan McLeod managed to get a set.
Day2 (Sunday)
Started of with a nice little bit of drainage 15kts from the east to get us over to the start area of Mount Stuart. Then the wind died swung around a bit and seem to settle from the NE to NNE again and at about 8kts. After a small delay all classes got away on a triangle course. Some just as the breeze shut off and then shifted right and while others fleets were under way half way up there windward leg with the huge shift.
Our race got under way in the dying NNE breeze. We got of to a good start at the pin end with Sloop just under our bow we worked the patch of breeze straight a head before tacking over when clear to go right. After a short time we got dumped into the hole with Sloop about 10 boat lengths to windward managing to just creep past us and on out to the right hand side of the course. The new breeze came in from the East and all the boats that hand selected the right hand side were now well ahead. With Sloop having an impressive lead by the first mark. When all the fleet were on the second and third leg the breeze slowly moved back to the north which left no windward leg at all. With No passing places over the rest of the race it turned into a procession with Sloop taking the Gun. We managed to claw our way back up to 5th.
For the second race the course was re laid to suit the now northerly 8-10kts. The second race was better with the wind still shifting about 15 degrees either side of centre which over the whole race was fairly even.
Our windward leeward race got under way with the breeze going left, I decided to take the hit on the first shift for better breeze and a clear line at the committee boat end. Fortunately it paid off and we just managed to get in front by the windward mark. Close behind were Sloop and Animal. We slowly pulled out a small lead by the leeward mark. Sloop came back at us showing some great pace and height in the 8kts and closed us down by the windward mark. As there was no spreader mark and Sloop right on our tail we went for a gybe hoist to clear our breeze and control the inside line at the leeward mark. It paid off and by the leeward mark we had clear water again. We were ahead but needed to gain another 30 seconds up the next beat. With a slight increase in wind speed up to 10 kts and with a few gear changes and picking up the shifts we managed to pull ahead enough to win.
We won our class2 with 4 first and a fifth. With some very consistent sailing and showing some great pace in the 6-8 kts Sloop John T finished 2nd overall. Kevin and Debbie Aitken and crew with there new boat Animal showed they have really started to put together consistent performance and results to finish 3rd.
Class 1
Alan Hogg and crew with Argie Bargie ended up winning the class by 1 point ahead of Charlie Frize and Prime Suspect. Ken Kelly, Mike Bramell and crew on the well travelled Absolutely 2 showing that perseverance and a solid improved performance in 2009 does pay off, finishing 3rd overall.
Class 3
This class got of to a shaky start with all but one of the fleet sailing the correct course. Congratulations go to Nick and Miles Stratton and team in the new Archambault 31 A neat Djinn in winning there class and the overall title with four first and a second. Second in class was Robert Yates J92 niJinksy and 3rd was Howard Morrison and team in the Sigma 38 "Enigma".
Class 4
The trio Angus,Tear andThomson in the evergreen SJ30 Misjif won the class overall. With J.Allen's X302 Antix second and John Kent's Farr727 really enjoying the lighter weather on Sunday with a second and first, finishing third overall.
Bute Weekend 2009
John Highcock June 30, 2009
(All photographs for the Bute Weekend 2009 are courtesy of Neill Ross - neill.ross@neillross.co.uk)
Northerly 20kts.
This year I was racing with Kevin Aitken and his newly launched Elan 380 "Animal".
This Clyde cruising club event is all ways a nice way to start your season. This year we started with a downwind leg to Toward, slowly hardening to about 140 apparent at Toward. Every one getting away cleanly and pretty much on time, Argie Bargie lead the charge. Our boat was fresh out the wrapper and now was the first acid test to whether those Polars would live up to expectation. We were pleased to see we were matching Prime Suspect, Tanit and Salamander the Elan 410 for off wind speed and were in good shape at Toward.
A special mention must go to Boyd Tunnock at this juncture. He climbed the mast to release a trapped spinnaker from the mast head, America’s cup style. I can only put it down to the power of the Caramel log. Fortunately no one was hurt or damage done other than losing a spinnaker, what a shame!
The next leg to Ardmaleish buoy was power reaching with the headsail. We took a conscious decision to pick up a tow from Playing Ft$e who was just beginning to limber up after a poor first leg. While Prime Suspect and Salamander took a slightly more northerly course and eventually passed us near the deep water basin at Castle Toward. We kept in contention all the way down the squally East Kyle. As we approached Colintraive we hoisted the spinnaker and shot through the narrows to join the annual Scottish lottery. The 4 larger boats in front were stuck in a hole and spiralling breeze.
We managed to pick our way through this area nicely with a little spinnaker work then headsail. Keeping to the east of the rhumb line we got to Kames in very good shape with Ft$e and Argie only just a couple of minutes a head of us.
As we reached down the west Kyle under headsail Salamander slowly started to move marginally faster. We picked up a tow with them only about 5-8 boat lengths a head and Prime Suspect the same behind us. All 3 boats stayed like that all the way to Garroch head.
We hardened to head towards Portachur buoy and lost a little ground to both boats. On rounding the buoy we started a beat towards Hun1 with Salamander just ahead and Prime suspect behind. This was our first time going to windward and we were rapidly trying to fined the correct gears for the wind conditions. In doing so we took our eye of the ball a little and let Prime Suspect through. We found we needed more purchase in the backstay, barber haulers and kicker from the standard equipment to make easier changes of sail setting. Rig tension was a little slack and a slightly different set from port and starboard. On rounding Hun1, 4 boats ahead which we had our time on and no boats behind to worry about. We could have had a leisurely reach in, however we thought it best to fly the asymmetric which caused more problems than gains and put a little pressure on to the finish. We finished 6th over the water and won the race on corrected time by 4 mins.
