2008 RA Nationals 7th and 8th June 2008 – Buchanness MYC

Day 1

Day 1 started in dull conditions with a light and shifty wind from the SW. These conditions persisted until lunchtime when the wind started to gradually build reaching a maximum of 10 knots during the afternoon. The RAs really revelled in the afternoon’s sailing conditions with RO Ali Law and his team getting 16 heats and 8 races sailed by the end of the afternoon.

The results at the end of day 1 show that Ken Binks sailing his Sword is on a blinder – counting 4 firsts and 2 seconds. Derek Priestley sailing his Hardtack is lying second, finding the heavy conditions in the afternoon to his liking. After a bad first and sixth races, Robbie Welsh sailing a new Lighting had pulled through to third by winning the last two races of the day.

All the top skippers apart from Ken Binks had found the early going difficult.

Top 6 at end of day 1 : Ken Binks, Derek Priestley, Robbie Welsh, Graham Bantock, John Tushingham, Peter Fothergill

Photos  by Ian Dundas

Day 2

Day 2 started much like day 1 except that there was more wind during the morning – as lunch time approached the sun came out and for a short period as Castle Semple warmed up, the wind went very light with big holes everywhere. After a short comfort break, the wind settled in and became steadier in strength through to the end of the racing at 3.30. However, throughout the day, Castle Semple lived up to its reputation of being very unpredictable – constant shifts and variations in strength requiring a lot of care in reading the conditions.

The story of the morning’s sailing was that Ken Bink’s first windward legs were not good requiring him to pull back places throughout each race. On the other hand, every time there was a little extra breeze, Robbie Welsh put together a good result. So at lunchtime (race 13), Robbie had pulled up to second place overall followed fairly closely by Graham Bantock. The big loser in the morning was Derek Priestly who dropped to 4th overall. John Tushingham in 5th place strung together a good run of results to close the gap to Derek.

So, as racing commenced after the short lunchtime stop, everyone was watching boats 83 and 25. With the slightly stronger wind conditions, Robbie closed up on Ken but with 16 races sailed and 3 discards kicking in, couldn’t quite catch Ken. Derek also found the wind strength to his liking and managed to overtake Graham to finish 3rd overall.

First 6 places
1. Ken Binks
2. Robbie Welsh
3. Derek Priestley
4. Graham Bantock
5. John Tushingham
6. Peter Fothergill – winner of the Boussey Medallion

Final results (pdf file)

At the prize giving, Chris MacKenzie gave a short address about Horace Boussy who was a great A boat sailor throughout the 20th century – Horace presented the Boussy Medallion originally to the Scottish Model Yacht Association – in recent years the Medallion has been presented at major UK events run in Scotland by the Scottish District of the Model Yachting Association. This year, Chris was very pleased to be able to present the trophy to Peter Fothergill.

Horace Boussy – a short biography

Hughie Shields who has also sailed A boats for over 50 years presented the prizes for positions sixth to second before Charlie Woodward, the Manager of the Clyde Muirshield Regional Park, presented the Championship cup to worthy winner Ken Binks.

Race committee 

Principal RO – Ali Law
Assistant RO – Richard Ennos
Event Secretary & Assistant RO – Ian Dundas
Starting line, observer marshal & rescue boat – Neil Jardine & Robert Hughes
Finishing line judges – Jimmy Rodger & Bob Hughes
Scorer – David Smith
Web pages & photos – Richard Rowan