Fastnet Race Brechin – 9th April 2011

Report by Ian Dundas

Eleven boats entered this year’s Scottish Fastnet Race for radio controlled yachts hosted by the Brechin Castle club. This year’s entries came from Peterhead, Aberdeen, Levenhall and Ayr Bay clubs as well as the local Brechin club. The main class of yacht was the IOM with 7 entries, two of which were home built wooden hulls. The IOM’s were joined by a Sweet Six A class, a Renaissance R6M and two Vintage yachts; a 79 year old Isle of Man 50 and last year’s winner Richard Ennos’s 59 year old six meter yacht.

The format followed that of previous years using a correction coefficient for each class of yacht along with an additional age allowance to encourage the participation of vintage yachts. Many of the yachts were sailed by a two man team who split the helming duties over the day.

The Fastnet Race is an endurance event with a series of several 30 minute races. Each skipper picks up a token after completing each lap of the course. After 30 minutes a sound signal hails the end of the race and skippers duly cash in their lap tokens with the race scorer. Correction coefficients are then applied to adjust for the different classes and the age of each hull design. The boat with the highest number of laps (adjusted for class and age) wins the Fastnet Shield.

RO Ralph Knowles set a large trapezoidal course and got racing underway with a light SW air under sunny skies. The wind was variable in direction and strength around the course with the odd hole which meant that the fleet often spread out then closed up. The smaller boats could exploit the wind shifts whereas the large classes were able to use their momentum to coast through the calms. In Race 1 Dick McBride lead a group of IOM’s which included local sailors Bert Powell and David Stewart. They managed to get free and put a lap on some of the bigger boats but fell just short of making a 2 lap gain. Unfortunately John Milne’s Isle of Man 50 had control problems in this first race which meant he had to withdraw from the event.

In the second session the wind strengthened slightly which brought Ali Law/S Forbes’s A Class up to join Ian Dundas and Dick McBride at the front. When the 30min gun sounded these three had put a lap on the rest of the fleet but again fell short of gaining an elusive second lap.

The IOM’s worked up a lead again in the third session with David Williams showing good speed. This time it was Ian who gradually worked a big lead but just fell short of gaining an extra lap. Unfortunately the duo of Bill Reid and Brian Robertson were not able to get their Renaissance going like when they won in 2008 and were forced to retire from this race with rudder control problems. The Race Control team of Jimmy Rogers, Andrew Burnett and Mel Percival were doing a great job in tracking the laps and keeping score.

Lunch was taken in the excellent on site facilities of the Brechin Castle Centre and the afternoon racing resumed in summer like conditions.

The two afternoon sessions followed the pattern of the morning with good close racing in tricky light winds. Bill Reid and Brian Robertson had replaced their R6m with Bill’s new Pikanto IOM. Richard Ennos continued to score steadily with his trusty classic six meter which seemed well suited to the conditions. Gordon Neil who had made the long trip across from Irvine was faring better in the afternoon as he gained experience of the Brechin pond as did the novice team of Ian Thompson/Arthur from Peterhead.

After 5 sessions and 2h30 of hard racing the laps were added up and adjusted for class and age which resulted in Richard Ennos retaining the Fastnet trophy he won last year, ahead of Dick McBride and Ian Dundas who were tied in second place ahead of the team of Ali Law/S Forbes with their majestic A class.

This year’s Fastnet event was enjoyed by all participants and spectators and thanks must go to Brechin members for again running such a successful event.

Results