Return to Greenock after a 30 year absence!

September 15, 2025Sep 15

It was great to return to Greenock MYC after about 30 years, since my last visit.

John Taylor and his American wife Sarah, came home from Florida for a family visit and planned it to coincide with the Scottish DF65 Championship weekend. john's sister Helen was also visiting.

It was a pleasure to head north on the M6 and not have to battle with the queues at M62 & M56 junctions, then Stoke, Stafford, Walsall, and of course the M42 which always seems to be a constant circular traffic jam!!

JT still has his apartment over looking the Clyde at Greenock kindly offered to host Maureen & I for the weekend, and we were made most welcome.

The 5 of us enjoyed the hospitality of the "James Watt" local Wetherspoons on the Friday night, where we ate & drank and learned about the town from the photographs displayed within.

John & I went off to the sailing on Sat morning to find a very blustery SW wind, which was A+ A or B rig strength depending which part of the lake you were in when the gusts blew through, or didn't!!

Stepping inside the clubhouse, I saw several faces I recognised Gordon Rae, Gordon Allinson, Richard Rowan, Robert Rooney, and of course Hughie Shields whom I first met in 1963 at the Fleetwood Vane A Championship!

Greenock MYC has had an influx of new members from the nearby Royal Gurrock Yacht Club who, having no sailing in the winter months, all initially bought DF65's and several have now moved on to IOM's.

16 boats took part including 6 visitors. 3 from Fleetwood JT, Paul Middleton and I and 3 from Belfast loch.

Richard Rowan the RO for the weekend, set a testing course for our small boats, with 2 long WW/LW laps and a reach to finish. Most sailors opted for A+ rigs despite the strong gusts as the lulls were windless! JT stamped his authority on the race from the beginning winning the first 2 races, he was enjoying the "free air conditioning" after the stifling heat of Florida. He continued to dominate the event for the rest of the day and came out on top after 16 races were completed.

At lunch time the club fed us with a hot plate of Scotch meat pie (very peppery) mash, beans & gravy with tea or coffee and biscuits to follow, provided by a lovely lady Mary who looks after the clubs scale boat section. Very welcome & all included in the £10 entry fee.

For Sat night Simon Thompson the race organiser had booked a table at a local "hungry horse" pub where several of us gathered. I went chatting to the Irish sailors & discovered that one of them a friend of Peter Baldwin, is an International Race Officer. Better be on my best behaviour tomorrow!

Sunday dawned and a flat calm at 9.00 am for the second event which was a separate open DF65 race, with a few less competitors. By the start time of 10am there was a ripple on the water but it was constantly changing direction. However, Richard set a 2 lap WW/LW course and racing started. The race team pushed us hard and by lunch we had completed 10 races. Lunch on Sunday was a choice of 2 soups, assorted sandwiches, cakes and tea or coffee, again included in the £10 race fee. At lunch Richard suggested that after we reached 16 races we could stop for the day before the forecast rain arrived. The Irish lads and I agreed, they could get an earlier ferry and we could be home earlier, so we completed the last 6 races by 2.15 and on our way home by 3pm.

Many thanks to Greenock MYC

Derek & Maureen Priestley.