IOM Scottish District Championships – Forfar Loch – 11th October 2014

Report by Ali Law

Score Sheet

The Championship was organised by Ali Law with help from Tayside Radio Sailing Club (TRSC) and Buchanness RYC (BRYC). The regatta was sailed on Forfar Loch the home water of TRSC. Members of Forfar Sailing Club (the dinghy sailors) opened the clubhouse and served up hot food and drink all day and the MYA Scottish District would like to thank them for setting aside the time and for being such brilliant hosts.

The race team for the event was led by Principal Race Officer Ali Law and assisted by Race Officer Carl Burrows, scorer Cathy Reid (BRYC), rescue boat Boyd Baird with Murphy (TRSC) and line judge Bill Lees (Ayr Bay). The race team worked extremely well together under the leadership of Ali and kept the racing moving at a healthy pace in some times very light conditions. Fifteen skippers attended the RO briefing.

The wind was coming out of the southwest with some small swings into the west during the morning session with a strength of about 4 mph. Initially the RO set a weather mark with an offset mark to starboard as the wind was coming in from the southwest with a leeward mark also with an offset mark. Later the wind moved west allowing a port hand rounding and at the same time, a gate was set at the leeward end of the course. The wind strength was light in the morning and then built up a little in the afternoon. There were wind streaks and some illusive shifts to be found which made for challenging sailing and which kept the skippers thinking and looking around for that lift!

No skipper was offered a starting advantage, indeed such was the class of the fleet no one qualified for one.

It was not a surprise after fifteen races that Steve Taylor had his nose over the line in front of Ian Dundas with a creditable third place to Richard Rowan sailing Ali Law’s Cheinz. John Owens had a good run of results in the middle of the day but unfortunately had one too many big results and so ended up in fourth position.

In summary, the event was sailed in at a great venue with excellent weather in October with a nice breeze for good quality radio sailing. The regatta was well controlled by the race team and we saw Carl Burrows step up to the role of race officer which he fulfilled with credit and with the use of radio handsets, provided by Boyd we had some slick course changes. If I were to pick the best improver it would have to be John Owens who sailed an excellent regatta leading the fleet so many times and getting second and third places and achieving three firsts, two seconds and two thirds whilst sailing in a firm but gentlemanly manner. Indeed the whole feet were very well behaved in some very trying circumstances because of local conditions. The regatta was sailed in good sportsmanship overall with only a few incidents which was sorted out on the water. From a PRO perspective, this is one of the best regattas and a great advertisement for radio sailing.

Top placings were: