IOM Scottish Travellers Event 1 – Aberdeen -14th April 2007

Report by John Owens (RO)

Score sheet

The first event of the 2007 IOM Scottish Travellers Series was hosted by Aberdeen MYC at Inchgarth Reservoir. It was great to see thirteen skippers from all over Scotland assembled. Besides good support from Aberdeen, Buchanness and Brechin, Richard Rowan and Hugh Shileds had travelled from Paisley, whilst Richard Ennos and Dane Ashby represented Levenhall. It was also an interesting mix of wood and plastic boats.
Skippers were greeted by glorious warm sunshine, the boats were trimmed and ready but where was the wind ? The early races were dominated by very light and fickle airs that presented a challenge for the race organisers to set interesting courses. It was a test of skippers patience and skill in catching the merest breath and then keeping the boats moving in slow conditions. However, as the land warmed so wind speeds gradually increased and quicker racing ensued with appropriate course changes by Race Officer John Owens and Boatman Steve Taylor supported by helpful advice from Ali Law and Richard Rowan.

This years Starting Advantages gave less experienced skippers a 30 seconds start over the rest of the fleet. 30 seconds gives a good separation between the different experience levels at the start to reduce incidents. As an additional trial, it was also agreed that there would be no penalties for touching the marks. Most skippers took advantage of this during the day! In very light airs or at marks distant from the bank the system works well and greatly reduces the number of penalty turns. However, even with the leniency of allowing contact with marks, some skippers still had a knack of missing the mark all together and having to go back round! Sailing the correct course is also still a requirement as some skippers also found!

The combination of changeable conditions and Starting Advantages contributed to most skippers achieving a top five position at least once in the day and most of the scratch skippers achieving a 6th or worse. In addition, Bill Reid, Brian Robertson and David Stewart each won 2 races and hence were promoted to scratch. The 14th and last race started just before 4pm and Alistair Struthers did a great job of maintaining race scores throughout the day so that results were quickly available.

The results showed that consistency and dogged determination paid off. Ali Law, Richard Rowan and Richard Ennos were the top three. Congratulations to them and to Mel Percival in 4th and Bill Reid in 5th. Dane Ashby was recognised as most improved scratch skipper and well done to Derek Latter as most improved Starting Advantages skipper (particularly so as he missed the first two races and had to exercise his dog during breaks!).

The day was sailed in excellent spirit with most penalties acknowledged and taken on the water. Protests were dealt with in a streamlined manner with skippers graciously accepting the decisions. The consensus was that the warm sun, the variety of conditions and racing rule trials had all contributed to a thoroughly enjoyable event.

Top placings were:

Commentary by Richard Rowan on Starting Advantages and No Penalty for hitting a mark
After the sailing, the competitor’s opinion was canvassed concerning this years Starting Advantages and the No penalty for hitting a mark.

At some points during the day, it had seemed that 30 seconds was a very generous Starting Advantage. However, as John Owens has commented above, there was a wide spread of finishing places and at least 3 initial SA skippers had their advantage removed. Frequently, the two fastest scratch boats did not catch the best SA boat by the end of a race. This time the best SA boat (ie Mel Percival) finished in 4th position but with a much larger score than the two leaders. So, upon reflection, it seems that the starting advantage point of an average of 40 points over the last 6 travellers and a 30 second startis about right. But we will review it again after Paisley.

In respect of No penalty for hitting a mark of the course, generally the skippers liked this but Ali Law (who had suggested the idea in the first place) was not at all sure it was a good idea. Maybe next event we will only permit SA skippers to hit marks without penalty.