IOM Scottish Travellers Event 2 & District Championship – Paisley – 20th May 2006

Report by Richard Rowan

Score sheet

The second event in the 2006 Scottish IOM Travellers attracted what is the largest entry for a Scottish event in recent years – 18 boats took part on the day.
As the entries rolled in (mostly via the web entry form – using this form to enter helps the organisors immensely), race team Richard Rowan and Hugh Shields had to anticipate running two heats to reduce the problem at Paisley of a lot of boats trying to use the same small amount of water. However, as it had been previously agreed that handicaps should be used, 8 skippers were allocated a handicap of either 15 or 30 seconds and it was considered that this would reduce the overcrowding problem enough to permit one heat to be run during the day. Eventually, the 15sec handicap was increased to 20 seconds to try and give the 15 second starters a clearer run into the starting line.

As skippers rigged their boats, on the pond there was a good breeze from the east and the forecast rain was holding off. However, true to typical Paisley form, as the racing got under way, the wind dropped and became quite shifty in direction, although staying sufficiently in the east to allow the same cousre to be used during the morning’s racing. A windward/leeward style course was adopted partly to keep the boats closer to the skippers and partly to offer a greater amount of running type downwind legs where it is considered that there is more opportunity to overtake by judging the wind shifts correctly.

It was interesting to watch the racing as a non competitor. Richard Ennos sailing his very narrow and slippery Lagom own design took an early lead with a good run of firsts and seconds. In contrast, the more experienced skippers seemed to be having problems getting through the fleet to return good finishing places. Of the handicap skippers, only “new boy” Neil Jardine from Brechin produced any wins (2 over the day’s racing) with “veteran sailor” Jimmy Rodger taking advantage of the 30 second start advantage to get a good 3rd place in race 3.

Lunch was called after 5 races as it seemed that the wind was about to change. When racing resumed for the afternoon session, unfortunately not only did it remain very light, but it started to shift constantly and the rain finally made an appearance. The race team struggled to get a good course laid and the competitors struggled with the constantly varying wind directions and strengths.

However, it was noticeable that the more experienced skippers started to settle into the job of producing better results. In particular, Ian Dundas managed to keep his cool and to pop out consistently at the front of the fleet to return the winning series of race results. John Taylor also managed a good set of results to take second place. Ali Law got to grips with the conditions in the afternoon but was let down by his poor set of results in the morning racing. Richard Ennos continued to sail well but unfortunately had 4 races with a result of 8th or 9th, so that at the end of the day, although Ali and Richard tied on points, Ali took third place with more first places.

And how did the handicap skippers get on – from an observer’s point of view, the conditions were so variable that the main benefit of being granted a handicap at this event was to simply get a clear run away from the starting line. The first of the handicap skippers was Colin McGinnis who finished in 8th place overall. His overall result was affected by missing the first two races completely but it is clear from his afternoon placings, his handicap might have to be reconsidered for the next event. As noted earlier, Neil Jardine sailing a very pretty wooden Kite managed 2 firsts but was very evidently struggling with the conditions as shown by the number of very high places that he returned – however, he is a young guy and if he sticks at it, he will soon be competing at the front of the fleet. Mel Percival managed a good day’s sailing counting one excellent 2nd place – his overall result of 9th was a step up from his overall result at Travellers 1.

So, how did the handicaps work at Paisley – hard to say because of the conditions but this time it did help the race committee to run one heat over the day rather than two. Certainly, giving a starting type handicap to a less experienced or less “competitive” skipper permits that skipper to be more involved in the overall race than he might otherwise be. However, one of the problems experienced at Paisley was that the 20 second starters couldn’t get into the starting line because of congestion – a a number of the scratch skippers did try to keep clear but this then give them a disadvantage at their own start. It was also difficult to identify the handicap boats – a recommendation is that the handicap boats should be identified by say a streamer flying off their backstay – this could be easily done by using strips of very lightweight kitchen bin liner (I use this material all the time as a mast head wind indicator). Nonetheless, I think that the handicap system is proving to be effective and popular.

Congratulations to Ian Dundas – District Champion 2006 – a worthy addition to the list of District Championship winners.

Top placings were: