IOM Scottish Travellers Event 2 – Paisley – 25th May 2007

Report by Richard Rowan (RO)  Score Sheet

The second event of the 2007 IOM Scottish Travellers Series was held at Paisley MYC at Barshaw Park. As last year, there was a very high turnout of 16 skippers from the Scottish clubs and an English visitor – Mike Adams – from Eastbourne.
Skippers were greeted by sunshine and a good westerly breeze which held throughout the day despite a pessimistic forecast of rain coming in at lunch time. 7 skippers started the day’s sailing with a Starting Advantage of 30 seconds. Some skippers thought this was too high for the relatively short courses that were being used – however, although the day’s racing was won by Robert Rooney who started with a SA, the next 3 places were taken by scratch boats – so perhaps the 30 seconds was ok after all. What was important was that the fleet was spread out a little up the first beat and round the first mark – without starting advantages, it would probably have been necessary to adopt 2 heats.

The changeable wind direction and strength combined with a very short distance between the windward and leeward marks made the morning’s sailing extremely difficult for all the skippers. The 30 second starting advantage meant that almost every race, SA skippers lead the fleet over the finishing line. Top skippers Ali Law and Ian Dundas had what amounted to a poor start to the day’s sailing with a number of unexpectedly high placings. Mike Adams who had never sailed at Paisley before produced an excellent set of top 5 results.

After lunch, the wind veered slightly and permitted a longer beat to be set. However, the shifts in wind direction were even greater than in the morning, making it paramount to get on the correct side of the beat. The slightly longer races meant that the scratch boats started to appear more regularly at the front of the fleet. Robert Rooney continued to achieve good placings even after losing his SA, whilst Ali Law maintained consistently high positions. Will Davies was sailing well and finished the day with a couple of firsts whilst Ian Dundas reduced his average place steadily through the afternoon. Local skipper John Mason was also enjoying the afternoon’s conditions and was in the top 10 immediately after lunch and then in the top 6 as the day’s sailing came to an end.

21 races were held and, as is always the case with a high number of races, consistency paid. Robert Rooney came out well ahead on points to win the event, whilst places 3rd to 5th were covered by 3 points.

Top placings were: