IOM Scottish Travellers Event 6 – Greenock – 29th September 2007

Report by Richard Rowan  Score Sheet *See Footnote

The final event of the 2007 IOM Scottish Travellers Series was hosted by Greenock MY&PBC at Murdieston Dam. A relatively low turnout of 11 skippers took to the water for what turned out to be an super day’s sailing. Although there were grey skies throughout the day, it remained dry and the light easterly wind remained constant in strength and general direction. RO Hugh Shields set a relatively long windward leeward course with an extra spreader mark at the windward end. The wind strength was sufficient to get 18 races completed over the day. Although there had been rumours of weed in the run up to the event, on the day the sailing area was entirely free of all weed.
However, although the wind direction remained from the east, Greenock provided its typical dilemma of how to find one’s way up the beat. What appeared to be a favoured tack off the starting line to port (ie onto the starboard side) could turn into a very unfavourable final approach to the windward mark on starboard. Skippers had to pick the point at which to get from the the port side of the course to the starboard for the final run into the windward mark. Sometimes, that early starboard tack which would often appear to be initially disastrous would later give a big lift along the bank into the windward mark. But not always !

Starting Advantages were again in use with 4 skippers starting with a 30 second advantage. At the end of the day, two of those skippers had lost their advantage. With the conditions on the pond, the scratch boats found it easier to catch the SA boats.

Starting Advantages were again in use with 4 skippers starting with a 30 second advantage. At the end of the day, two of those skippers had lost their advantage. With the conditions on the pond, the scratch boats found it easier to catch the SA boats.

On the water, Richard Rowan returning to the series after a 2 event layoff was in top form, not only was he using his long experience of sailing at Greenock to pick the shifts but also had his Italiko tuned up well. David Loomes also had a good day winning two of the races – he was overheard to remark that these were the first races that he had won in Scotland for over two years. It was very nice to see Robert Brown back in action sailing a TS2 – the conditions did not suit the TS2 but he still managed an excellent run of top 3 positions over the day. This race also saw a couple of Greenock skippers taking part in the series for the first time. Bob Hughes was sailing Hugh Shield’s Mk100(?) Wee McShee and when he left the rig setup alone, was going very well, frequently only being caught at the end of the race. Finally, young Dave Hoey showed a lot of grit to come and take part in a Travellers Series event – he might not have done very well but at least he can say that he took part. Another new skipper to the series was Gordon Allison from Paisley sailing a very pretty Widget – his individual race results show that he found the conditions very difficult.

The racing took part in an amiable manner with all contentious situations being resolved on the water in a gentlemanly fashion.

Finally, a new trophy was awarded to the winner – the Geroge Webster Memorial Plaque. This trophy has been kindly presented to the club by Mrs Ann Cunningham, the sister of George Webster, for annual competition in the Scottish IOM Travellers series. Mrs Cunningham also sponsored lunch for the skippers – this year lunch was even better than Greenock’s normal standards. The Greenock can also be commended for making big improvements in the last year or so to their clubhouse and associated facilities.

Top placings:

* A little problem occurred with finalising the results on the spreadsheet – so the finishing order at the prizegiving was stated incorrectly – I take responsibility for that mistake (RR)