IOM Scottish Wooden Hull Championships Forfar – Saturday 7th June 2014

Report by Ali Law

Score Sheet

The 2014 Scottish Wooden Hull IOM Championship was held on 7th June at Forfar Loch. This was the 10th anniversary of this popular Scottish radio sailing event and attracted a strong fleet of 17 boats predominately from Scottish Clubs but also included 2 visiting skippers from Northern Ireland and a Danish skipper.

Although Forfar Loch is the sailing water of the newly formed Tayside Radio Sailing Club, the Race Team for the event was mainly made up of volunteers from the Buchanness Club; Cathy Reid, Carl Burrows, Bill Odger and Ian Thomson as well as local skipper Alex Burnett and Murphy who manned the rescue boat. The race team was led by the experienced Race Officer Ali Law who took this opportunity to train the new race team members in race management procedures.

All the participating yachts were home build in wood with many designed and built by the skippers themselves. Over the years since its inception in 2005 the quality of the wooden IOM yacht designs and the standard of finish have progressively improved. This year saw a number of upgraded designs such as the latest Buzz sailed by Tich Summers, a new Corbie sailed by John Owens, Richard Ennos’s latest design called Classic 11 and Boyd Baird’s Intilit. Neill Suitor from Northern Ireland sailed a brand new wooden V8 design which he launched for the first time at the event. In addition to these new designs, there were a number of older designs such as the Swallow sailed by Brian O’Neill and the Baracuda sailed by young local skipper Max Caird. It was good to see a number of founder members of the wooden boat event, John Milne and Jimmy Rodger turning up to spectate throughout the day and encourage the new wooden boat builders.

The forecast easterly wind swung south easterly requiring the windward mark to be laid some distance off the bank. Spreader marks were laid at both windward and leeward ends of the course to ensure good fleet separation at marks. The well elevated bank along the shore helped skippers to have full vision of their boats around the long course. Weather conditions remained excellent throughout the day with clear sunny skies and steady wind conditions prevailing. Occasionally the wind swung back and forth between SE and E. Skippers needed to stay very alert to avoid getting caught out on the wrong side of the shift upwind or to miss the changes in wind pressure on the downwind legs. Later in the day when the wind strength increased, a downwind turning gate was introduced. With the increased wind strength a couple of skippers opted to change down to No 2 rig.

Two seeding races were sailed to find an order of merit before fleet racing proper. The first seeding race was won by Neill Suitor followed by Pat Johnston and Tom Milne. The second seeding race was won by Ian Dundas followed by Tich Summers and John Owens.

In the morning session, five two heat races were completed before the lunch break with Ian Dundas winning 4 races with his well sorted Corbie and Richard Ennos winning one with his Classic 11. There were many skippers challenging at the front of A heat – Tich Summers, Neill Suitor and Steve Taylor all had top finishes but none were scoring consistent enough results to threaten Ian’s lead. Peter Thiellesen who missed the first two races showed excellent pace with two consecutive second place finishes in races 3 and 4. There were also some skippers who did very well to win B fleet and promote into the A fleet only to suffer misfortune and end up dropping back into B.

Over the five races in the afternoon Ian continued his good form with 3 further race wins giving him first place overall. Steve Taylor was pushing hard winning race 7 and was not out of the top three all afternoon which pulled him up to second place. Tich Summers who won Race 8 and also maintained a consistent series of results took third place ahead of Neill Suitor. The next 4 places overall were only separated by 9 points which demonstrated how close the racing was behind the front runners.

At the prize giving the competitors expressed thanks to the Buchaness Race Team for their efforts in delivering a really well-run and enjoyable event. The Race Officer replied by recognising that over the 20 races good sportsmanship had been maintained and all penalties had been settled on the water. Skippers are already talking about new designs or mods for next year’s wooden boat event.

Top finishing positions