North East Clubs 2005 Late Series Event 2 – Aberdeen – 19th November 2005

Despite a bitterly cold forecast there was a good turnout for the second event in the North East Clubs winter series. Four local skippers were joined by 3 visitors from the Brechin and 3 from the Buchanness clubs. The hard frost overnight had left ice on the fringe of the reservoir but the race area was clear and with sunny skies and a light wind of 5 knots from the west, it promised to be a good days sailing.

Race Officer Ian Dundas assisted by his Breton crew of Jean and Corentin Guenec and Yannick Le Nours set a long starboard hand Olympic course.

RYGG handicap was used with 6 skippers starting on scratch. Racing commenced promptly at 11am and ran through until 3pm using the “3 and a break” format. After lunch the course was adjusted to port hand rounding and lengthened to take best advantage of good beating conditions. The wind died towards the end making for some interesting strategies from skippers searching for the better puffs and shifts.

10 races were completed. The Red and Yellow handicap sailors held off the challenges of the Scratch sailors in the first three races with Peter Lowe getting 2 wins with the club TS2 and Shakey getting a win with his Stealth. As the wind dropped the more experienced skippers came through with Colin Brown and Ali Law splitting the other 7 races 4 and 3. Colin Tait, returning to R/C sailing after the summer in dinghy’s, was regularly at the front as was Boyd Baird and Ralph Knowles. Ken Ewan and Mel Percival improved as the day progressed as they searched for the boat tune to suit the conditions and the best route up the beat.

In the end the overall winner was Colin Brown with his Italiko who stayed in the top three all day.

Final positions were:

Full results (pdf file)