Scottish IOM District Championships 2007 and Travellers Event 4 Buchanness – 28th July 2007

Report by Ali Law (RO)

Score Sheet

The weather forecast all week predicted westerly winds at 26 mph with sunny spells, except they forgot to mention torrential rain. Saturday morning dawned and the weather was as they said, wind from the west, and at the east end of the reservoir there was large waves which all went towards an interesting regatta. The weather plus the waves tried both yachts and skippers.

Ten skippers turned out to meet the challenge and to pit their skills against each other in an effort to find a worthy Champion. Three skippers came from Levenhall, two from Brechin, two from Aberdeen and three from the host club.

The RO’s briefing was called at exactly 9.45. T he race team were introduced being: Scorer Colin Cawte, Line Judge Sandy Forbes and Race Officer Alistair Law. The course to be sailed was slightly different from the usual triangle and sausage and even this would be open for alteration. As the wind was from the west, there was good scope in setting a good start line and an extended windward beat to the first mark. After rounding the first mark to port, the next leg was a short reach to the spreader mark and then to the leeward marks. Tow leeward marks were laid in the form of a gate, the skippers then had the option to round either from the centre. Later in the day the course was altered to bring the start line into the game, with the yachts having to sail between the start marks both on the run and the beat, this forced more tactics into the weather leg. The finish line was between the weather and spreader marks. A relatively small control area was designated to cut down on walking distances and so help some of the skippers who are not as agile as others.

The first race was called at 10.10 and saw five skippers with starting advantages. Four of these were soon down to sailing off scratch but it did work well and put the scratch skippers under considerable pressure. This helped to make a regatta of it. The number two rig was the order of the day. However the wind did offer to ease at one point and some were tempted to go up to number one but the wind soon filled in again. Racing was conducted in good spirits with penalty turns being taken without much prompting from the RO, in fact he had little to do and on many occasions lost track of what leg the yachts were on, the sailing was that absorbing. The wind was very kind and once the start line was tweaked it was left and presented a challenge to the skippers to find the best starting position. The beat presented many different possibilities and if chosen well had the reward of arriving at the weather mark in a healthy position, otherwise you had to fight your way round it.

As the afternoon wore on it became obvious that there were two contenders for first place, these being Brian Robertson with his newly acquired Topiko – and Ian Dundas with his new Mk 2 Stealth. Ian did not really stamp his authority on the regatta and seemed slow to get to grips with his new yacht. On the other hand, Brian seemed unable to do anything wrong, even when making mistakes, his yacht had so much speed allowing him to cut his way through the fleet back the front of the race. The racing was so exciting that the three skippers who retired stayed to watch instead of setting off for home.

A regatta must have a winner and when you consider the severe sailing conditions ( the winter was warmer ) each skipper was a winner but at the end of the day Ian managed to scrape home, his considerable experience wearing Brian down. Ian’s winning margin was only four points. Congratulations to Ian for retaining the District Championship and a very well done to Brian who never gave up, just weeks after undergoing major surgery.

At the end of the Scottish District Championship regatta when the skippers began to dismantle their yachts and to make their preparations to travel home, it must have been in their minds – could I have done better – should I have done better – if only I had come better prepared – some might have mused have I done enough – all of these thoughts must have permeated their minds as they waited for the scores to come out.

Top placings were: