Dalgety Bay Pictures

Liz Tulloch was on paparazzi duty at Dalgety Bay and for a selection of her photos follow this link
Lizpics

MICSLtd.com Scottish Topper Traveller at Dalgety Bay

A total of 43 Scottish Toppers gathered at an almost completely windless but very Sunny Dalgety Bay Sailing Club for leg two of the MICSLtd.com Scottish Travellers Series. With barely an isobar to be seen on the pressure charts the omens were not good but the fleet launched on time into a patchy but building Westerly. By the time the course was set and the Lasers and Laser Radials had started the wind was a steady force three ands the fleet enjoyed a great race on a “traditional” sausage and triangle course which was a novelty for most of the younger sailors. Annandale victor Jordan Black showed the first event was no fluke by leading throughout but was kept busy by strong challenges from Jessica Campbell and Samantha Foster. Iain Mclaughlan was enjoying an excellent race in fourth.
By race two the wind was already beginning to fade with the emphasis moving to being in the right place at the right time and spotting the remaining gusts. A general recall did not help matters and wasted yet more of the remaining breeze. After the restart Alex Still fared best with Calum Tait in second and Jessica third. Jordan hung on for fourth. Meanwhile Samantha was paying the price of forgetting to tighten the bung as her waterlogged vessel slipped back to tenth.
Race three was delayed waiting for stragglers in other fleets although initially this looked like a good thing as the wind rallied for a while allowing the fleet to get away under Black Flag after another general recall. A determined Joanna Barrie was OCS and rewarded with an early shower. Sadly it was to become a race of two halves as the second round saw the wind die completely over the left hand side of the course forcing an early shorten course. Jessica did well to find enough breeze over on the right to take the win by a good margin followed by Rory Kilgore. Jordan survived in the middle of the course taking third but Alex and Calum lost out allowing Jennifer Abraham and brother David to record a well deserved 4th and 5th respectively.
With the wind now almost completely absent it was a long sail (paddle) back to shore for refreshments and after sun.
Sunday morning could hardly have been less promising with thick mist and zero breeze. Incredibly with about 30 minutes to go the mist vanished but the postponement flag was required whilst the race committee prayed for wind. After about an hour the signs were good and the fleet were encouraged to launch whilst the course was provisionally laid for a light Easterly with the more optimistic locals hoping for a building sea breeze. With the tide ebbing quite strongly by this time it was no surprise to see the first start requiring a general recall as the fleet were swept over the line. At the restart the fleet were wisely holding well back giving this week’s guest parent, David Sword the opportunity to make a bold start which paid off allowing him to round mark one with a clear lead over the rest. Sadly for David this race was to be all about the ability to stem the ebb tide down the run and strongly favoured the lightweights which Dave is not. Despite using what he later described as every trick in the book he could only watch as first place turned to last by the end. Joanna Barrie was the eventual victor followed by Jessica with Alex third and Jordan fourth.
After a further delay afloat waiting for the breeze to fill in the race officer wisely decided that further racing was impossible and brought the fleet ashore.
The clear overall victor in the end was Jessica Campbell from Annandale with Loch Earn’s Jordan Black just holding off Alex Still from Royal Gourock. Calum Tait, also from Loch Earn was fourth with guest 420 helm Jennifer Abraham and Helensburgh club mate Rory Kilgore in 5th and 6th.

Although only four of the Development fleet took part on Saturday the fleet ballooned to eleven boats for Sunday and the ability to set courses close inshore allowed some racing despite the strong tide further out. Development Fleet champion for the weekend was Mara Lyon of Craignish BC with Rory and Dugal Wilson from Loch Venacher taking second and third. Fourth place went to Jenna Deacon from Linlithgow Loch.
Thanks are due to Dalgety Bay SC for hosting an excellent event in difficult conditions, the sunshine was a particularly welcome feature for parent’s who are more used to shivering on the shore than applying sunblock.

Full results are at http://www.kbsuk.com/data/OptimistScotland/data/results/dbsc2010all.html

Dalgety Bay

Hope you are all coming to the Bay this weekend. Looks like a scorcher so don't forget your sunblock.

Here is the link for the SI www.dalgetybaysc.org/SI-NOR/2010LaserTopperOptimistRS300%20SIs.pdf

GBR Topper Nationwide 2 - Derwent Resevoir 5/6 June 2010

The closing date for Nationwide 2 is this Friday. As this event is very close (by Nationwide standards), has excellent camping facilities on site and is a qualifier event for all GBR squads next year I am hoping for an excellent turnout from team Scotland.

The notice of selection for GBR squads is available at http://www.gbrtopper.co.uk/e107_files/downloads/notice_of_selection_topper_squads_2010-11.pdf

Entries are via the www.GBRtopper.co.uk site.

Topper Development Fleet

By popular request there will be a coached Topper Development Fleet at Dalgety Bay and all the remaining events for 2010 (except Largo Bay). This is a joint arrangement courtesy of Alec and the Scottish Optimists who will arrange the RIBs and coaches for a joint Optimist Regatta/Topper Development fleet suitable for less experienced sailors. Generally the course will be close to shore, the races shorter and there will be shore based briefings and meal/toilet breaks.

Topper Development Fleet sailors wishing to take advantage of the coaching, for which there is a separate £5 fee payable to IOCA(Scotland) should register on line by midnight on the closing date (18 May 2010). This allows us to ensure that sufficient resources are available (i.e so that we do not have one coach attempting to support 30 sailors).

The link to register is www.scottish-optimists.org.uk/eventsite.html

Forthcoming Events 1

Next up is MICS Ltd Scottish Traveller Two at Dalgety Bay Sailing Club this weekend 22 and 23rd May 2010.

This is a joint event with our friends the Scottish Optimists and Scottish Lasers and Dalgety Bay is a great sailing club who will be "pushing the boat out" to make us welcome and give us a terrific event.

Please register NOW at http://www.scottish-optimists.org.uk/eventsite.html

(To do an entry you pick the event from the list on the left and then use the drop down boxes to pick the fleet.)

Eric Twiname Final Result

It's all over. No final results available yet but in the Toppers it was Joanna Barrie who was the Scottish Star finishing 2nd girl overall. Further details once the RYA posts the results tomorrow.

G.

Eric Twiname Latest

Day one complete. Loadsa wind all day. Bit lighter towards the end. The rain stopped - sometimes.

On the orange course 72 Toppers competed in 3 races.

Top Scot is Joanna Barrie in 12 th place - brilliant Jo. Next up is Ian Symon in 22nd with Joanne Foster in 23rd.

Over on the Optimist Course Angus Johnstone is leading the field and in the 7.8m Bic Techno windsurfer class Torrin Prescott is in 3rd with Ross Kenmuir in 4th.

Go Team Scotland!

Full results at http://www.sailracer.co.uk/events/loadresults.asp?t=et2&url=/sail100/topnh10nh.html&eventid=50554&classtype=Topper

Scottish Toppers at Eric Twiname

Good luck to the Scottish Topper Team heading to Rutland Water to represent us in the Eric Twiname Championships this weekend.

The team comprising Dean Malcolm, Ian McLaughlin, Lewis Marr, Aaron Murray, Ian Symon, Joanna Barrie, Kae Clark and Joanne Foster will be competing against similar sailors from Zone Squads all across the UK and the Topper class make up the largest fleet comprising 72 boats.

As well as individual and team prizes the Topper results will be pooled with the results from the Optimist and Sailboard classes in the competition for the coveted Eric Twiname Trophy which was won last year by the South Zone.

Good luck everyone.

G.

Scottish Topper wins at Grafham

Scottish Topper sailor Joanne Foster dominated day two of the 35 boat Sailing-Solutions Topper 4.2 Nationwide event at Grafham to finish in first place overall. In very difficult conditions not unfamiliar for the Scottish team (wet, cold and windy) Joanne finished second in race one then scored an emphatic victory in race 3 leading by over two legs at the finish. All the more remarkable when it was revealed that somewhere behind the wall of spray she had completed the entire final round with a broken kicking strap. With racing then abandoned for the day as the wind continued unabated after lunchtime Joanne had done enough (10 points) to secure first place in Nationwide 3 to add to her 3rd in Nationwide 1. Second place went to Niall on 14 points with Abi 3rd on 22 points. Topper 4.2 Nationwide 4 is at Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club in June.

In the Magic Marine Topper Inland Championships 2010, also at Grafham this weekend, three very competitive races were held today in the same cold and windy conditions.

From the 255 entrants first Scot was Alexander Still scoring an excellent 16th (15th Male) with Samantha Foster first Scottish girl in 45th (14th Female) overall. Further results were

Kae Clark 92nd

Jack Aitken 109

Rory Kilgore 131

Jordan Black 132

Joanna Barrie 149

Lewis Marr 160

Jessica Campbell 166

Ian McLaughlin 178

Dean Malcolm 189

Andrew Crocket 195

Aaron Murray 197

Full results now on http://www.sailracer.co.uk/sailwavepreview.asp?status=0&usr=sr&event=10186

Next up is the Eric Twiname Championships next week at Rutland Water sailing club where a selected team of Scottish Junior sailors will race against teams from Wales and from each of the other English regions.

Don't forget you can follow us on www.twitter.com/scottishtoppers follow the link to sign up for regular updates.

G.

Grafham News

Well thats it all over for Saturday and for the third day running there has been no rcaing for the 5.3 fleet. Despite drifting around for a couple of hours commonsense eventually prevailed in the face of no wind and a very un-promising forecast. Lets hope for better tomorrow.

Meanwhile the 35 boat 4.2 fleet did launch and complete one race in very difficlut and patchy conditions. Joanne Foster, the only Scottish competitor, managed to drift round and finish 7th despite stopping to do a very honest (and painfully slow) set of penalty turns on the start line after drifting into another boat in a patch of zero breeze.

Now it is off to see if there is anywhere serving food which is not fully booked up all night...

Watch Found

Jo Barrie found a watch after Annandale so if you are missing one please contact Jo or her mum.

G.