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
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