Scottish Traveller 2006 IV: Spey Valley

Saturday dawned bright, and presented a mirror finish to Loch Morlich. The wind arrived at 11:00, allegedly as ordered by Commodore Ian Ross, although not sufficient for the scheduled start time. It did, however, fill in sufficiently to allow racing to commence soon after.

With the wind initially coming from the West, racing was started using the clubhouse start line. A wind shift immediately after the start caused a number of the main fleet Oppies to mutter about protesting the race committee as the first leg became a run instead of the expected beat. Race Officer Carol stuck to her guns, and the triangular course presented a suitable mixture of points of sail. The flukey winds ended with a Stanley-Whyte one-two (Kat followed by Ross) with Callum Airlie a close third.

Race 2 saw another wind shift, and the start changed to a committee boat start, from what had been mark 1. The sailing instructions had carefully not numbered specific marks, but allowed the Race Officer to specify that mark 1 was the mark to windward of the start line at the time of the start. This race was specified as a trapezoid course, and saw a change in fortunes for all the sailors. An excellent choice of position on the start line saw Dean gain an initial lead by choosing the virtually empty pin end of the line, followed by Andrew M^c Gowan. Kae Clark was the third over the line at the committee boat end, but managed to take the lead by mark 1. She then led the fleet for a significant part of the race, but was beaten to the line by the more experienced Anna and James. Ewan managed to move from last at the start to third place at mark 1, but ended up at the back of the fleet after a 720 for hitting another boat. Such are the (mis)fortunes of sailing.

Race 3 saw another committee boat start, and a change back to the triangle course: although using a different set of marks, since the start line had moved. An excellent start by Callum saw him take the lead for the first lap, only to be overtaken by Anna at the end of the lap. He did manage to hold onto second place at the end of the two lap race, and was closely followed by James Logan.

After sailing all the competitors adjourned to the beach at the end of the loch for a barbeque. An excellent way to relax - although the fun and games that took place in the water suggested a different adjective might have been more appropriate.

Sunday dawned to a fresh Westerly breeze, and sunny skies. Compared to Saturday, the wind was positively steady - only shifting through 45 degrees. The stronger winds saw a total change to the results pattern, with the smaller sailors finding the gusts more difficult to manage.

Race 6 saw a lot of sailors (eager to get home?) over the line at the start. This resulted in the only General Recall of the event. The re-appearance of an obvious pin-end RIB persuaded them not to repeat the mistake, and the second attempt produced a clean start. James Logan had one of his worst starts - but over the course of the four lap race clawed his way back to take first place in a photo finish - of which there were three to keep the race team awake.

Regatta fleet was dominated by Andrew Mitchell, and saw some excellent sailing from the rest of the fleet. An unexpected appearance by Alasdair Logan gained him the loudest cheers & claps for completing the course. Jack Gillespie has got the art of running down the start line before the gun off pat, but Andrew Mitchell still usually manages the better start. In Saturday's first race, though, Jack judged the winds better and took his first win of the season. The racing was compettitive, and it was not the walkover the results might suggest. All of the regatta sailors can be pleased with their performance in challenging conditions.

Results

Six (6) Races, one discard after 5 completed
Conditions: Dry, warm. Wind variable 1 to 9 kts

Main Fleet - overall

Position (Overall)	Gold	Silver	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Points
1	1		5540	A Burnet	RNCYC	9	1	1	1	1	2	6
2	2		5433	J Logan	CCC	7	2	4	6	2	1	15
3	3		5518	S Ross	SVSC	2	4	3	3	5	4	16
4	4		5519	R Stanley-Whyte	RNCYC	5	8	8	2	4	3	22
5		1	5293	K Clark	RNCYC	4	3	9	5	8	5	25
6	5		5454	K Stanley-Whyte	RNCYC	1	5	5	9	7	10	27
7		2	4948	C Airlie	StMLSC	3	7	2	11	10	8	30
8	6		5363	D Gillespie	CCC	6	6	6	7	6	6	30
9	7		5435	N Forrester	CCC	8	10	7	4	9	7	35
10		3	4911	A McGowan	CCC	11	9	11	8	3	9	40
11	8		4320	E Airlie	StMLSC	10	11	10	10	11	11	52

Gold Fleet
Posn Sail No Helm Club R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Points
1 5540 A Burnet RNCYC 7 1 1 1 1 2 6
2 5433 J Logan CCC 5 2 3 5 2 1 13
3 5518 S Ross SVSC 2 3 2 3 4 4 14
4 5519 R Stanley Whyte RNCYC 3 6 7 2 3 3 17
5 5454 K Stanley Whyte RNCYC 1 4 4 7 6 7 22
6 5363 D Gillespie CCC 4 5 5 6 5 5 24
7 5435 N Forrester CCC 6 7 6 4 7 6 29
8 4320 E Airlie StMLSC 8 8 8 8 8 8 40
Silver Fleet
Posn Sail No Helm Club R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 Points
1 5293 K Clark RNCYC 2 1 2 1 2 1 7
2 4076 C Airlie StMLSC 1 2 1 3 3 2 9
3 4911 A McGowan CCC 3 3 3 2 1 3 12

Regatta Fleet

Posn	Sail	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Points
1	4647	A Mitchell	CCC	2	1	1	1	1	1	5
2	4974	J Gillespie	CCC	1	5	3	2	3	2	11
3	4175	J Borrill	CCC	4	2	2	3	2	4	13
4	5153	A Gibson	CCC	3	3	4	4	4	3	17
5	5449	S Mitchell	CCC	5	4	5	~~DNS~~	DNS	DNS	28
6	4130	A Logan	CCC	6	~~DNS~~	6	DNS	DNS	DNS	33

Traveller Series Results