A.& J. Inglis

Hey, It's holiday time.

Wm. Fife

John Douglas

I'm sure William Fife didn't design his boats to have a man in a white suit acting as the tack shackle at the end of the bowsprit but presumably there is a reason for this. Anyway, the magnificent Fifes were out on the Clyde at the weekend. I was too lazy to go and see them but John Douglas wasn't and sent in a few pictures. Click on the cleat to see more.

Flying Fifteens

Irrespective of whether or not they are dinghies, the Flying Fifteens at the Holy Loch seem to be the largest and most regularly appearing One Design class currently racing on the Clyde. Given the relatively low cost of getting started in the Class there is a lot to be said for joining in and John Orr of Holy Loch Sailing Club (and the Coffee Shop) has put together a wee guide with some pointers to help anyone thinking about acquiring one. We are more than happy to show it on Clydesailing so click here to go to that page.

Speaking of one design I am aware that we had no coverage of the Laser SB3 Nationals at Largs the other week. There were 38 boats entered and the results are on the Largs SC website. If anyone who was there would like to send in any words about the experience I'll put them up. Alan Henderson of fotoboat.com has lots of pictures.

Cove Regatta

A pretty poor turnout in IRC at Cove Regatta with just 3 entries from the East Patch - won by Grand Cru. The CYCA classes had 3 or 4 entries each but most of the action was in the classic keelboats where there were a dozen Flying 15s mainly from the Holy Loch, 11 Pipers piping and a further 12 Loch Longs. Our correspondent reports that race management was fairly shambolic. The results of one of the FF races was discarded because the proposed Sonar start never happened and FFs were moved forward in the sequence, this being protested later by some 'rules stickler' from the FF class. The full results should you wish to view them are on the Cove SC website . The Piper class was won by Billie sailed by Hurrell who is seen here sinking a celebratory bottle. Dan Challis won FFs in Genesis with Bugaboo (wouldn't Bugabooff be a better name?) second and Riff Raff 3rd. Electra won the Loch Long class. The weather was decent with a 15-20kt north westerly as forecast and afterwards there was the traditional Cove barbecue and jazz band. The classic keelboats carried on next day for the Scottish (wait for it) Classic Regatta and the results of that are up there too. We weren't there - we went to Tarbert although not on the Fairlie YC race from Largs and parked up away from the red pullover society who were there as well, enjoying a joint toilet party with the Fairlie mob.