Mother ship

Wally Yachts are named appropriately. BawBag Yachts just doesn't have the same ring to it. Anyway this would be quite the thing at Tarbert only people would think that Portavadie had come adrift. I guess you could empty all of Tarbert's pubs into it and have a really good party.

Next weekend - CCC Bute Regatta and then on 15/16th May - the Savill's Kip Regatta - which is not to be missed. Get your entry form here

Troikka hopes to be out on the Bute Regatta - at least for the Saturday bit. We are intrigued that the CCC is offering a short handed option (is this for those with the short handed IRC certificate only?). We think a bit more clarity from the CCC is required or maybe we're just dense. The new (as far as I am aware) IRC rule states:

8.2.1. A boat may additionally hold a seperate short-handed certificate. This short-handed certificate shall be valid only for racing in classes, or divisions of classes, for no more than 2 crew, included in a Notice of Race. The short-handed certificate will be clearly identified and shall only vary from the primary certificate in respect of mainsail widths,headsail dimensions, single furling headsail allowance, the use of stored power, SPA, STL, spinnaker pole/bowsprit, moveable ballast and variable ballast.

With rorcrating nothing comes free and the short handed certificate is charged at half the rate of the normal certificate ie it is 4.90/m for a new application. As this is an additional certificate I presume that you have to fork out for the standard certificate as well although this is not entirely clear to me. In the end it's probably cheaper to make a few more sandwiches and get an extra body or 2.

FYC/Sunbird/Clyde Marina Icebreaker Regatta

Report from Chris Dodgshon. Photos by Tony Barr

April 17th & 18th brought the Icebreaker Regatta as the second weekend of this well structured event at Clyde Marina, held under the Fairlie Yacht Club burgee and designed to kick start the season's racing on the Clyde.

photo Tony Barr

The Saturday brought a steady 14kts from the WNW and a slight chop: ideal conditions to focus on rigs and sail trim and re- concentrate the mind after the winter break. The format of the event aims for quickfire short sharp races with little waiting time before the next starting sequence and pllacing the emphasis on starting techniques and boat handling, with short legs and lots of manoeuvres. The Fairlie Yacht Club team under Peter Wright fired off the required 4 races of the day, and gave short, action packed starting lines inevitably leading to a few transgressors, but if you`re not over a few times then you`re not trying hard enough! The medium air conditions were ideal for quick hoists, late drops and tight mark roundings. Four different winners in the 4 races of the day proved that mistakes got punished and that the fleet was competitive throughout the handicap band.

photo Tony Barr

The training and coaching format of the post racing debrief, thoughtfully held in the bar, was run by Saturn Sail's John Highcock. Unfortunately the RYA's Barry Dunning was not able to join the team for the second weekend due to flight bans and volcanoes. However John Highcock was more than able to "out" most people's embarrassing moments and give good tuning advice.

photo Tony Barr

Sunday brought a lighter forecast but the open waters off Clyde Marina again delivered steady winds and a little more pressure at 14 - 16kts throughout the day. The northerly flow was due to shift towards the east and it did this conveniently in one big shift between race 2 and 3, allowing a quick reset by the committee and then staying steady again through the afternoon. Another 4 races were completed and not even a general recall and 2 black flag starts kept the fleet from hitting the line at pace as the gun fired. With 8 races sailed and 7 to count, the weekend's winner and the Geronimo Trophy went to Steve Cowie's new First 40 "Zephyr". Tanit placed second and the well sailed Misjif one point behind in third.

photo Tony Barr

The two weekend format of the Training Weekend and the Icebreaker Regatta, both with coaching clearly showed the progression through the intensive sailing, with sharper handling, improved boat speed and full commitment at the starts. The crews left Clyde Marina on Sunday evening with a few sore muscles but well focused on the season ahead.

(cropped) Tony Barr

Orderly queing practice seen on Zephyr. I would have thought a boat that size would have two heads compartments.

(cropped) - Tony Barr

Chris lends a hand on Elf

Photo Tony Barr

Wizard - Elan 40

***** ***** *****

We'll be getting the official skinny from Sunbird in due course (see above) but in the meantime be assured that this was an excellent event and the hordes of you who were not there missed an excellent opportunity to get in lots of practice, make loads of ***k ups and get totally knackered in the process. Unfortunately the South Coast coaching gurus were absent due to the Icelandic ash but John Highcock and his trusty camcorder were much in evidence particularly when some foul up was happening and thus provided the daily de-brief with the usual informative pithy comments. Including two general recalls we had the pleasure of 10 starts over the weekend with each day offering four short sharp 50 minute or so races organised on behalf of FYC by that relentlesss taskmaster and PRO Pete Wright. There was no messing and between race breaks were minimal. Saturday was a bit grey and the patch off Ardrossan offered a fairly steady 14 kts from the WNW with a bit of a chop. Sunday was smoother and sunnier with the wind in a more northerly direction and then a big shift to the east.

It's not often we get to have a rockstar bowman but here's Callum sorting something out on the end of the pole. Perhaps he just had nothing else to do...

Anne who was doing pit on Troikka and who took all these pictures was keen that I include one of Tanit some distance behind.

The results are all up on the Fairlie Yacht Club website. Steve Cowie's new First 40 'Zephyr' was a worthy winner of the Geronimo Sailing Icebreaker trophy with Tanit 2nd and the venerable SJ30 half tonner Misjif of Angus/ Tear extremely well sailed to 3rd. We were not wholly discouraged as the times were all quite close and while we performed enough ghastly foul-ups to last us a season they were interspersed with occasional flashes of things going really very well indeed. The stated object is to get your season going with a really hard shove and in this the event succeeds admirably. FYC and the Ardrossan team will be working to encourage a bigger turnout out for next year and everyone who was there was in total agreement that it is most worthwhile weekend and our thanks go to all the organisers and make-it-happen people. Look back for some impressive pro photos when I get them.

Flying 15s at Holy Loch

An FF invitational was held at Holy Loch SC over the 17/18th April weekend. There were 11 entries and Bobby Salmon of Loch Earn SC took first by a comfortable margin from the Ffunky Chicken. The beer, food and sailing were good and the Sunday bacon rolls of exceptional quality, we read on the HLSC bulletin board where the ff ers have taken their serious chat.

Clyde Marina/Sunbird/FYC Training Event

The season's first racing event on the Clyde took place over the weekend of April 10th - 11th, hosted by Clyde Marina under the Fairlie Yacht Club burgee. The Training Regatta is a unique feature in the racing calendar, giving 2 days of intensive race training with video debriefs and rules clinics. Clyde Marina, Fairlie Yacht Club and the RYA bring together an impressive team of RYA International coach Barry Dunning, North Sail's top team of Jeremy Smart and Jim Schwerdt and of course Saturn Sail's John Highcock.

The weekend brought bright sunshine and light breezes and an ideal way of shaking off the winter cobwebs and tuning up for the season ahead. After waiting for the breeze to fill in, Saturday allowed a long stint of quickfire starting sequences and nowhere to hide from the video evidence ashore during the debrief. The forecast for the Clyde on Sunday was for little or no wind, but the open waters off Clyde Marina delivered a clean and true 8 - 9kts of breeze and ideal conditions for training and close quarters handling. 10 short sharp windward leeward races in 3 hours gave the crews a full workout and a superb start to the season, not to mention the summers first suntans. On water coaching and debrief in the bar ashore closed a very successful weekend.

The following week brings the IRC Icebreaker Regatta, also at Clyde Marina, under the flag of Fairlie Yacht Club and is the second of this 2 event format. The Icebreaker also features the coaching team with the RYA's Barry Dunning travelling north again for the 8 race 2 day event for the Geronimo Trophy. The format of multiple fast turnaround short races concentrates the amount of boat handling and starting sequences and certainly gets the pulse rates going. After both weekends watch out for these race teams, they`ll be half a season ahead of you! - report from Clyde Marina

Troikka missed this one as we cruised lazily off to Arran instead but the chaps had a superb weekend with great sunshine and perfect conditions for an easy start to the racing season. Below are a couple of pics from before we set off. Also it's not too late to join in the Icebreaker Regatta next weekend - also with coaching. Call Clyde Marina for info. You can download an entry form from somewhere on www.fyc.co.uk or alternatively from the March2010 page of this site

RYA keelboat coach Barry Dunning hears it like it is from Al. Tanit is currently bulked out with orphans from Argie Bargie. Below is the stunning new First 40 'Zephyr' and below that the (if we may borrow one of Yachting Strife's favourite words) kenspeckle transom of FT$E.

RORC Easter Challenge

Salamander XX was down on the Solent for the RORC Easter Regatta sailing in IRC Class 2. Prior to that the Corby 33 had been tweaked up by Corby himself including the addition of a bowsprit. John Highcock reports that the weather was typically Easter with 15 knots suddenly changing to 30+ from a different direction and the team was caught out on the way to the first race when they pitchpoled (!) so having to go back to deal with damage meant Day One was over. However they won the first race on Day 2 but got caught up in some mark rounding issues on race 2 resulting in a sixth. They went on to score 2nd on race 3. I don't remember what caused the 20th in race 1 on Day 3 but on the next they pulled a 4th and overall finished 10th in a class of 19. Whatever the details it was good to hear that they were right on the pace (powered by Saturn Sails of course) and mishaps apart would have been in contention so well done Stephen Corson and the team. Understandably they were all too busy to take any photos.

Brewin Dolphin Scottish Series

Has a new website where the entry list is to be found. Watch the wee video and find out some of Shirley's

'great reasons to do the Scottish Series' . If you can think of any others of your own, post them on the forum.

It's time to get out there

Clyde Marina IRC Weigh-In

Here's the little-photographed CCC ex-Commodore Jim in his role as RORC Measurer for Scotland, supervising the business at Ardrossan on Saturday. Once Chris Dodgshon had figured out how to work the loadcell properly things proceeeded smoothly and I think 10 or 11 boats were weighed. Pic below is the latest A31 Imadjinn and below that is a satisfied Nick Stratton leaving for the return to Rhu. Definitely tidy racing boats those and they look well finished.

This is Elf 2, one of the two new First 40s presently at Clyde Marina. Elf has a tin mast while the other - replacing Airtricity -has a carbon stick and all the bells & whistles. Will be interesting to see if they go as impressively as they look.

Finally one of oor ain boat. Thankfully at least some of the cruising gear we have screwed down showed up on the dial.

Next weekend is the first training weekend at Clyde Marina with the same highly experienced coaching team as last year. Troikka won't be at that but we'll be up for the second weekend featuring the Icebreaker Regatta. This was great fun last year and very instructive too. I think that there may well be general crew shortages on both weekends and I would suggest that any useful crew person, even a CYCA skipper, who fancies a sail and an opportunity to experience some top class instruction on someone else's boat should contact Chris Dodgshon at Clyde Marina and leave their name.

We had a really pleasant sail down to Ardrossan from Kip on Friday. Not usual for us to be out sailing when there is still snow on the hills.

Final HSC Winter Series

photo

Mark Homer

The final weekend of HSC's winter series was held once more in bright sunshine and a light to moderate breeze which had more than a few holes and shifts to catch the unwary. Sadly there was no sign of AJ, Paul Scutt and their knees this week but maybe once a year is more than enough !! Graham McCubbin carried on as he's done for most of the series and won both races sailing his Europe to take first place overall. Paul Seamark and Ruairdh Campbell swopped second and third places in each race to take fourth and fifth overall. Neil Rosie finished second despite not sailing the last weekend having scored highly enough earlier in the series to hold on. The Topper class was a much closer affair:Rory Kilgore and Jack Aitken tied for first place, Kilgore took first overall on count back, Iain Symon finished third and Jake Miller a very creditable 4th finishing every race in the series despite being the youngest on the water by quite a long way. With 30 entries for the series winter sailing alone, year round sailing is now a permanent fixture at HSC; there has been sailing every weekend since the end of January and plenty of people who want to go sailing. A very busy season lies ahead with three big Regattas plus the Sonata Nationals.

photo Mark Homer