Clydesailing

RWYC Kip Regatta 18/19th May 2002
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A week later than usual inexplicably to keep the same relationship to the Scottish Series the Royal Western Yacht Club Kip Regatta sponsored by Kip marina was once more a first class Clyde event. This regatta really has developed into a proven format must-do event. The brisk winds experienced over both days will have sharpened up all competitors up pretty well for the Scottish in less than 2 weeks time and there won't be too many cobwebs left.
Class 1 Dehler, Finale

The first of the proposed programme of 4 windward-leeward races on Saturday in fairly grey conditions was in very variable wind. On Troy we had all 3 genoas on deck before the start and still managed to make the wrong choice. The wind seemed to be in the 12knot range with some very light shifty patches but building considerably in the later parts of the race with up to 30 remarkably icy knots across the deck. We had a good start and kept up quite well with a lot of our fleet until the breeze really started to build and they pulled away. I couldn't really say much about what was going on round about me, attempting as I was to concentrate on sailing our own race with the windward eye tight shut against the driving rain. At the end of that race we had just dropped our genoa and were setting up to gybe back to the starting area in a perfectly controlled fashion when our mainsheet man, Andrew Leslie, felled himself with the boom. There was an almighty bang and he went over like a skittle, spattering blood all over the cockpit. Fortunately his head was still intact and not the pound of mince I expected to see and he was even speaking. The crew felt that the responsible thing had to be done so we discarded any attempt to start Race 2 and took Andrew to IRH where his head wound was stitched up and he was sent away with a leaflet instructing him to drink as much Guinness as possible over the next 8 hours. This was easily complied with in the Chartroom where much later on a pretty effective band were doing their stuff.
injured crew still smiling

On Sunday there seemed to be more boats around including some biggish efforts I hadn't noticed on Saturday. Visitors included a new big Beneteau, Thomas O'Malley on which North Sails Scotland were represented. Crewsaver Dickies is another biggish Beneteau which was sailing extremely well with a crew who clearly had been trained to hike and to hike hard. They had two races and won both.
Class 2 had a really messy start on Sunday. One competitor, Fortitude about which I know nothing had managed to get himself on the wrong side of the line as the gun went and decided to come back over the line at the favoured committee boat end. Cara of Kip were lining up a clean start and we had a first hand view from Troy as Cara bore down on us with Fortitude steaming in for a T boning by Cara. Graham Goudie manged to avoid serious collison but there was a collision involving Fortitude's boom, a head on Cara and a nasty down- to-the-glass scrape on Cara's previously immaculate starboard quarter. There was a general recall and on Troy like a few others we took the opportunity for a headsail change. We were fiddling about trying to put in a reefing pennant when it became clear that another start was happening and we ended up trailing over the line well back. It wasn't a race that suited us as in the southerly breeze a short chop was building up and in that the bigger boats had a huge advantage over short LWL boats like Troy. Everyone experienced a hard race but we were not surprised to find ourselves second last. Another new Elan 333, Eleanor was really getting in tune and took second place from Salamander. I understand that Eleanor sports some of the hotshot crew who helped Silver Darling win the Scottish last year.
Thrashing upwind with upwards of 25 knots across the deck we had one of the two RS K6 sportboats whistle past downwind. It was Rob Brechin from HLSC in Risque and he was absolutely flying with plenty of air beneath the forward half of the hull. Less than half a minute after we had shouted whoops of encouragement and he was vanishing downwind his auto-reefing mechanism deployed and the rig folded into a neat pile. Allegedly this incident also took out his fourth rudder in a boat that is only about 9 months old.
The second Sunday race was cancelled as the weather forecast had been to build to a F7. I suspect that like us, most competitors were quite tired by that stage and were not too worried.
So a good event, full of incident and hard racing and lacking nothing but the sunshine.
Class 2 Elan 333 Eleanor The overall placings are below:
Also, for those who might not have seen them I have posted the Handicap Classes corrected finishing times for the Sunday race . Click on the link to go there.

IRC1 Sat 1 Sat 2 Sun1 Overall
Bateleur 97 2 2 2 1
Crewsaver Dickies DNS 7 1 1 2
Thomas O'Malley 1 5 4 3
Tartan Revolution 3 4 3 4
Finale 5 3 5 5
Animula 4 6 6 6

IRC 2 Sat 1 Sat 2 Sun 1 Overall
Salamander XVI 1 2 3 1
Eleanor 5 1 2 2
Tundra 3 6 1 3
Blyth Spirit 2 3 5 4
Eauvation 4 4 5 6 5
Enigma 12 8 4 6
Cara of Kip 7 9 8 7
Fortitude 8 4 DNF 8
Hops 11 10 7 9
Troy 6 DNS 10 10
Eureka 9 7 DNF 11
Swedish Lady 10 DNF 9 12
Jezebel RAF 11 11 13
         

CYCA 3 Sat 1 Sat 2 Sun1 Overall
Vaila 4 1 1 1
Border Reiver 1 3 3 2
Trillian 3 2 4 3
Scoundrel 2 DNS 2 4
Megaera 5 4 DNF 5
Juniper Groove RAF 5 DNF 6

CYCA 4 Sat1 Sat 2 Sun1 OA
Charity 1 2 1 1
Flying Saucer 3 4 3 2
Blue Print 4 1 DNF 3
Staypuff 2 3 DNS 4
Hot & Tot DNS DNS 2 5

 

Cork 1720 Sat 1 Sat 2 Sun 1 OA
King Quick 2 2 1 1
Goacher Sails 1 1 DNF 2
Incognito 4 4 4 3
The Big L DNS 3 2 4
Eclipse DNS DNS 3 5
Fruit & Nuts 3 DNS DNS 6

Sportboat Sat 1 Sat 2 Sun1 OA
Hoot 1 DNS 1 1
Scot Dingy Centre 3 2 3 2
Lord of the Isles 2 DNS 2 3
Risque 4 1 DNF 4

Sonata OD Sat 1 Sat 2 Sun1 OA
Jammie Dodger DNF 1 1 1
Pied Piper DNF 2 2 2
Off Quay 1 4 DNS 3
So 2 3 DNF 4

Sigma 33 Sat 1 Sat2 Sun 1 OA
Carmen 5 2 2 1
St Joan 3 3 3 2
Pepsi 1 OCS 1 3
Showtime 6 5 7 4
Wite Tub 2 1 OCS 5
Skimbleshanks 10 6 6 6
Rajah 15 4 4 7
Razzmatazz 7 7 12 8
Blues 9 9 9 9
Sigmatic 4 8 OCS 10
Crude Comment 11 10 11 11
Mayrise 13 OCS 5 12
Odyssey 8 OCS 10 13
Miss Behavin 12 11 13 14
Phoenix 14 DSQ 8 15

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