Cumbraes Regatta on 24/25th Aug and sponsored by Euroyachts was an excellent affair. Saturday started dull but with light winds of around 10 knots from the north west. A windward leeward course was chosen for the first race and by the time the second race, an Olympic was under way, the sun was out. There were entries of around half a dozen in the two IRC classes but amongst the keelboats the CYCA 3 & 4 had 20 or so starters in each with a wide range of handicaps. The Sigma 33s turned out a number somewhat down on what might have been expected and the sportboat class was a complete non starter.

For the first race the winds were fickle although quite constant in direction and keeping a careful watch on which side of the course the wind was stronger paid handsomely. We were working quite hard on Troy, keeping a close eye on the new mast so didn't notice much about what was going on in the other classes. We had a bad start being stuffed out at the committee boat end but that made us tack away from the fleet and seemed to do us little harm. Scanne, Gordon Aikman's Maxi 1100 pulled away rapidly as did Dave Clark's Eauvation 4. However regatta secretary Alastair Orr's Impala, Orrkid was going exceptionally well and we were unable to shake it off. On handicap Orrkid won with Troy second. The wind picked up a bit for the second race but despite that our old sparing partners Cara of Kip were not on the pace. We managed to pull away from Orrkid in this race as well as the dreaded Fulmar Mallie and Ufonova but Eauvation and Scanne kept the distance on us. Nevertheless a second and a third gave us an overall first for the day.

Sunday dawned sunny and windless and a very long postponement was finally relieved by the appearance of a light breeze which resulted in some interesting short tacking southwards down the Cumbrae shore which was said to be particularly close amongst the Sigmas. One can imagine. Through the Tan the wind went light again and those who followed the wind gybing to keep in the variable lanes did best. Some went up the shore to little effect. It was a sparkling sun blistering afternoon and the 18foot skiffs zipping through made the cruisers look extremely pedestrian.
The full results will appear on the LSC web page. Bateleur won class 1 both days and Salamander Class 2 with the other Elan333 Eland second. The new Elan 31 'Aye' was third. Ailish 2 sailed an excellent race in Class 3 to take first place on handicap although well behind Scanne, Eauvation and Swedish Lady. We were amused to see a sideways spinnaker hoist among the Sigmas - it turned out to be Rajah but John Fraser in Razzmatazz was the most consistent scorer with three second places. Brian MacLean sailed an H boat to top place in Class 4 both days and the Soling, Lord of the Isles was second both days. In Class 5 and whitesails I have no idea save to say that Brendan Bocker's Hawaiian gear was most er, distinctive and that Bill Bowyer in Catalina won restricted sail round the Island. The overall best performance of the wekend went to somebody in the dinghy fleet whose details I can't remember. A short note on the dinghy side of things contributed by one of the dingy sailors is included here

An addition this year was a Jeanneau Fun race which involved Jeanneau owners sailing round the big Cumbrae in whitesails after the rest of the fleet had started. They had their own reception afterwards all hosted by Jeanneau agents Euroyachts and seemed to have enjoyed the experience. Looney Tunes was however a bit of a wolf among the sheep flock there we thought.

Our only complaint was the deteriorating (in our opinion) standard of evening entertainment. We thought that the ceilidh provided was not at all what we wanted after a busy day sailing and the general ambience in the sailing club with a conspicuous attendance of the more senior members seated prominently around the dance floor did nothing to keep us in the building. In short, we though it was crap with a capital K. Something must be done. A loud rock band or even just a happening disco must be hired. The sailing side of this event continues to be excellent with good turnouts but the move into Largs sailing Club seems to have dealt the previous lively party atmosphere a death blow and even Regatta's was quiet.
Here are a few digital pix. Click on any for a somewhat larger image and if anyone wants an uncompressed version let me know.

Also you can read Pete Mackenzie's account of Hot n Tot's long 2 handed race