Apologies for the big pictures here. Didin't have time to do thumbnails and what not. You should all have broadband by now anyway.

The Royal Western Yacht Club Kip Regatta 2006 was a light wind affair with no real instances of anything over 11 knots true on Troika's dial on either of the 2 days. Thus were the heavy barges penalised and Jboats took the first two places in Class 1 with the very smart looking J133 Jaru taking the overall pot and a rather more desirable Raymarine hand held plotter, having registered 3 firsts and discarded a 5th. It might be said that anyone who can afford a brand new J133 probably has a plotter anyway but who are we to gripe at such things. Playing FTSE, probably weighed down by its seemingly ever more numerous crew had to make do with third place although they scored a couple of seconds. Also the J80 Jazolino narrowly took the handheld VHF prize in Class 4 . The regatta was quite well attended although there were differences from previous years notably that the Sigma 33s which were once the biggest class failed to turn up in sufficient numbers to get their own start.

There could be no complaints about Saturday which was brilliantly sunny if not nearly as warm as earlier in the week. The chilly easterly breeze meant that the windward leeward starts were down south of Inellan with decently long beats in the Lunderston bay direction. Some crew moan about windward-leewards being boring and in some ways they are but if they allow 4 races to be run over two days with a minimum of faffing about inbetween times then we have no real complaints. The race management was very good with pretty square start lines being set although it was a wee bit annoying to finish early on a sunny Saturday afternoon just as the wind was filling in again. A final round would have been possible but it's always easier to say that after the event.

This is one of the few pics I managed to snatch while trying to maintain concentration on the run and the background is unmistakably Kip. The boat with the white spinnaker is Ian McLaughlin's Corby 25 Hobbes Express out for its second sail and first race. His Projection 720 his still for sale btw. The Corby sails very well to its Corbyesque rating and is by no means a sportboat. The light winds were an embarrassment to the larger boats in Class 2 where there were ratings from John Kent's Farr-E-Nuff on .862 right up to the supercharged Sigma 38 Enigma on .992. While Hops, RoBo, Troika and Enigma managed to pull gaps on the following fleet, all too often there were Impalas and Farr-E-Nuff sailing among supposedly much faster yachts. We were pleased to get second gun in Race 1 but that resulted only in a 6th place. Such is handicap racing but the rating spread was much wider than was desirable. The light winds favoured the Impalas and Murray Caldwell in his new plaything, an Impala he has named Hooch, took second in IRC2 behind Farr-E-Nuff. There is no doubt that John Kent sails his little Farr exceptionally well but its general boatspeed seemed remarkable in view of its low rating

Also in Class 2 were regulars John Allen and team from Whitby in their X302 Antix. We've raced them for some years now, previously in Troy v. Smokey 2. They're seen here in the Sunday conditions.

Here's Howard Morrison in Enigma wishing for more wind (and probably wishing someone would slacken the main halyard)

If accounts are to be believed the Forth Mumm 36 Absolutely 2 is part of the Scottish Commodore's Cup entry. As is Salamander XVMCIV aboard which there is no little discontent about a sudden increase in the IRC rating. How the one design people must be smirking at all this rating stuff. Anyway these two ended up with Bateleur 4th 5th & 6th on equal 14 points.

We didn't notice much of the CYCA class 4 which was an odd amalgamation of heavy cruisers, Sigma 33s and sportboats. Nevertheless sub class prizes were awarded. There was at least one Sonar down from RNCYC. Something called Prelude took second to Jazolino in Class 4 but I ddn't find out what that is - possibly a Sonar (or an SB3?). Here's Sigmatic cruising past in the cold dreich greyness that made Sunday so different from the previous. On the last race as a result of a badly timed start we went off on a port tack flyer and stayed out when that seemed to be working. By the first mark we and Bite the Bullet had pulled out a good lead on the inshore boats. The wind was just about failing altogether and on the last beat there was a 180deg shift and it was a spinnaker run to the line. We thought we might get first gun but the Elan 31 Bite the Bullet nosed in a few seconds ahead. Class 5 consisted, bizarrely, of 5 Sonatas and the Moody Eclipse Sambucca. The folks on the Sonata Rhapsody can't be too happy about a tank like that forcing them into last place in those conditions.

The next picture is one of Ewan Morrison staring through his mainsail on his Sunfast 32i (injection?) Little Warrior. We shouldn't have been in his vicinity at the time but as I said, it was one of those days.

Here's Colin McDonald's 1720, dredged from the depths of Lake Garda. Actually it's a brand new hull with the old rig and whatever other surviving bits. Another craft on its first outing.

The results were done by the Raynet radio amateurs and are available for you to peruse at your leisure.

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