For personal reasons Chas was unable to show up in Tarbert until the Sunday of
the Scottish Series. However by all accounts 2003 was a good year to miss the
passage race. Thursday night was wet and windy gusting to 30knots and the race
to DZ, Irvine Bay and thence to Tarbert was largely a reaching course. Conveniently,
DZ was not lit and the seas were large and lumpy. Spinnakers remained in bags
and gastric contents did not remain in stomachs. Troy was helmed to DZ by Maz
and back by Andrew Leslie who allegedly would have liked a longer course but then
he had a head injury last year and has mini transat aspirations.
Saturday's racing was in more moderate conditions with the wind building to about
20 knots in the afternoon. Troy was being helmed that day by Murray Caldwell of
MC Sails who being the northern rep for Quantum was interested to check out our
new mainsail. We were in the Henri Lloyd fleet which contained all the IRC classes
and raced mainly in the southern zone. IRC 4 was in fact the largest class of
all with about 21 boats many of which were new to the class. There was a substantial
Beneteau presence with three 31.7s and two of the new 27.7s as well as Eauvation
4 and Bragar, the familiar 33.7s. The 27.7s showed a disappointing form although
Thomas O'Malley began to show a bit of speed by the end of the series. Their upwind
performance seemed reasonable for their length but downwind they never showed
the blasting potential which would be necessary to overcome their punitive rating.
Sunday was quite a nice day. It was the first time I had seen our new mainsail
in light to moderate conditions and it took me the first beat to sort myself out
by which time we had lost the rest of the fleet. The second race however allowed
us to pull a 3rd which cheered everyone up considerably.- everyone on Troy that
is.
On Monday the class was really going for it at the start and we were well in there
and excellently placed. Unfortunately a general recall was sounded and for the
repeat start the black flag was flying. Despite a bit more hesitancy on the line
5 boats were black flagged out including the class leading Vaila. (There has been
plenty of discussion about Vaila on the message board and we will not revisit
it here. It was admittedly surprising, given their rating, to see Vaila leading
the class around several races although their performance dropped off on Tuesday
without Mr Munro) Vaila did not hear the dsqs on the vhf and continued up the
first beat. During a period of messing us up at the windward mark Duncan Munro
politely enquired if they were black flagged and on hearing the affirmative pushed
off much to our relief. Anyway, despite our best endeavours we didn't manage a
good result. Our afternoon race was complicated by an incident at the windward
mark where we were trooping in on the starboard layline procession just a couple
of boat lengths from the mark behind one of the First 31.7s. The half tonner Blue
Berret Pi came in on port and tacked right in our water making it impossible for
us to avoid a collision. Despite getting pinned against the mark thereafter they
had the impertinence to counter protest our protest. At the end of the race in
which we felt we'd done well but scored a lousy 11th I decided I couldn't be bothered
to follow through the protest and was surprised to hear that they had carried
through their protest against us. They sent not their skipper but some would-be
judge type wacko they had on board to the protest which was eventually thrown
out by the committee judge who was from Florida and didn't want to get involved
in any appeals. Well they still have the death penalty in Florida. Blueberry deserved
to be disqualified and I later regretted not protesting them myself. I suppose
that the punishment of blatent rule infringement should come before the drinking
of beer but it spoils your evening as far as I am concerned.
The other thing that spoiled my evening was the discovery that the music stopped
in the tent at midnight. Apparently this was because two Tarbert residents had
put in objections. I though this was really poor especially as the band on the
last night were good. I wasn't the only one to be disgruntled and they want to
be careful about that. If the social side of the event is allowed to deteriorate
the event will suffer. Even now there is not the atmosphere in Tarbert that there
used to be. Picking my way back to the boat on the pontoon it was obvious just
how few boats had crew staying on board. The cruiser racer ethos has seriously
disappeared.
The last race on Tuesday resulted in a desperately crap start by us. The whole
class was late and we were later than the rest. Russell our regular bowman had
absconded and was sorely missed. At one of the leeward marks we had the mighty
Desperado bearing down on us like a freight train and it became clear as the sky
darkened that we were about to be sandwiched between them and some other other
class 1 affair. We thought the class 1 boat on the inside did a perfectly fine
mark rounding but Desperado went quite wide and the elderly geezer who stands
about at the back and does the shouting was really giving it yahoo. Quite comical
really but can't be good for his blood pressure. Class 1 was eventully taken by
Cracklin Rosie, the partially recycled Corby of a few years back. Johnathan Anderson
managed 6th in his even bigger Duckpool replacement, Playing FTSE which had been
launched only a few days before.
Class 2 remakably had Scottish boats in the top spots: Bateleur showing that she
can still cut it in this company and Animula second with the perennial J35 Jacana
separating them from Sloop John T. In class 3 Tundra had to be content with a
close third behind Salamander 16 and the antique Hops.In the one-designs the Sigma
fleet was numerically well down on previous years but the evangelical zeal of
the remaining tub afficionados is undimmed. As is the usual fate of racing boats
as their price drops, many have been sold to Ireland and there was a certain amount
of disappointment that none of those had taken the trouble to come to Tarbert.
No prizes for spotting the winner ; yes Pepsi with the WT second. The 1720s had
good racing obviously and the new Laser SB3 fleet looked healthy although what
the future will hold for this class in Scotland remains to be seen. Sonatas also
have seen a downturn from their halcyon years.
The CYCA classes were also well depleted. In CYCA 5, Scanne the Maxi 1100 (not
the old Austin one) pipped Swedish Lady by 1 point. The venerable Ailish 2 from
Largs took class 6 with Valhalla of Ashton proving that their CYCA handicap is
actually reasonable making it a Sparkman&Stephens 1-2. We would have been
in Class 6 this year but were glad to have the opportunity to race against some
unaccustomed opposition. We need more of that. When you look at the size and mix
of the handicap fleets in Ireland it's no surprise that they can come over here
and wipe up all but the very best that the Clyde can offer. Eleven boats competed
in Class 7 with Upstart still in good form under her new management although I
would hve thought that the Sigma 292 Maji might have done better on her given
handicap. The restricted sail class consisted entirely of 40 plus foot bulk carriers
and was won by the Connellys on Aztec.
So that's another one done. Ian MacDonald was given a well deserved presentation
for 25 years as principal race officer and the Series had a popular winner. Bell
Lawrie sponsorship is to continue for next year so all seems well so far as it
goes. Probably it was just me but I felt that a little of the sparkle has gone
out of the event. However doubtless we'll be back next year to try (troy) again.
For the record, on Troy we had Chas, Andrew, Maz, JJ, Ken and Nathan first timing
and Russell TFC.
There seemed to be some enthusiasm to do Bangor Week so we may find our way over
there in July.
