Sailing pants at the Kip Prizegiving Regatta

The closing races of the Edinburgh Crystal Clyde Championship were dispersed over three areas. Sigmas, Sonatas, Etchells and IODs were taken care of at the Royal Gourock One Design event, Loch Longs at the Polaris Regatta in the Holy Loch and handicap yachts at a new event run by Fairlie YC at Kip. Six Sigmas, eight Snotties and a handful of IODs showed up at Gourock and the remarkable total of 8 handicap boats assembled off Kip. Class 1 comprised the Etchells 'Aye' and the 1720 'Incognito' , Class IRC2 contained Tundra, Salamander XV and Enigma while in CYCA3 there gathered Troy, Stormaway and Cara of Kip.

photo courtesy of Donald Sharp

Fairlie YC laid a good long windward-leeward course in the general direction of Dunoon and racing commenced with brilliant sunshine in a brisk north-westerly averaging around 20knots. On Troy we had a bit of a misunderstanding about the start sequence, looking out as we were, for a Class 3 flag and crossed the line more or less by good luck but some way behind the others. It went from bad to worse with a couple of tacks where we broached and retacked and generally spent far too much time not going anywhere. I suspect that the absence of Anne our crew boss and general motivator may have had something to do with it. The kite went up well enough but repeatedly refused to come down as the crew intended. Eventually a sheet shook off and n quids worth of spectra went to the bottom for the second time this season. It's been a long time since we finished a race a full leg behind the opposition.

A somewhat surreal occurrence during the first race was the sudden appearance of a second committee boat which parked up just a a short distance away from the Fairlie YC one. Soon plenty of boats were milling around in the general vicinity of our leeward mark. Many of them were credible racers we recognise from other events. Shortly afterwards they all set off on a fetch in the general direction of Rothesay and left us to our activities. There must have been at least a dozen yachts and apparently it was a CCC race to Tighnabruich or some such place. Whatever rings your bell I suppose but it does illustrate the current divide in racing preferences.

Forced into white sails mode (well you don't expect us to carry spare sheets do you?) the second race was less eventful and we chased Cara hard but they shook us off in the last round, finishing a minute ahead. Stormaway which had seemed virtually glued to Cara for much of the first race fell way back by pointing nowhere. James is going to save up for a proper No3 genoa, the roller job having been proved hopeless when rolled.

Elsewhere we saw some spectacular rolls performed by Salamander and at certain points we saw Incognito planing along at what turned out to be a paltry 13 knots. Tundra looked pretty much in control what with their matching oilskins and everything so nothing new there. Apologies for being less observant than usual but I was kind of preoccupied with our own chaos.

Afterwards, the boat shed at Kip, decorated with a few hanging spinnakers, did reasonably OK as a prizegiving and party venue although the provision only (by the Chartroom) of disgusting American poof beer cannot pass without comment. I was astonished to be awarded a prize for being second in a class of 3, having sailed the worst we have done in ages. Donald MacLaren the current CYCA Grand Master then proceeded to the series prizegiving. Donald Sharp deservedly took off the mighty silver plant pot holder as the overall series prize. Music and synthetic smoke ensued and by the time I left the Tundra crew were getting wired into their shampoo and were about ready to start dancing on the tables.

On a more serious note, if you check the series results on the cyca webpages you can see the dismal support that this well organised and well sponsored series has obtained particularly in the handicap classes. The average turnout in each class is calculated and the number of qualifiers given. Despite a generous system of discards the series was void for IRC1, CYCA4 and Etchells with no qualifiers in those classes. The situation is not a lot better for the rest, the Sigma 33s being the best supported with an average turnout of 9 and 9 qualifiers. The table at the bottom of this page summarises some of the data but it is worth browsing the CYCA site. I find it hard to see how this series can continue to attract sponsorship with such poor turnouts.. With Troy having had perfect attendance throughout I can say that imho these have all been good events which have generally been well managed and with good courses. Ironically, the best attended (Largs) had the most inadequate weather conditions. What next year will bring is anybody's guess at the moment. The CYCA committee will be debating this at length in the coming months and will welcome whatever input can be obtained from actual and potential competitors. (Apart from communicating with the CYCA directly please air your views on the Clydesailing discussion board.) It is particularly disappointing, following the CYCA's considerable efforts to circulate a questionnaire on competitors wants and their having done everything realistically possible to respond to the results of it, that there has this year been such a lack of interest. It really makes you wonder what is to become of racing on the Clyde.

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