75th Anniversary Loch Long Week at Cove Sailing Club - Overall

75th Anniversary Loch Long Week final day © Shona Shields

75th Anniversary Loch Long Week final day © Shona Shields

Dropping only two races from a total of 10 starts, Mark Bradshaw in Pamina has taken an emphatic overall win at the 75th Anniversary Loch Long Week regatta on the Clyde.

It has been a difficult weather bag for the assembled fleet of 24 yachts this week, with fickle airs and significant wind shifts repeatedly dogging proceedings, but Bradshaw showed tenacious and remarkable consistency throughout to notch up a total of eight firsts at the Cove Sailing Club hosted event.

Either leading from the start or within the leading group in almost every race, Bradshaw, racing under the pennant of the host club, and crew member Robin Jarvis were always able to take an early advantage or ready to rapidly capitalise on any mistakes or misfortune experienced by others.

He finished off the week's regatta by posting three firsts from three starts today. The overall win gives him his fourth Loch Long Week title since 2007.

"Really pleased to win, it was great too see such a good size of fleet," said Bradshaw. "I was quite surprised to be honest that we got that number of firsts as there was some tough competition - I guess that in some of them, we got through more as a result of a lapse from others rather than genius by us.

"I couldn't actually get leave from work, so I had to swap a lot of shifts around with colleagues, which I'll be paying back for some time, so it's great that it all paid off with a good result.

"Robin and I hadn't sailed the boat together at all this year, so we had to work hard, but we got more confident as the week went on. There was definitely some luck, but that's part of the game, too - it was tricky with very shifty conditions. But there was always a threat there from other boats, there was no time to sit back."

He was pushed hard by a number of other Cove boats, but none of them succeeded in capturing his elusive consistency, though Duncan Farquhar in Sula came closest, netting second overall for his efforts, and Alan Harper's Capricorn wasn't far behind for third place.

Of the nine visiting boats - seven from Aldeburgh, one from Mull and one from Dunoon - it was Bruce Johnson's Hussar from Suffolk which posted the best performance, finishing in ninth overall, a single point ahead of fellow Aldeburgh Yacht Club member Jonathon Evans with Tantrum.

Scirocco is the oldest boat in the fleet and was part of the original batch of yachts built in 1937 and, therefore, 75 years old. She managed a 12th place in race 9.

Overall Results: