Scottish IOM Ranking Races at Greenock Model Yacht & Power Boat Club

A world-class fleet entered for the MYA IOM Scottish District ranking races at Castle Semple with 53 skippers out on Saturday and 49 on Sunday.

The weather was both good and bad throughout: good because the course could be laid parallel with the shore on both days, bad because it was an evil wind with massive shifts and fierce squalls and sometimes unpleasant due to the addition of cold rain on Sunday for the last part of the day. Add to this the passage of a cold front on Saturday and a warm front on Sunday and you probably get the picture – unstable air.

Skippers were continually faced with the dilemma of which rig to run. Looking at the previous heat was no indication of what was to come but the most successful strategy as it turned out was to go for the bigger rig and accept the diving because the quieter spells were long enough to hurt the more cautious approach. It was great to watch!

Nobody got it right every time and Brad Gibson won the first day sailing his "POP!" design. You will have to ask Brad to explain the difference between a POP! and a BritPOP! but I gather it has something to do with beam. Close behind were Graham Bantock followed by Graham Elliott. Ken Binks was fourth partly due to his brilliant "Man of the Match" move where he was the only skipper in his heat to run a top rig in what turned out to be a lull. Nice one Ken.

On Sunday, which was a separate series, the seeding race and race 2 were sailed in four heats, then, with the numbers down a little, the remaining three races were sailed with A, B and C fleets only thanks to a neat bit of juggling by David Smith and Jim Reid who were running the fleet boards.

Peter Stollery came good ahead of Brad Gibson and Graham Elliott was third again tied with both Binks brothers who lost out to fourth and fifth on count-back. It is worth noting that third to thirteenth places were extremely close - Graham Elliott, Trevor Binks and Ken Binks on 21 points followed by John Tushingham on 22, Tony Edwards on 23, Derek Priestly on 24, Rob Walsh on 26, Ian Dundas on 27, Martin Roberts and Stephen Taylor on 28 and Dave Potter on 29.

With the weather deteriorating and so many skippers heading South, the second day was concluded at around 1520, much to the relief of many.

David Smith has just sent me this note which I include verbatim: "I was pleased the decision to award the Boussy Medallion to Graham Elliott found an appreciative response in someone who was aware of Horace Boussy's place in international model yacht competition. As I now recall it can only be awarded to any individual once; on the results of the weekend Brad Gibson would have merited the award but he had already received it but Graham had clearly remembered."

As RO, I would like to thank my friends from Greenock, Ayr Bay and Paisley clubs for their fantastic efforts in trying conditions, and also mention the great support we had over three days from the staff at Castle Semple Visitor Centre who pulled out all the stops for us - makes a huge difference.