HD Sails Scottish Solo Travellers Round 1 at Clyde Cruising Club

The top three - HD Sails Scottish Solo Travellers Round 1 at Bardowie Loch © CCC

The HD Sails Scottish Travellers series kicked off on Saturday 18th April at Clyde Cruising Club's Bardowie Loch. For the first time in many years the sailors arrived to find the water covered in waves generated not by swans and ducks flapping about but, by a good westerly breeze blowing down from the far end of the Loch.

Bacon rolls and cups of tea on offer in the warm dry clubhouse were a welcome excuse to pause rigging the boats and get out of the rain and cold for a while and attend the race briefing.

Racing was scheduled to start as close to 12.30 as possible and the safety boat crews rushed about to get marks positioned and the line set, a triangle course was laid.

The first start was a general recall with the eleven competitors all trying to get a good spot on the short line. The RO kept the start sequence the same so the Solos still started before the Streaker for the restart.

This time clean away with the wind up to about 15 knots and very shifty. Stuart Gibson using his local knowledge led off the line from the committee boat end with the bunch behind all following his wake. A shift just near the windward mark allowed Charlie Brecknell and Ian Baillie to be lifted into the mark while Stuart had to put in a tack. Charlie stayed ahead for the next lap before.

The wind lightened allowing the fleet to close the gap by the leeward mark. Charlie rounded first and tacked immediately whilst the rest hung on a little longer and got on the right side of the new shift as the wind swung round meaning they could sail directly to the windward mark whilst Charlie found himself needing to tack to get back to the lay line dropping back to 4th whilst Stuart, Ian Baillie and Callum Gibb rounded ahead and stretched away.

After four laps Stuart took the win from Ian with Callum third and Robert Signer just getting his nose in front of Charlie to take 4th.

Leeward mark - HD Sails Scottish Solo Travellers Round 1 at Bardowie Loch - photo © D Whyte

Course change for race 2 with the wind moving further round and the start line moved to the club pontoon in the middle of the Loch. A good spread down the line with the fleet sailing down to the port hand lay line. The front 6 boats all converged on the mark together but the front few found the wind died and trying to keep momentum was difficult. Ross Watson found himself on starboard and the wind shifts going back and forth took an unexpected swim as a boat under him tacked onto port leaving him nowhere to go.

Callum was round first, closely followed by Keith Milroy Ian and Stuart. By the leeward mark Keith rounded first but places changed all the way up the beat. Ian worked the shifts best and got himself into the lead on the third lap and with Stuart and Callum fighting it out for second and third. Behind, Alistair Stevenson, Charlie and Ross had slowly worked their way back up through the fleet, and this is how it remained after the four laps.

Race three with the wind still very shifty but probably getting stronger, the fleet went into the last race with Stuart and Ian on equal points and Callum strong in third overall. Ian got away cleanly at the start and rounded the top mark with Cullum Alistair and Keith close behind. Ian extended on the two reaches whilst behind places changed with first Callum taking a quick swim allowing Charlie and Keith through before Keith fell into windward in a big gust.

This meant Ian and Alistair taking first and second comfortably and Charlie just managing to hold off a fast finishing Callum for third.

Several sailors had had a capsize at some point during the event with Iain Morton at his first Solo event also having his first capsizes in a solo.

Winners Callum Gibb, Ian Baillie and Stuart Gibson - HD Sails Scottish Solo Travellers Round 1 at Bardowie Loch - photo © C Brecknell

The prize-giving saw the top three receiving new HD sails bobble hats along with Cairngorm brewery bottles of beer and Iain, the Bardowie Quaich, as winner. Ian thanked the club and all the volunteers for all their hard work to put on a fantastic first event of the year with some fantastic close fun racing.

Overall Results: