West Highland Yachting Week - Day 1

West Highland Yachting Week day 1 © Ron Cowan / www.yachtingimages.co.uk

West Highland Yachting Week day 1 © Ron Cowan / www.yachtingimages.co.uk

Opening races see the breeze up for competitors

The first day's racing at this year's West Highland Yachting Week (WHYW) saw good conditions for the fleet circumnavigating the island of Shuna off Craobh Marina. With medium breezes both Tunnock's spinnaker fleet and Argyll white sail fleet had all points of sail with a long beat, close reach and run rounding Shuna clockwise twice.

Spirit of Jacana took the spoils in IRC Class 0 from Duckwall Pooley and J Fever with Erin topping the leader board in Class 1. Carmen II and James Hardie's Taz finished second and third.

Restricted sail class 2 was taken by Sunrise from Anne Campbell's X34 Ajax and Robin Ferguson's X443 Hoodlum.

Spinnaker Class 3 was won by Steven Forteith and team on Shadowfax from Ian Hards'Hardslog and Graham Anderson and team on Lucky Ned Pepper.

Brian Young's Mylne ketch Glenafton, Steve Williams' Mystic Sun and Donald Mclaren's Sigmatic made the line up in white sail class 4.

Class 5 racing with kites was taken by Steel Pulse from the Glencoe Boat Club's Suilven with Colin Crawford's Nimrod third. Craig Anderson's famous Cool Bandit 2 took the honours in Class 7 with fellow Moody 336 Piecemaker second and Boyd Tunnock's Lemerac third Angus Campbell's Grand Soleil Stargazer finished first in Class 8 by eight minutes on corrected time ahead of Lucy Downie and Garth Wilson's Zebedee. Ruaridh Campbell's First 29 Voila was third.

Craobh to Oban passage

Monday's race from Craobh to Oban promised big breezes and didn't disappoint. After the initial upwind leg and one close reach to the turning mark, kites were set for the run through Fladda past Easdale and Insh to the south of Kerrera. With favourable wind direction this was a gybe mark and the spinnaker fleet held their kites to another turning mark before the short beat to the finish.

It was a fitting first for the major sponsor of WHYW, Boyd Tunnock CBE, who not only won Class 7 in his Moody 38 Lemerac from Craig Anderson's Cool Bandit but also took line honours of the whole fleet lifting the MacBrayne Centenary Challenge Cup.

Class 0 was again a Spirit of Jacana, Duckwall Pooley and J Fever run with Class 1 this time being taken by WHYW stalwarts Allan Jeffrey and Paul Scutt in their First 36.7 Carmen II. John Murphy's Erin was second and Roddy Angus's Misjif third.

The Chalmers family in Sunrise took another first in Class 2 with Hoodlum second and Spirit of May third.

In closely contested Class 3 Shadowfax made it another first from Lucky Ned Pepper, pushing Hardslog into third. Busy Beaver took the win over Joey Gough's Tangle o'the Isles in restricted sail class Class 4 with Harold Hood's Sigma 33 Odyssey II in third place. Stephen Owen's Halcyon from Alastair Gay's Orwell Lass and Gordon Young's Rambler were the one, two three in a big Class 6.

Class 8 was won by the big Freedom Arran Comrades of Mike Johnston with Stargazer second and Hot Toddy third.

Apres sail success

With the fleet staying two nights in Craobh both the marina and the Lord of the Isles pulled out 'all the stops' to give the fleet excellent hospitality and entertainment with fireworks and music both nights.

Feeder Races

The thirty strong fleet from Oban racing in the feeder to Craobh for the start of WHYW contended building breezes from the south with winds touching 40 knots in the gusts. It was a big boat race evidenced by a convincing win for John Murphy with his Sun Odyssey 49 Erin. The X332 of Ian Hards - Hardslog finished second and Oban boat Shadowfax of Billy and Steven Forteith third.

Rea MacKay's Moody 33 Kiri won the Gigha Race from Douglas Reid's Moody 336 Stargazer from Campbeltown with David Mcmullen's Steel Pulse third out of the six-strong fleet.

The fleet were facing strong winds on Tuesday for the inshore race and round the cans Olympic style courses. Both Tunnock's spinnaker yachts and Argyll white sail race as one fleet to Tobermory on Wednesday. After a day's racing off Tobermory all boats return to Oban on Friday for the final prize-giving dance at the Corran Halls.

All results on www.whyw.co.uk