TYPHOON Catamaran Series Roundup

Action from the 2003 Typhoon catamaran series © SNECCA

Forty three catamarans from nine clubs in the Scotland and North of England area took part in at least one of the six TYPHOON events scheduled over the year, with sixteen completing at least four events to qualify. The teams, made up of old faces and a lot of new ones, met at Royal Tay YC, South Shields SC, Royal Findhorn YC, Dalgety Bay SC, Port Edgar YC and Helensburgh SC in a variety of wind conditions, but generally in bright sunshine.

Defending Champions Hamish Ramsay & Stuart Buchanan on their 5.9 took on former nine times champions Eddie Bisset and Jackie Miles, returning to their Tornado after years on a 5.9, David and Ian Kent on their 5.9 for a shot at the title.

Ex Hobie 16 sailors, Chris and Valeri Browning on a new Spitfire through a cat amongst the pigeons by showing the regulars at the top of the fleet that the new breed of spinnaker boats give good results per pound. The number of spinnaker boats increased dramatically this year, and may be the shape of things to come.

Bisset and Miles won the first two events and looked set for a comfortable win, with Ramsay and Buchanan and the Browning’s sharing seconds and thirds.

Conditions favoured the Spitfire at the following two regattas, and the Browning’s took the Scottish Championship in Findhorn. After Four events, one point separated the Tornado from the Spitfire, with all to play for in the top six places.

Kami Marshall and Helen Scott switched mid-season from their Hobie 16 to a Hurricane 5.9 and showed all how it was done in the Hurricane Europeans in Ireland.

The Kent brothers cemented their Long Distance win with spinnaker with a win at Port Edgar without, proving their versatility and fourth place overall, relative newcomers to the Hurricane fleet.

David Harcourt and numerous expendable crews proved that a Hurricane can be competitive with a spinnaker around the cans with one event win and sixth place overall. Seven different clubs were represented in the top seven places, showing a level of talent spread right across the region. The series title came down to the last day of the last event, but both contenders ended up discarding the event leaving the Browning’s Spitfire one point clear of Bisset and Miles’s Tornado in its debut year. The defending champions came in third with Richard Selman and Grant Adam in fifth behind the Kents.

2004 will see if spinnakers are the way forward in this highly competitive fleet. Generous prizes were awarded throughout the series by our sponsors TYPHOON International who have sponsored SNECCA through the majority of its eleven year history.

Overall Results: