Aberdeen & Stonehaven Yacht Club Regatta

Aberdeen & Stonehaven Yacht Club Regatta © Keith Stewart

Aberdeen & Stonehaven Yacht Club Regatta © Keith Stewart

Aberdeen & Stonehaven Yacht Club Regatta © Keith Stewart

This year's Aberdeen and Stonehaven Yacht Club Regatta was over the weekend 28 and 29 August and included the Scottish Championships for the Blaze, Scottish skiffs and Fireballs along with the Ben Ledi trophy for the Solos. The club received generous sponsorship for the Bay Fish and Chips and there is a good selection of photos from the event linked from club website.

There was a good turnout for the Skiff and Blaze fleets, with the Blazes having the furthest travelled competitor all the way from Pembrokeshire yacht club. The Aberdeen and Stonehaven Fireball fleet were struggling due to the clash with the nationals and were delighted to see the arrival of the Fireball XLS from Port Edgar, ensuring the fleet had their own start. The Juniors in the club helped with the trolleys on the beach and also had some training and racing in Optimists.

Saturday and the boats headed out onto the race area under a decent Force 3 wind with the start a short run from the harbour mouth. The NW wind was gusting and moving around, being influenced by some big rain clouds rolling over. The wind strength varied throughout the day; always seeming to be stronger between races then easing again as the start sequence got going.

The heavier weather crews were hoping for the go ahead on Sunday morning but the horizontal rain and enough white horses in the bay to win the Grand National, confirmed that the forecasters had got the 27mph wind with 47mph gusts correct. The racing was cancelled so the over night positions became the final ones.

In the Blaze fleet there were different winners to each race but Nick Miller sailed a very consistent series to retain the Blaze Scottish Championship for the second year with Christian Smart second and Bob Williamson third.

In the Fireball fleet Elspeth and Alan Fraser got away at the start on the first race and held onto this to win, in the next 2 races Donald Smith and Alex Taylor sailed consistently to win them both. This meant Donald and Alex were Scottish Champions with Elspeth and Alan Fraser second and Colin Ladd and Keith Stewart third (all ASYC).

In the Skiff fleet Ian Ellis (Royal Findhorn YC) won with 2 firsts, with Ian Renilson (Dalgety Bay SC) second and James Lewis (ASYC) third.

In the Solo fleet though 6 Solos competed for the Ben Ledi trophy it could not be awarded due to the number of races required under the deed of gift. In the regatta G Henstridge (Pentland Firth SC) was first, Keith Milroy was second and David Redpath (St Marys Loch SC) third.

In the General Handicap the fleet consisted of a number of classes including RS Feva, 100, 200, 400 and 500, as well as an Albacore, a Tasar, an Oppie, a Radial and a Topper. The race officer kindly decided to set one windward-leeward course alternated with a triangle to suit the variety of boats. The start line was generally well contested as everyone wanted to get out in front in the shifting breeze. The first couple of races were lead by the RS 500 and RS 400, closely followed by the rest of the RS pack, the Albacore and the Tasar. Dying breeze in the third race paid into the RS 200’s hands and they lead the race from start to finish. The young sailors on the course sailed competitively and must be given due credit for getting stuck in! First was RS 200 395 - Chris Perry and Kirsty Lytton (ASYC), second RS 200 645 - Ian Gore and Ben Gore (ASYC), third RS 500 636 - David Smith and Emily Smith (ASYC).