Topper Scottish Travellers at Loch Venachar Sailing Club

"Come hail rain or sunshine I will get through this" would have been an appropriate comment from any of the Topper sailors at the first Topper Traveller series event at Loch Venachar over the weekend of the 21/22nd of April. The Topper event which was part of the new Scottish Youth Series attracted a fleet of 19 Toppers from all around Scotland.

On Saturday the fleet launched in a light air and sunshine but this was unfortunately soon replaced by rain, sometimes hail and calms interrupted with the occasional zephyr. After over 2 hours of waiting for a steady breeze the race officer had no alternative but to pack up for the day and hope that an early start at 10am on Sunday would produce racing conditions.

As Sunday dawned to a mirror like loch the prospect did not look good but as the boats launched shortly before 10am a light breeze from the East emerged and a starting sequence was started. Some were too anxious to get away and there were individual recalls at the start with Callum Symons(Aberdeen and Stonehaven) and Lewis Marr(Largs) jumping the gun.

With shifty conditions and light winds it was important to get the shifts right and it was Aaron Murray(Loch Earn), Callum Rosie (Helensburgh) and Lindsay Johnstone (Largs) who gradually emerged at the front of the fleet with Lewis Marr working through after returning at the start.

Nearing the top mark it looked as though Callum Rosie on the left of the beat would prosper but with a slightly stronger breeze on the right it was Murray. Marr and Johnstone who were approaching faster and with a tack below Murray it was Marr who sneaked ahead of the others with Murray, Rosie and Johnston following down the run. In the light airs the fleet was becoming very spread out with big gaps between the boats further down the fleet.

The order remained the same rounding the leeward mark but with the four leading boats splitting tacks it was the left that paid on the second beat with Murray taking advantage of this to lead round the second windward mark closely followed by Marr after which a gap had developed to Rosie and Johnston. As the light breeze died Marr managed to sail over Murray on the reach while Rosie and Johnstone quickly closed the gap in a freshening breeze from behind.

It was very close approaching the end of the reach. On turning downwind Marr stayed left while the others went right. Left proved beneficial and rounding the leeward mark it was Marr who led and had a gap which he held to the finish. Behind it was a close battle and it was Rosie who took second with Johnstone piping Murray for third.

As the rest of the fleet finished the wind once again started to die and the fleet waited patiently for a new breeze. As time passed there appeared to be no potential for further racing and close to one o'clock the race officer sounded the three guns for abandoned racing – the signal for the best breeze of the day to appear – who would be a race officer!

After a frustrating weekend it was the results from the one race that were also taken as the results for the weekend.

Overall Results:

1st Lewis Marr (Largs SC)
2nd Callum Rosie (Helensburgh SC)
3rd Lindsay Johnstone (Largs SC)

The 4.2 fleet was won by Alastair Ferguson (Loch Tummel SC) and the development fleet by Cameron Dingley (Loch Venachar SC).

With the next event being at Annandale Sailing Club we look forward to more sunshine, less hail and a little more wind!