2014 Scottish Wooden Hull IOM Championships at Forfar Loch

2014 Scottish Wooden IOM Championship © Brian Summers

2014 Scottish Wooden IOM Championship © Brian Summers

2014 Scottish Wooden IOM Championship © Ian Dundas

The 2014 Scottish Wooden Hull IOM Championship was held on 7th June at Forfar Loch. This was the 10th anniversary of this popular Scottish radio sailing event and attracted a strong fleet of 17 boats from Scottish Clubs but included 2 skippers from Northern Ireland and a Danish skipper.

Although Forfar Loch is the sailing water of Tayside Radio Sailing Club, the Race Team for the event was mainly made up of volunteers from Buchanness as well as local skippers. The race team was led by Race Officer Ali Law who took this opportunity to train new race team members in race management procedures.

All the participating yachts were home build in wood with many designed and built by the skippers themselves. Since its inception in 2005 the quality of the wooden IOM yachts and the standard of finish have progressively improved. This year saw a number of upgraded designs; the latest Buzz sailed by Tich Summers, a new Corbie sailed by John Owens, Richard Ennos's latest design Classic 11 and Boyd Baird's Intilit. Neill Suitor from Northern Ireland sailed a brand new wooden V8 design which he launched for the first time at the event. In addition to these new designs there were a number of older designs such as the Swallow and the Baracuda sailed by young local skipper Max Caird. It was good to see a number of founder members of the wooden boat event turning up to spectate throughout the day and encourage the new wooden boat builders.

Weather conditions remained excellent throughout the day with clear sunny skies and steady 10-12mph wind conditions. Occasionally the wind swung between SE and E. Skippers needed to stay very alert to avoid getting caught out on the wrong side of the shift upwind or to miss the changes in wind pressure on the downwind legs. Two seeding races were sailed to find an order of merit before the start of fleet racing. The first seeding race was won by Neill Suitor followed by Pat Johnston and Tom Milne. The second was won by Ian Dundas followed by Tich Summers and John Owens.

In the morning session, five two heat races were completed before the lunch-break with Ian Dundas winning 4 races with his well sorted Corbie and Richard Ennos winning the other one with his Classic 11. There were many skippers challenging at the front of A heat; Tich Summers, Neill Suitor and Steve Taylor all had top finishes but none were scoring consistent enough results to threaten Ian's lead. Peter Thiellesen who missed the first two races showed excellent pace with two consecutive second place finishes in races 3 and 4. There were also some skippers who did very well to win B fleet and promote into the A fleet only to suffer misfortune and end up dropping back into B.

Over five races in the afternoon Ian continued his good form with 3 further race wins giving him first place overall. Steve Taylor was pushing hard winning race 7 and was not out of the top three all afternoon which pulled him up to second place. Tich Summers won Race 8 and also maintained a consistent series of results took third place ahead of Neill Suitor. The next 4 places overall were only separated by 9 points which demonstrated how close the racing was behind the front runners.

At the prize giving the competitors expressed thanks to the Buchaness Race Team for their efforts in delivering a really well-run and enjoyable event. The Race Officer replied by recognising that over the 20 races good sportsmanship had been maintained and all penalties had been settled on the water. Skippers are already talking about new designs or mods for next year's wooden boat event.

2014 Scottish Wooden IOM Championship - photo © Ali Law

Overall Results: (top eight)