West Highland Yachting Week 2014
by Alison Chadwick 24 Jul 2014 09:57 BST
12-18 July 2014
Paul Scutt and Alan Jeffries lifted the top prize of the Peter Cocks Memorial Trophy for the best performance of this year's West Highland Yachting Week in their First 36.7 Carmen II.
With a scoreline of five firsts and five points, the experienced team clinched the series that saw a week of contrasting weather giving sailing conditions from light breezes to winds at stages gusting over 40 knots.
Carmen II also lifted the MacBrayne Centenary Challenge Cup for the fastest passage from Craobh to Oban and Tennent Caledonian 25th Anniversary Salver for the best corrected time from Tobermory to Oban.
Former overall title winner Craig Anderson with his Moody 336 Cool Bandit 2 won the Angus Meldrum Trophy for the best corrected time from Oban to Tobermory and the Iona Shop Trophy for the best corrected time over all the passage races.
It was a very tightly contested points series with consistent performers in the top three placings each day.
Sitting a close second behind Carmen II on 8 points were John MacKenzie's Stoirm Mhor (Class 3 winners) Steve William's Oceanis 440 Mystic Sun (Class 6 winners) and Cool Bandit 2 (Class 5 winners). Scott and Nicola Chalmers on Sunrise were only another point adrift with nine points and lifted the points series in Class 2.
Class 5 had seen great competition between major WHYW sponsor Boyd Tunnock MBE with his crew on Lemerac against Cool Bandit 2 across the week with all to play for on the final day. However Cool Bandit took the win pushing Lemerac, with a third place in the Tobermory to Oban passage race, two points behind into second place overall for the series.
Probably the most popular class win of the week was Marian Austin and her team on Scintilla of the Sea, the family owned Northney 34. Marian has been racing WHYW for 29 years and this is her first class win despite being a consistently top performer for each one of these years.
The much prized West Highland Yachting Week Family Trophy was awarded to Douglas Gray and his family on Aliz Motte, their Rival 34.
The Endeavour Trophy was awarded to the Sonata Serenity that had to retire and fix a popped shroud on Wednesday but made their way to Tobermory in the early hours of Thursday morning to continue racing in the series.
Both Gaelforce Marine and Nancy Black Oban donated prizes with Nancy Black's opting for the 'alternative' approach. The 'Wet Wallet' was given to Red October for the wettest £20 note received after a passage race! But the boat's sterling performance in every race across the series was being 'noted' as the smallest and arguably wettest yacht.
Their consistency, in adverse conditions for this size of boat, has won them admiration over the last few years that Red October has competed.
There was also a prize for Malindi of Lorn who celebrated her 50th birthday in tandem with the celebrations for Nancy Blacks's 50th birthday.
A Nancy Black's voucher for the best 'playpen' at WHYW was awarded to Seanachaidh for the number of youngsters aboard. Ruaridh from Sunrise was awarded a prize for his help on the first day of the series at Craobh Marina for getting the marks out to the committee boat. After being stuck on one side of the pontoon, the marks ended up in the water in the transfer and Ruaridh rescued each one, despite becoming very cold in the proceedings!
Overall, despite a drop in numbers associated with the change of date to avoid a clash with Scotland's Commonwealth Games, the consensus was WHYW 2014 was a great success. 'Everyone is looking forward to next year's event which will resume the normal date of the first week in August,' said Joint Regatta Committee organisers chairman David Waltho.
WHYW is sponsored by Tunnock's, Argyll and Bute Council, Tobermory Harbour Association and The Crown Estate and receives help in kind from Flit Self Drive and West Coast Motors. The race team is headed by Malcolm MacGregor as principal race officer with Philip Preston, race officer for the Argyll white sail fleet, when the fleets race separately.
Full results on www.whyw.co.uk