Artemis Sonata Nationals at Helensburgh Sailing Club - Day 2

Local boats ‘Fiddlesticks' and ‘Jazz' approaching the downwind mark during racing on day 1 of the Artemis Sonata National Championships © Kevin Lynch

Day 2 of the 2015 Artemis Sonata class National Championships turned into a Race Officer's nightmare. As forecast the wind had turned through 180 degrees from day 1 and was blowing from the northeast. Easterly winds often mean shifty and gusty winds off Helensburgh.

Indeed, no sooner had Donald McLaren got the team to lay out the marks for race 1 and the wind shifted to the south-east and the course had to be abandoned 5 minutes before the gun. After a hasty re positioning of buoys the race got underway with Steve Goacher from Royal Windermere repeating his race 1 success from the previous day and taking first place.

However, 2nd and 3rd places went to some new contenders – John Mills from Royal Gourock in "Old School", and Murray Caldwell from Cove SC in "Red Hot Poker". It was a similar story in race 2 with the same 3 boats in the top places.

The Race Officer and his team continued to struggle with the wind shifts for the rest of the day, with the wind round in the south at one point, before moving back into the northeast.

Exactly as forecast, the rain started in mid afternoon and with it, the wind rose to produce some very exciting racing – but also, unfortunately, a flurry of protests in race 3 to keep the jury boat busy, and yet another headache for the Race Officer. Still, passengers with starboard-side cabins aboard the Royal Princess cruise liner moored at Greenock for the day will have had a grandstand view of the proceedings.

The protest in race 3 took some sorting out. In the end Tim Flatman in the local boat 'Fiddlestocks' emerged as the winner. The rest of the fleet were given redress in the form of points awarded by the protest committee, with Guy Neville and his crew from Craignish BC leading the redress group.

At the end of day 2, Steve Goacher from Royal Windermere extended his overall lead on points. However, Murray Caldwell from Cove moved up into second place, with Joe Cross from Poole and David Matthews from Sunderland hanging in there in 3nd and 4th places.

Back ashore, the competitors were fed homemade chilli from the Helensburgh Sailing Club galley, followed by gin tasting, and the chance to compete for top-spots on air guitars.

However, the crews will need to save some energy for Monday with a challenging weather forecast – north-easterly winds gusting to 35 mph and heavy rain. All to sail for though, with a good number of boats still in contention for the top places.