707 Sprint Slam Event at Port Edgar Watersports

The brilliantly organised Sprints Slam event, orchestrated and sponsored by Port Edgar Watersports, was a new format of short course racing for the competing eleven boats of the highly competitive 707 fleet.

Held over two days on the Forth out of Port Edgar the basic principle was to have many races of 10-20 minutes in length over small windward/leeward courses which rewarded sharp starting, quick hands in spinnaker work and as few collisions/rule infringements as possible, as there was no time to recover from such errors.

Moderate to light breezes prevailed on the Saturday and the tide caused some interesting moments on a heavily biased port and committee boat end line. There were, however, no port end flyer heroes as the line was short and no-one wanted to make a mistake.

After 8 races (yes, that's 8 races in one day..) and with no discounts applying until the end of the series, it was tight at the end of Saturday with More-T-Vicar on 20 points, Blue Funk was on 21, Beaver Hunter 22.

Knowing the rules helps in the 707 Sprint Slam at Port Edgar - photo © Rory Marland

Saturday night had a free bar! For those of you who do not know what that means, then perhaps 707 sailing is a bit too much fun for you. JP from PEW needs to maintain his relationship with co-sponsors and Edinburgh based, Stewart brewing. We hope the excellent beer is now well recognised across the UK. It was certainly savoured and appreciated.

Sunday started off with light winds but the gusty conditions forecast soon arrived and caused some exciting racing and plenty of shouting. The boats were so tightly packed at the windward and leeward marks that keeping out of trouble was a challenge. The tide set in to catch boats unaware at mark roundings and many boats set off up the second beat with spinnakers only half way down.

As the gusts increased broaching became common place especially if the gybe to the gate had been left late and the tide tightened the angle so boats were overpowered as they try to reach into the mark.

Gusty conditions during the 707 Sprint Slam at Port Edgar - photo © Rory Marland

Nine (yes that's 9!) further races were run and much praise should be given to the Race Officers, Margaret Tait and Paul DePonio and team, for keeping the whole event slick and professional. Quick race turn around, rapid course relaying or mark selection all added up to tremendous, full on, non-stop racing and happy and exhausted crews. I think that we actually forgot to have lunch..

Consistency was to pay and the Team from More-T-Vicar had an outstanding day, and event, with no finish worse than a 3rd. A further 9 races were run which gave a potential of three discards out of 17 races, and it's not bad to be in a position to discard a 4th and a 5th out of all of that, but most of their positions were 1st and 2nds.

The Valhalla boys were also doing well in the windy conditions with an exceptional three firsts in a row on the Sunday. A good end to the season for this young but keen crew.

It was also great to see new teams from trainees of the PEYC camp and also others deciding that this was an event just not to be missed. Many had rented boats and the new helms included in Breaking Wind - Jack Mitchell/Brendan Lynch, Malarkey - Tara Coldwell-Brock and in Bangers & Mash Dave McLachlan. There was some tight and skilled sailing from them in these tricky conditions and hopefully we can encourage them to do the same again or indeed invest in what is becoming the most competitive, and fun, sportsboat fleet in Scotland.

More-T-Vicar win the 707 Sprint Slam at Port Edgar - photo © Rory Marland

Paul Gray (Beaver Hunter) and his young team from Burnham flew up, rented a boat and were back for Sunday evening clutching their second place winnings – a travel format which we hope could work for a number of the Forth based events for next year, for crews from all over the UK.

Thanks once again to Port Edgar Watersports for organising and sponsoring the event and Saturday night sponsors JP Watersports and prizes from Stewart brewing.

Overall Results: