The Glasgow Grouse 2018
by Hugo Duncan 10 Nov 2018 06:34 GMT
26-28 October 2018
The Glasgow Grouse 2018 © Lindsay McCosh
With 24 teams and 4 flights of boats, The Grouse returned to Glasgow once again for its sixth year in a row.
Running up to the event, we saw a week of towing, boat repairs and attempts to deal with the GUU's tricky bouncers. Thankfully, by the Friday night everything was in place (including St. Andrews flight of boats, no thanks to their triple stacker). The typical Bardowie forecast was as ever present, with 10 knots gusting 15 on Saturday and a mind-blowing 0, gusting 1 forecasted for parts of Sunday.
With teams arriving from as far away as Northern Ireland, the Friday nights festivities started late but were none-the-less enjoyable for all.
Saturday morning arrived clear and cold but thankfully rain-free. With a quick rigging of all 24 boats and setting of the course, we were ready to start by 10am. With a favourable wind for half of the day, we managed to run 70 races until the wind dropped. It wasn't all bad news, however, since this gave everyone plenty of time to scrub up for the ceilidh.
Everyone donned their best clothing, from kilts to lederhosen and made their way to the GUU for a night of dancing. The evening quickly went the way that all ceilidhs do, with everyone getting involved in "The Gay Gordons" and attempting to launch each other as far as possible while dancing "Strip The Willow". As the Ceilidh neared to its end we celebrated in the only way we know how: by linking arms, singing Auld Lang Syne and running as fast as possible at each other. With only a few minor bumps and bruises (and one trip to A&E), we went on our merry way down to Hive.
Sunday morning rose and with it, not a breath of wind. With everything set up in plenty of time, all we needed was some wind. Keeping ourselves occupied with a few rounds of shoe golf and a few trips to McDonald's the wind finally appeared (however from the complete opposite direction to the forecast). Unfortunately, the little amount of wind we did have only stayed around for us to get another 18 races completed, leaving us with a total of 88 to decide a winner. By using a different system of racing than last year, we avoided the awkward situation of a drawn-out tie-breaking procedure.
And with that the Grouse was finished and done, a huge congratulation to the undefeated RNCYC who won the event followed by Edinburgh Import and Team Potato taking Second and Third place respectively.
A big thank you to all those that helped out, especially our PRO Craig Evans and the whole umpire team under the direction of Niall McLeod.
A further thank you to the Clyde Cruising Club Dinghy Section for their support and the use of Bardowie Loch, as well as our sponsors, Summer Sail Week, Sanctuary, Record Factory, Redbull and GUSA, whose support is vital to getting us on the water.
Hope to see everyone back again Next year! Find information about all of our sailing antics by checking us out on our social media accounts: