Musto Skiff fleet at the Scottish Skiff Nationals at East Lothian Yacht Club

Musto Skiff Northern and Scottish Series at East Lothian © Natalie Hilton

A seventeen boat Musto fleet were joined by seven other skiffs to give a healthy fleet of 24 boats. The forecast looked fantastic however forecasters get it wrong as often as they get it right.

So, we had the Sunday as forecast and Saturday was, to be quite frank, a waste of a Saturday. We were on the water for over 5 hours and managed to get an abandoned race in and a counter which was, to say the least, pretty random. A land and sea breeze fighting made it hard work for the OD and mark layers. Paul Rigg won the race, Jono Shelley second and Ian Trotter third.

Sunday dawned with a lighter wind than forecast but at least there was wind. The second race was sailed in pretty tough and trying conditions and was won by Jono, followed by Jamie Hilton and Dan Trotter third. This was all about to change for the third race; the OD changed the course position and the wind arrived with a bang; in fact, the gusts were over 20 knots making it great fun and very testing.

The race being won by Dan Trotter, Jono second and senior Trotter third. Some boats had found it hard going and started to go in but the hard core stayed out and had a great fourth race.

The race was lead by Alistair Conn until an untimely capsize on the last run which left a Trotter 1-2 (younger first) and Jono third.

The final race was a hard-fought affair and a Trotter 1-2 was again the result with dad beating son; Josh Moran getting third spot. Jono Shelley was last seen knife between teeth hacking away at his spinnaker which is now helping the sea birds on Bass Rock as nesting material.

Overall a great weekend and a well-deserved victory for Dan Trotter. Many thanks to ELYC and Ben, the OD, who tried his best on Saturday but in his own words 'would have been better off staying in bed'.

Special mention to the 800 guys who sailed very well to get amongst the Mustos making handicap racing fun in the Scottish Skiff series.

Overall Results: