Scottish District IOM Traveller 2 & District Championship at Buchanness Radio Yacht Club

Scottish District IOM Traveller 2 and District Championship at Peterhead © Brian Summers

Fifteen skippers had entered the event from Buchanness, Aberdeen, Tayside, Kinghorn, Levenhall, Paisley, Greenock and Ayrbay. Many of the skippers from the south had to drive through atrocious condition of heavy driving rain, it was not looking good for Saturday.

Saturday dawned with dry and warm conditions with a gentle and at times a very light shifty breeze going from north-west to east which made course setting a headache for the race officer and his team, however, running the racing with two races back to back and a break the race team managed to fit in course changes, keep the racing going and present the skippers with new challenges throughout the event.

Twelve races were eventually completed which in the prevailing conditions exceeded the race team's expectations.

Race 1 was on the water at 10.05 and the skippers were met with extremely light northerly wind and the experience of Richard Rowan stood him in good stead as he gave a demonstration of light weather sailing and won by a comfortable margin, eventually getting second place for the day and winning four races.

Race 2 was won by relative new comer Stuart Teasdale who had a very good traveller 1 earlier in the year and showed he could handle and read the light conditions. Ending the day with one first and a very good third place overall.

Scottish District IOM Traveller 2 and District Championship at Peterhead - photo © Brian Summers

Race 3 was won by Ian Dundas Aberdeen but Ian did not get right into the event not his usual, ending in fourth place overall with two first places.

Race 4 was won by Brian Summers who won four races and eventually ran out winner by one point from Richard Rowan.

Race 11 was won by Richard Ennos sailing his own wooden built designed yacht.

The above proves that in radio sailing consistency is all and hanging in there. There was very close sailing all day and many races went right to the line making it difficult for the line judge to separate the finishing places of the yachts.

The event was sailed in trying conditions at times and working out the shifts was paramount. The race officer remarked which we hear many times "we never saw these conditions before in Peterhead".

Scottish District IOM Traveller 2 and District Championship at Peterhead - photo © Brian Summers

The event was sailed in a sportsmanship way with no protests all turns being done promptly.

The standard of sailing was very high with skippers speaking to each other but focusing on the conditions meant a lot of silent periods.

Good to see three new faces to Peterhead Stuart Teesdale, Stewart Cambell and Nick Slane all from Kinghorn RSC.

The racing was very close showing the yachts were very well matched and making the skippers work.

We in Peterhead hope we did enough to make the day worthwhile coming all the way up to the northeast of Scotland for one day's sailing.

Overall Results:

Scottish District IOM Traveller 2 and District Championship at Peterhead - photo © Brian Summers