East Coast Sailing Week at Royal Tay Yacht Club - Overall
by Marjory Knowles 1 Aug 2006 08:28 BST
23-28 July 2006
Action from the East Coast Sailing Week at Royal Tay Yacht Club © Ross Will
The first race of this years’ East Coast Sailing Week took place between the Tay road and rail bridges as part of Dundee’s summer festival with plenty for spectators to watch with the boats sailing close to shore. Conditions were ideal for the forty yachts with a light westerly and plenty sun which kindly stayed for the week.
Monday’s weather was to set the pattern for the week with the westerly fighting the sea breeze. Monday saw two round the cans races with Peter Howell in Jezebel beginning his dominance of Division 1 with Nick Spurr in Cactus Jack close on his tail. The Sonatas obviously liked the conditions in Division 2 with locals, Fiddlers Three (Dave McCreadie/Ross Will), Serenity (Chris Dawes) and Cinnabar (Gareth Martel) from Strangford Lough all contesting the lead.
It was an early start for the twenty five participating yachts on Wednesday when they set sail for the passage race to the Bell Rock in a light westerly. Before long the first of the yachts had radioed in that they were retiring as the wind had died away and conditions were not pleasant. It was then decided to take the committee boat down river and think about shortening at a predefined mark of the course. The committee boat headed out of the river with eventually a yacht being seen in the distance and it was decided to finish the race at the South Lady Buoy. Cactus Jack finished the race within thirteen seconds of the nine hour time limit, two more boats, Shotgun 6, Dave Morgan and Dream Maiden; David Hendrick finished an hour later with only seventeen seconds between them.. Although another six boats had rounded the Bell Rock there were no more finishers. While this was going on the Squibs had a close race with Sandy Bremner just beating Brian Summers by half a boat length.
A stronger easterly greeted the sailors on Thursday for the next round the cans race in good conditions although some of the sailors were distracted by the magnificent display put on by the dolphins. Alison Bell (Sunderland) in her recently purchased Sonata took Division 2 with Smithereen , Tom Wilson (R.Forth YC) taking Restricted Sail with Brian Summers getting his revenge on Sandy Bremner in the Squibs.
The final race on Friday which saw the class order reversed was a down river race in a light westerly and again the wind conditions played a big part in this race. By the time the boats had reached the Lady Buoy the easterly breeze had kicked in and picked up slightly. The two Melges, Risky Business and Auf Weidersehen Pet from R. Northumberland had fought their way to the front only to see the back enders getting an easterly breeze and catching up. The race was shortened about Broughty Castle in very little breeze with most of the fleet finishing together, a nightmare for Dorothy Ramsay and her experienced race team but all were correctly recorded.. a most enjoyable week was had by all.
Overall Results:
Div 1
1st & ECSW Trophy – Jezebel, P.Howell, PEYC 7pts
2nd. Cactus Jack, N.Spurr, R. Northumberland Y.C. 17pts
3rd. Auf Wiedersehn Pet, K & P. Murray R.Northumberland Y.C. 21pts
Div 2
1st & Courier Trophy, Cinnabar, G.Martel, Strangford Lough Y.C. 10pts
2nd Fiddlers Three, D.McCreadie /R.Will, R.Tay Y.C. 17pts
3rd Serenity, C.Dawes, R.Tay Y.C. 18pts
Restricted Sail
1st & Veitchi Trophy Smithereen, T.Wilson, R.Forth Y.C. 9pts
2nd Kiri, Hamish Sutherland, Cramond B.C. 19pts
3rd Sirus, G.Noonan Forth Corinthian Y.C. 24pts
Squibs
1st & Glamis Trophy, Alkypops, S. Bremner 9pts
2nd Cousin Boneless , I.Gardiner/ B.Summers 14pts
3rd Wave length, A.Stewart, 22pts
Tennents Boat of the Week
Cinnabar, G.Martel
Duke of Edinburgh Trophy
Cactus Jack. N. Spurr