Scottish Toppers at Clyde Cruising Club, Bardowie

Scottish Toppers at Bardowie © Peter Brown

On the 28th and 29th of August, the Clyde Cruising Club Dinghy Section hosted the first Topper Traveller of the 2021/22 Series at Bardowie Loch.

28 Toppers took part, with 17 boats racing in the main fleet and 11 competing in the regatta fleet. On Saturday morning, when the sailors arrived, there was very little wind but towards the start of the first race the breeze filled slightly before dropping during the third. By the end of the day four races had been sailed in beautiful sunny weather with Ben Homer and Ruari Herrington swapping first and second places to end day tied with Ruari just snatching the lead on countback.

On the second day, the wind remained light but held on just long enough to finish another four races. Ruari and Ben remained in the lead but with the rest of the fleet close behind, both Emily Shearer and Thomas Looseley managed to get a 2nd place each. After eight races Ben took first overall with Ruari close behind and Thomas in 3rd place. Sophie Kennedy in her first topper event was top girl in 4th place

The regatta fleet had a great two days, with close racing and top quality coaching from Pete Collings, thanks to RYA Scotland for helping with funding for this. Peter gave lots of useful tips and pointers to the less experienced racers. After eight races, Coire Chalmers Thomson finished first, with Sean Hempsey in second and Andrew Vella in third.

Thanks to the parents and helpers in the kitchen who provided delicious lunches for all of the sailors as well as to the race officer and volunteers who managed to get through all the scheduled races in very light wind conditions. Thanks also to Sailingfast for supplying the prizes and most of all, thank you to Clyde Cruising Club Dinghy Section for their hospitality and hard work putting on a fantastic weekend of sailing.

The next 2 events for the Scottish Toppers is the RYA Scotland class collective training hosted by St Mary's Loch SC lead by Abbie Hewitt on the 18th/19th September. The following weekend is the RYA Scottish Junior Championship at Loch Tummel Sailing Club.

There will be coaching support again at this event to help any class newcomers.

Overall Results:

Main Fleet (top five)
1st Ben Homer (DBSC) 7pts
2nd Ruari Herrington (Largs SC) 9pts
3rd Thomas Looseley (St Andrew's SC) 20pts
4th Sophie Kennedy (ASYC) 26pts
5th Rebecca Shearer (CCCDS) 27pts

Regatta Fleet (top three)
1st Coire Chalmers Thomas (CCCDS) 13pts
2nd Sean Hemsey (HLSC) 18pts
3rd Andrew Vella (DBSC) 21pts