Scottish District 2022 Travellers 2 at Buchanness Radio Yacht Club
by Ali Law 19 Jun 2022 07:20 BST
11 June 2022
Eight skippers from various club across Scotland entered the event. They represented, in the west Paisley MYC, in the east Kinghorn RSC and Tayside RSC in the northeast Aberdeen MYC and Buchanness RYC.
The forecast was for westerly 40 mph which would give the race team some safety concerns. Fortunately, on the day we had 30mph and from the south which removed our concerns. RO Colin Brown called the skippers for the briefing at 9:45 and the first race was on the water at 10:00.
The course was a windward-leeward with a long beat to the weather mark and a spreader taken to port while at the leeward end there was a gate. The start line was about twenty boat lengths upwind of the gate. There were three beats with the weather mark and spreader used as the finish line. As per the Scottish District SSI's, two races were sailed back to back with a short break between them.
Newcomer to the sport was big boat sailor Malcolm Davies sailing in his first competition. He was setting up his yacht when there was that dreaded electrical smell. A quick reaction averted a disaster but the yacht was retired before the event even started. Ali Law very sportingly loaned his 168 to Malcolm allowing him to sail. Ali ran about helping out where needed. Initially, all skippers chose the "C" rig - the smallest of the three available rigs. The course was very challenging for the skippers with a significant chop and strong shifty winds. There were gains to be made if you got it right but losses if you did not.
Race # 1 one was won by Stewart Campbell (Kinghorn RSC), sailing his K2 who won two more races during the day. Race # 2 was won by Bill Odger (Buchanness RYC) sailing his V9 who also subsequently won two more races. Race # 3 was won by Brian Summers (Tayside RSC) sailing his home designed and built wooden Buzz III which also had his homemade sails. From Race # 3 Brian took control of the regatta with an impressive show of good sailing reading the shifts that bit better than the other skippers. He ended the day with eight wins.
Throughout the morning the hard sailing conditions were beginning to find weaknesses in some of the boats. David Stewart (Tayside RSC) suffered a broken main-sheet which took several races to repair with the help of Ali Law. Also, John Owens' usually extremely dry boat was slowing and losing places throughout races as it was taking on water and needed to be emptied at the end of each race. (A subsequent battery change solved the problem. Why? Well, he had not secured the hatch properly and thus earned the "Numpty of the Day" prize!).
At lunchtime most of the skippers decided that the wind had eased sufficiently to fit the larger "B" rig. Initially, this seemed a bold move as some of the gusts during the downwind legs caused the boats to nose-dive unless judiciously sailed by the lee. However, as the wind further eased, this problem decreased. Following lunch, David Stewart was back on the water only for his jib sheet to fail. Following some quick first aid work this was repaired but then regrettably failed again which ended his racing.
Throughout the day, David Smith (Paisley MYC), Alan McKechnie (Buchanness RYC) and Malcolm Durie (Buchanness RYC) continued to fight the challenging conditions keeping the skippers at the top of the fleet on their toes. Nobody could afford to lose concentration.
The event was sailed in a very sporting way, there were no protests and it was very good humoured... the way it should be! An excellent exhibition of the best of radio sailing. On behalf of the skippers, the winner, Brian Summers, thanked the Buchanness race team for an extremely well organized and run event.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Skipper | Sail No | Design | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | R11 | R12 | R13 | R14 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | Brian Summers | 07 | Buzz III | Tayside RSC | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 19 |
| 2 | Bill Odger | 37 | V9 | Buchanness MYC | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 27 |
| 3 | Stewart Campbell | 50 | K2 | Kinghorn RSC | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 31 |
| 4 | John Owens | 33 | Corbie 1 | Aberdeen MYC | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 31 |
| 5 | David Smith | 89 | Zig‑Zag | Paisley MYC | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 67 |
| 6 | Alan McKechnie | 59 | Vision | Buchanness MYC | 5 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 83 |
| 7 | Malcolm Davies | 168 | Vision | Buchanness MYC | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 84 |
| 8 | David Stewart | 30 | Corbie 1 | Tayside RSC | 7 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 86 |