James Watt Dock Etchells Scottish Championship 2023 at Royal Gourock Yacht Club

by Colin MacDonald 9 Aug 2023 14:52 BST 5-6 August 2023

Royal Gourock Yacht Club hosted this year's Etchells Scottish Championship over the weekend of 5th/6th August which was sponsored by James Watt Dock Marina.

It was hoped to have up to four races on Saturday, however three races were completed in the light and variable wind conditions, apart from one vicious rain squall during race two which provided helms and crews with some challenges!

Races were won by Hero, Diablo and Gelert and the overnight leader was Hero (Geoffrey Howison, Dave Kelly and Euan Cameron) with 5 points followed by Diablo (Steve Cowie, Dane Ralston and Cameron Smith) with 13 points. Mayhem (Ian Marshall, Graham Dixon, Nick Russell) in third place. Notably all three of these boats have previously won these Championships!

After a successful championship dinner at RGYC on Saturday evening for over forty competitors and volunteers, the James Watt Dock Etchells Scottish Championship 2023 continued on Sunday. The forecast was for wind to fill-in from the West after 11:00am and it had been hoped to get two more races to allow each boat to discard their worst result. However, despite the Race Officer's (Rob Brown) very best efforts, only one race was completed in a reasonably steady Westerly wind between 5 and 10 knots.

Eccentric (Colin MacDonald) won the race after the early leader Bounce Back initially went for the finish instead of completing a third lap. Mayhem (Ian Marshall) was second and Gelert (Graeme Galbraith) was third. The overnight leader, Hero (Geoffrey Howison) finished 6th to secure their overall 1st place.

So after four races (no discard), the James Watt Dock Etchells Scottish Championship was won by Hero (Geoffrey Howison, Dave Kelly and Euan Cameron) for the fifth time and third time in a row, (11 points) followed by Mayhem (Ian Marshall, Graham Dixon, Nick Russell) in second (19 points) and Diablo (Steve Cowie, Dane Ralston and Cameron Smith/Willie Russell) in 3rd place (21 points), just pipping Gelert (Graeme Galbraith, Ross McNish, Mark Heuchan) with 22 points.

The Clyde Etchells Youth (18-25) Academy boat Extravaganza helmed by Thomas Goodman, who stood in for Jake Miller at short notice, finished in a very noteworthy 5th place out of the 16 boat fleet.

Many thanks to all the volunteers on the Committee Vessel and mark-laying RIB's. Thanks to Steve Cowie for lending his RIB. Special thanks to Rob Brown for being Race Officer and allowing his boat to be the Committee Vessel. Thanks to the Clyde Etchells Fleet for organising the event and to Royal Gourock Yacht Club for hosting the event.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
1	GBR1175	Geoffrey Howison	1	2	2	6	11
2	GBR1009	Ian Marshall	7	3	7	2	19
3	GBR1196	Steve Cowie	2	1	10	8	21
4	GBR1113	Graeme Galbraith	6	12	1	3	22
5	GBR1075	Jake Miller	13	4	3	5	25
6	GBR 1115	Tom Lang	3	6	13	4	26
7	GBR1227	Stephen Rarity / Alan Manuel	9	7	5	7	28
8	GBR1005	Colin MacDonald	4	10	15	1	30
9	GBR972	Andy Holmes & Peter Judd	8	13	6	11	38
10	GBR938	D & M Todd	5	11	12	13	41
11	GBR1173	Alan Gilkison	12	9	11	9	41
12	GBR1033	K Wedderburn & K Coupland	15	5	8	15	43
13	GBR1059	Ted Johnston	11	8	14	10	43
14	GBR845	Rod Stuart & Bill Ram	10	14	9	12	45
15	SUI 3	David Macnab	14	15	4	14	47
16	GBR 1266	Malcolm Offord	16	16	16	16	64