MYA Scottish District Wooden Hull IOM Championship at Paisley Model Yacht Club

MYA Scottish District Wooden Hull IOM Championship at Paisley © Bill Odger

A very healthy entry of 16 skippers attended this event with six being first timers. There were seven Scottish clubs represented with eight skippers who travelled from NE Scotland (Aberdeen & Tayside), three from East of Scotland (Kinghorn and Levenhall) and five from the West of Scotland (Ayr Bay, Greenock and Paisley).

A fantastic array of various designs showing beautiful craftsmanship were present from the popular Corbie and Buzz designs to the Alternative and Ska from the Brad Gibson stable. A Fatboy and the Equus were the remaining designs. The attendance of new skippers to the event and such an array of skilfully built boats is a testament to the health and interest in these beautiful and highly competitive wooden hull IOMs.

MYA Scottish District Wooden Hull IOM Championship at Paisley - photo © Bill Odger

Once all the boats had been checked and weighed, RO Gordon Allison gave a briefing and highlighted the huge interest in fast, competitive, wood-built IOMs and reinforced importance of the event. It was also noted that there would have been 17 boats on the water but David Smith had kindly dropped-out to be the scorer, run the fleet board and scoring software. This was highly appreciated by the fleet and David was roundly applauded for his sportsmanship.

The wind was westerly blowing 11-17mph and gusting 26mph. This is an unusual direction for Paisley but the RO managed to set a windward-leeward course albeit with three relatively short beats. This proved to be fair, competitive and very challenging for the skippers who had to deal with both light patches and some very strong gusts.

MYA Scottish District Wooden Hull IOM Championship at Paisley - photo © Bill Odger

Racing started at 11.05am racing in two fleets. Two skippers decided to start off in B suit and the rest in A suit. The first seeding race was won by Malcolm Worsley and the second seeding race by Steve Taylor. The event was then run with two fleets with four promote from B fleet and four demote from A fleet.

Once the racing was in full flow, both Steve Taylor and Brian Summers started to show their skill and handling and chalked up some good results along with Malcolm Worsley who showed great pace recording two bullets. All boats suffered from the fierce gusts and at times it was impossible to control boats when pitch-poling. If there was ever a test for build strength then this was it! Most, if not all, boats were flattened in the gusts at some stage with the skippers hanging on until the gust passed.

MYA Scottish District Wooden Hull IOM Championship at Paisley - photo © Bill Odger

With the 'four promote and four demote', it was not unknown for a skipper to be promoted to A fleet, immediately demoted to B fleet and subsequently promoted again - three consecutive heats! However, this was all taken in good spirit and showed the standard of the fleets and vagaries of the wind.

A slight course change after lunch and Ian Dundas, Robert Rooney and Stuart Teasdale started performing well but it was Steve and Brian who consistently recorded impressive results at the top. With only two general recalls throughout the 18 heats run, it was noted by the race team how disciplined the skippers were with infringements and everything was settled on the water which is the way it should be.

Final results showed that there were only 8 points between 3rd place and 9th place - very close racing indeed!

MYA Scottish District Wooden Hull IOM Championship at Paisley - photo © Bill Odger

Overall Results:

MYA Scottish District Wooden Hull IOM Championship at Paisley - photo © Bill Odger