Stewart Brewing RS400 Scottish Tour Event 2 at the Largs Sailing Club Harken One Design Regatta
by David Linton 29 May 21:48 BST
18-19 May 2024
Stewart Brewing RS 400 Scottish Tour Event 2 at the Largs Sailing Club Harken One Design Regatta © Glenn Andrews
The weekend of the 18th/19th of May saw Largs Sailing Club host 6 fleets for the Harken One Design competition encompassing two days of scheduled racing totalling 8 races.
The event included the second Stewart Brewing RS400 Scottish Tour Event of the year which accounted for 5 entries out of the total 50 boats on the water. The D Zero Scottish Championship was also up for grabs as well as ILCA 6, 7, Aero and RS 200s closely competing for their fleet’s top step.
Whilst the weather across the weekend was for clear skies and lots of sun, the wind strength was inherently low on the coast resulting in tricky conditions for race one on Saturday. The start saw a split in the fleet with three boats opting for the pin end and taking advantage of the slight bias available. The Robertson’s second event in light airs this year allowed them to again demonstrate their ability to extract the best from the 400 and resulted in the win with Angus and Imogen Marshall crossing the line in second.
With no further sailing to be conducted, competitors were welcomed ashore by the team of volunteers both out in the dinghy park and in the club house where some cold Stewart Brewing beers could be enjoyed in the beautiful weather and views over the water from the lookout lounge of the club.
Largs Sailing Club, in a bid to ensure all competitors enjoyed their evening, had organised a catered meal within the club house with the bar open for refreshments after a long day in the sunshine.
With many eyes on Sunday’s weather and sadly forecasts not look promising a fleet of five diminished to three for the Sunday racing with the Robertsons and Mclellans opting for land based activities. For the three teams that stuck around however, patience through postponements on Sunday morning eventually paid off as wind filled from the south of the firth and racing commenced around noon in a fairly steady southerly wind of 4-8 knots.
There was thankfully enough time for the race officials to conduct three races on the Sunday and some very close racing was seen between Mike/Alan and David/Zoe with Angus and Imogen unstoppable and stretching out comfortable leads in all three races to take home gold for the event. Mike and Alan managed to hold off David and Zoe in all three races and secured themselves a second-place result in the standings with David and Zoe in third. Stewart and Hannah finished in fourth thanks to the Saturday win, Neil and Alastair relegated from third on Saturday to fifth overall.
Thanks to Largs Sailing Club for a well organised and exciting event, to Harken for sponsoring the regatta and to Stewart Brewing for their sponsorship of the RS400 Scottish Tour series.
Overall Results:
Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Pts |
1st | 768 | Angus MARSHALL | Imogen MARSHALL | Dalgety Bay SC | ‑2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
2nd | 1294 | Mike GRANT | Alan BIRSE | Largs SC | ‑4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
3rd | 691 | David LINTON | Zoe LINTON | Largs SC | ‑5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
4th | 1463 | Stewart ROBERTSON | Hannah ROBERTSON | Royal Forth YC | 1 | (DNS) | DNC | DNC | 13 |
5th | 1523 | Neil MCLELLAN | Alastair MCLELLAN | Dalgety Bay SC | 3 | (DNS) | DNC | DNC | 15 |