MYA Scottish District IOM Travellers event 1 at Tayside Radio Sailing Club

by Brian Summers 11 Jun 2024 08:46 BST 18 May 2024

Fourteen skippers travelled from all over Scotland with representatives from Aberdeen, Buchanness and Tayside in the north-east, Kinghorn near the Firth of Forth, and Ayr Bay, Greenock and Paisley on the "west coast". Eleven different IOM designs were present in the fourteen strong fleet with construction types including seven wooden planked hulls, five fibre glass and two 3D printed boats.

On a very sunny day, the forecast was for a light easterly breeze but when the race team arrived, Forfar Loch was more like a mill pond with no wind. This year the Scottish District have put back the start time for their events by one hour to 11.00 to allow those travelling to start their journey a little later and to allow the wind to fill in which often happens later in the day.

Right on cue the forecast breeze started to appear at 11.00. Following the skipper's briefing there was a short delay to allow the wind to settle before RO Boyd Baird got racing under way at 11.15.

Tich Summers from the local club sailing his home-built Buzz 3 took the first two races in what were still light & patchy conditions. As the wind built to what became perfect sailing conditions for A rig IOM racing more boats came to the fore, with eight different skippers taking a first place showing the strength of the fleet. Races 3 and 4 saw wins by Malcolm Worsley and Ian Dundas respectively.

Race 5 was won by Gordon Allison, Race 6 by David Levison, Race 7 by John Owens and Race 8 was won by Ian Dundas. However, it was not all plain sailing for some with a number of race retirements to repair (or not!) various gear failures.

The wind held up well throughout the day and the fleet was blessed with warm sunshine. Fifteen races were completed with the last race finishing at 16.30 following a great day's racing conducted in a very friendly but competitive atmosphere.

Tich held on to take overall victory with Stuart Teasdale sailing his BritPop taking second place and, rounding up the podium in third, Ian Dundas sailing another home-built wooden boat which has a beautiful inlaid foredeck. Fourth, fifth and sixth were all on equal points requiring to be split on countback to the number of 2nd places gained. It was noteworthy that twelve skippers recorded at least one top 5 race result.

At the prize-giving Tich thanked the race team for an extremely well-run event and Forfar Sailing and Water Sports Club for again opening up their full facilities and providing exceptional catering throughout the day.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Boat Design	Skipper	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	R15	Pts
1	07	Buzz 3	Brian Summer	Tayside RSC	1	1	2	3	4	5	10	3	1	4	4	4	5	1	2	35
2	54	BritPop	Stuart Teasdale	Kinghorn RSC	3	4	3	7	9	2	5	2	9	2	7	5	1	3	3	47
3	138	Fatboy	Ian Dundas	Aberdeen MYC	6	3	7	1	3	7	4	1	2	6	2	2	8	9	8	52
4	86	Buzz 1	Malcom Worsley	Tayside RSC	2	2	1	4	6	3	2	5	8	7	9	1	11	6	7	54
5	85	Cheinz	Richard Rowan	Greenock MY&PBC	5	7	6	2	2	8	6	4	6	1	6	6	4	5	1	54
6	62	Alioth	Gordon Allison	Ayr Bay RYC	10	10	5	5	1	10	7	6	3	3	1	3	3	2	5	54
7	101	Corbie 5	Simon Thomson	Greenock MY&PBC	9	8	9	12	11	6	3	9	15	5	3	8	2	4	4	81
8	90	BritPop	David Levison	Tayside RSC	11	5	10	10	8	1	11	10	5	8	8	10	7	7	10	99
9	30	Alioth	David Stewart	Tayside RSC	4	11	8	9	7	4	15	13	7	11	11	11	6	8	9	106
10	63	Buzz 3	Bob Wilson	Tayside RSC	8	6	12	8	12	11	8	7	4	9	10	9	9	10	15	111
11	40	Alternative	David Redpath	Kinghorn RSC	13	9	11	11	10	13	9	8	10	10	5	7	10	11	6	117
12	33	Venti	John Owens	Aberdeen MYC	7	12	4	6	5	9	1	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	134
13	59	Vision	Alan McKechnie	Buchanness RYC	14	14	14	14	14	14	12	12	11	12	12	12	12	12	11	162
14	89	Corbie 4	David Smith	Paisley MYC	12	13	13	13	13	12	13	11	15	15	15	15	15	15	15	175