Zippy Zero at the Largs Chandlers Harken One Design Regatta 2025

Start of race 1 - D-Zeros at the Largs Chandlers Harken One Design Regatta © Gordon Cochrane

Greetings from Zippy the D-Zero, weary from my 516 mile round trip to Largs at the weekend. It was the yearly spring one-design regatta, sponsored by both the local Largs Chandlery and Harken, who make my sleek, efficient body parts.

I arrived on Friday afternoon, to a windless Clyde: a theme that would pretty much set us up for the weekend. But hey, the sun was shining, it was very hot for Scotland in May - 22 degrees and the boat park was filling with boats from across the country.

A group of three ILCAs had travelled the 415 miles over 18 hours from the Shetland Islands. I rushed over to say hello and they greeted me in their local dialect, asking if I was the Fil Sket they'd read so much about. I rushed away to consult my compendium of Northern Scottish Obscure Boat Languages, to discover that means "High Spirited" but also includes a bit of mischief too. Och Aye, I think that's me alright.

More boats arrived; from Aberdeen to Tewkesbury, the Solway, Loch Ryan, Loch Earn, Oban, the Medway and Stokes Bay. By Saturday, there were 57 boats on the slipway preparing to launch and head off to two separate racing areas.

Me and my clan of eight other D-Zeros set off to the North course where a light and jaunty zephyr had established itself. We had been issued with the first start, jointly with the seven ILCA 7s. After a short delay, a quadrilateral course was set up for us by RO Steve Thompson.

Then we started to search for clear and consistent wind to get us away from the fleet. After a mid-line start, Jon Bassett took the lead, with Ian Baillie and Niel Ritchie not far behind. I was fourth to the windward mark after bagging the pin end start.

On the reaching leg, I went high looking for the wind, but Finley Briggs went low, closing the gap and passing me and Ian on the running leg. Still leading, Jon looked back anxiously as the following pack closed his lead on the short-lived gust of wind from behind.

Further back, Ruary Williamson from Dalgety Bay had been messed up on the start by the ILCAs and was now engaged in battle with Richard Bryant from Annandale.

On the second lap Jon increased his lead, sailing smart and fast by spotting the patches of wind. I kept up with the chasing group, burning up the turbo booster on the downwind leg to sneak into 3rd place behind Niel and chased very closely for a winning three-way photo finish from Finley and Ian.

Windward mark in race 2 - D-Zeros at the Largs Chandlers Harken One Design Regatta - photo © Gordon Cochrane

Race two followed shortly after, with the same course and slightly more wind, but patchier and hole-ier.

on led from Ian and Niel at the first mark and I caught up downwind to round in third behind Niel after the first lap. After the leeward mark. Niel tacked off and fell into a huge hole; conveniently led there by Jon, who had tacked away just before it. Finley was challenging me for third place and put in an extra tack, which worked against him as the wind shifted in my favour by the mark.

I held onto second place, closing on Jon and increasing the distance from the chasers on the downwind legs. The boats behind were close to each other in two groups, with local Largs helms Calum McCrindle and Stuart Moss battling for eighth and ninth place in the tricky light wind conditions not so suited to their style of sailing.

The wind died away as the last boats finished and we boats headed home for a shower and chat, whilst the Owners enjoyed the warm sunshine with beer and excellent pizzas collected from the Courtyard Bistro.

D-Zeros at the Largs Chandlers Harken One Design Regatta - photo © Liz Potter

After a night of windy, cool Easterly breeze, we woke the next morning to a now-familiar view of no wind, very little wind in the wrong places and the little wind disappearing back to no wind.

The Race Team decided to get all of us hungover boats out of bed and our even more hungover Owners kitted up in wetsuits in the hot morning sunshine. Then the flags went up and down and up again and the wetsuits came on and off and on. The youth played in the water on the slipway and they finally abandoned the racing for the day.

That meant Jon Bassett was crowned our winning D-Zero fleet with two firsts. I managed a second place with my Owner, Liz Potter. In third was Niel Ritchie. A special mention to our youth sailor Finley Briggs in fourth place, racing his brother's boat for the first time. Awesome job Fin!

In fact, the youths were well represented across all the fleets, with fourteen Under 18s competing over the weekend.

Thank you to my heroine Julia for organising everything as usual. She really is a star. Thank you to the sponsors, to the ROs, rescue boats, results teams, bar staff and the teams who prepare the RIBs, anchors, flags, crew lunches. Its an endless ask from many, many volunteers and we love you all dearly.

Thank you, my fellow competitors, on the water and off. It's a pleasure to be with you.

Until next time,
Zippy Zero 333

Overall Results:

Finley Briggs races against Niel Ritchie in front of the 'Waverley' - D-Zeros at the Largs Chandlers Harken One Design Regatta - photo © Finn McDermott