Scottish District IOM Championships at Paisley Model Yacht Club

Scottish District IOM Championships prize giving (l to r) Gordon Allison, John Owens, Ian Dundas, Councillor Gilmour & Steve Taylor © Richard Ennos

The Scottish District IOM Championships and Travellers 2 event were held at Castle Semple Lochwinnoch on Saturday 11th Sunday 12th May. Paisley Model Yacht Club were the hosts of the event and an entry of 25 was expected. Boat failures and the prospect of getting truly soaked due to the horrible weather meant a few skippers called off.

The skippers arrived for registration / measuring early on Saturday morning only to be greeted with a strong breeze and heavy rain. Not the weather expected in May!

Race Officer Gordon Allison gathered skippers for briefing and set a windward, leeward course with a leeward gate. The skippers were divided into two seeding fleets to establish A & B fleet racing throughout the day.

There were big decisions to be made for the skippers whether to sail with the number 1 rig or change down to number 2 rig. Most stayed with the number 1 rig which proved to be fruitful for Steve Taylor from Aberdeen who won the first 2 races sailing a Britpop, John Owens and 2012 champion Ian Dundas, both also sailing Britpops were close behind in the first few races.

Brian Summers, sailing a completely self built Buzz design soon found form and started to challenge the popular Britpops. This all provided very close racing. Good starts, tactics and studying the wind shifts were paramount in order for skippers to maintain fleet position. Other skippers doing well were Richard Ennos, Pat Johnston, Richard Rowan and Bruce Davidson.

Half way through the morning session the race team had to contend with moving marks. The water level at the loch had obviously risen due to the rain downpour and began drifting from their position. A couple of races had to be shortened due to this but the boatmen sorted it out without too much disruption.

Lunch time gave everyone a well deserved break from the rain and everyone dried out as much as they could.

After lunch it was proving very difficult for skippers to stay in the A fleet as competition was proving very hard indeed. Skippers with hard chine boats had the advantage as they could stay with the number 1 rig while others changed down to number 2. Almost all B fleet skippers managed to get up to A fleet at some point in the afternoon which showed there was plenty of competition.

There were no formal protests at all during the day which meant that racing flowed very well. This was of great credit to the skippers. Racing finished at 16.30 by which time the weather improved a little.

Sunday morning saw the arrival of Irish entries Brian O'Neil and Gilbert Louis. These two skippers had travelled over from Belfast on the early morning ferry and began a 2 hour drive from Stranraer and arrived at Castle Semple at 4.00am!

Sunday racing would also include the Travellers 2 event.

The skippers were gathered for a short race briefing at 09.15am and were subjected to more rain and a strengthening wind from the south west which provided a suitable course which the race team hoped would last throughout the day.

As on Saturday, two seeding races were constructed to provide A and B fleets.

Ali Law sailing a Britpop won the first 2 races convincingly followed by Brian Summers. Brian's self built boat was proving to be more than a match to the Britpop design which showed everyone what can be achieved in this class. However, it was clear early on that the boats who could sustain the number 1 rig would reap the rewards as most other skippers found it very frustrating to change down and find the wind lessened and vice versa.

The Irish skippers were having mixed fortunes, from bad starts and rig failures to finishing high up the A fleet and wining B fleets. Nick Cowern, sailing his newly delivered Kantun which he had only just rigged, found it hard to find the best set up but did seem to perform on certain legs. David Stewart sailing his Viper performed better on Sunday, as did Ralph Knowles, Hugh Shields, and Gordon Neil who managed to get his TS2 going.

Again, during Sunday racing, there were no protests at all and all skippers showed impeccable discipline by taking their turns without fuss, although there were a many recalls at the start due to the close competition.

At the end of a very wet weekend of racing, the north east contingent provided the top 3 positions for both the championships and the Travellers 2 event. This was headed by Ian Dundas who won by 10 points from his club mates, Steve Taylor and John Owens.

Prizes were presented by the manager of Castle Semple - Charles Woodward and local Councillor Gilmour. The Scottish district chairman, race team and skippers also thanked the centre for use of the facility and the wonderful staff they have who provided fantastic assistance throughout the two day event.