Once per year the club holds the Gantocks Race, giving crews the opportunity to race from the Holy Loch to the Gantocks Rocks and back. A fleet of seven boats were up to the challenge this year. Only two Pipers contested this race but significantly, they were the best two this season and they proceeded to provide a very competitive race, leading the massed start of yachts and dinghies down the Loch in a very purposeful manner. Thereafter there were barely three boat lengths separating the two as they swapped the lead to the first mark at Strone side by side. Tom Piper took the lead at this mark with her depleted crew of Fergus Campbell and Stuart Brown and they held their narrow advantage over Ian Hurrel’s Billie to and from the turning mark at Dunoon Bank. With only the final leg from Strone to the finish line at the Holy Loch Sailing Club, the outcome looked promising for Tom Piper until a slight wind change allowed Billie to gain the advantage which allowed Iain to grasp a narrow lead which he and his crew, Graeme Murray and Lorn Campbell maintained to record a victory by seconds to win the Royal Marine Trophy.
Team Gonzo was the only boat to enter handicap dinghy race this year. With Jamie the normal helm away, Neil McLaren moved to the back of the boat and his daughter Matilda, filed in at the front. All the fleets had a mass start just after 2pm and headed down to the first mark, the South Cardinal mark off Strone. Team Gonzo hoisted the spinnaker and cruised our downwind, dropping it just before reaching the buoy. They headed up and made their way up wind to the only other mark on the course, the East Cardinal mark close to the Gantocks Rocks. Dodging the ferries, the lone dinghy crashed their way through the waves and gusty wind. On the way back down wind to the Strone mark, they decided to just use 2 sails due to the gusty conditions and inexperienced crew. Turning around the mark it was another beat up wind to cross the finishing line in front of the club house. They might not have been as fast as others, but they stayed above the water, had a good father daughter time and won the handicap trophy, you have to be in it to win it.
Pipers 1st Billie Piper 2nd Tom Piper
Flying Fifteens 1st Efficacious
Whitesail 1st Moonlight 2nd Judicious 3rd Panache
Dinghies 1st The Great Gonzo
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