2025 - 3 and 4 June - Tuesday evening (2) and Series 1 Race 6

This week saw the final race of the first series of the season. After racing over thirty members enjoyed a barbecue and a gossip.

White Sail

As Jim Hoey's J30 Judicious, and Nigel Scriven's Sonata Moonlight, were on equal points going into the last race of the series, tonight would be the decider. At the start no one could cross the line on starboard, so all boats started on port tack. Despite the bias on the line, and starting at the starboard end, Judicious could still lay the first mark and, in getting more breeze further out, secured first place round this mark, with Duncan Chalmers' Atia not far behind, and Moonlight hot on their transom. Leading this downwind leg, Judicious was first into a stronger breeze, and stretched out a good lead to the Strone mark. Atia and Moonlight swapped places down wind until Atia rounded the lee mark just ahead of Moonlight, justifying the marginal difference in their handicaps. The beat back up the loch was marked by gusts and shifts, testing sail plans and boat handling skills. Judicious appeared to stretch her lead, while Moonlight gained an advantage over Atia at the end of the first round. The order remained the same until the end of the race, but the handicaps would be crucial in the final stages. Judicious was within close sight of the finish line when an encounter with the Tom Piper forced her to take a crash tack to avoid the right of way Piper. This was followed by some unhelpful wind shifts, lulls and moored boats making it difficult for Judicious to get going again, and losing precious time. Meanwhile down at Lazaretto Point, the swinging, but gusty and strengthening, wind gave Moonlight the chance to gain some speed and climb towards the finish line, leaving Atia behind in the process. Come the finish, and handicap reckoning, Judicious's lead proved insufficient, and so the race win, and with it the series went to Nigel Scriven's Moonlight, by 48 seconds. The time difference was enough to stay ahead of Atia, by the similar margin of 50 seconds.

While both Judicious and Moonlight ended the series with 5 points each, after taking account of discards, because Moonlight won the last race that they both sailed in, the series went to Moonlight, and illustrating how close the racing is in this class.

Pipers

With the Hinge Trophy already wrapped up for Fergus Campbell, Stuart Brown and Ali Gordon’s Tom Piper, the final race of the Series may have had an air of anticlimax about it, but with the lower placings still wide open, there was plenty to sail for and this was evident by the closeness of competition in the early stages. Tom Piper looked to have established early prominence as the boats began their long beat back from the leeward mark at Strone, but some clever tactical decisions by skipper Iain Hurrel brought Billie back into the mix as Andy Love’s Tamarind also challenged the leader, and a well anticipated lift in the wind direction gave Billie the edge at the end of the first round. As the shifty, but otherwise fresh breeze continued to test the concentration of the

competitors, Iain’s crew of Graeme Murray and Lorn Campbell continued to hold off their challengers with some slick crew work for the rest of the race to secure a well-earned runner’s up status in the Series. Tom Piper held off the, by now customary, strong final sprint of Tamarind with a very clever , and spectacularly exciting finish for viewers in the Clubhouse, forcing two boats to ( very) narrowly avoid her, entailing penalty turns, to take second place.

Overall Series Results: 1st, Tom Piper - F. Campbell. 2nd, Billie Piper - I. Hurrel. 3rd, Tamarind - A. Love.

Flying Fifteens

Two Flying Fifteens made it to the start line. More Mischieff sailed by Chris and Marion Bowen were a bit enthusiastic, and the flooding tide carried them across the start line early and they had to return and restart. However, by the first mark they had managed to overtake Tommy McGeachie and in Efficacious gradually extended their lead, winning the race. This was not enough to win the series, and the series honours went to Tommy.

Dinghies

Only one dinghy took part. Pete McWhinnie and Archie Munns in their Albacore had a good race on the water against the Flying Fifteens showing good speed down the first reach, but his win was not enough to take the series which was won by Neil Wilson in his Contender, with Peter and Archie as runners.

Tuesday night dinghy racing

Four dinghies turned out on a gusty evening for the second race in the series. Harris Munns in his Laser Radial made it two wins from two races. Further back an epic battle developed between Fin Hurrel who early in the race had a comfortable lead over Darcy Cameron who made huge gains on the final lap. In the end Fin took second place, but Darcy was only seven seconds behind.