2025 Series 2 Race 5

It was a quiet week at the Holy Loch sailing club with no Tuesday evening dinghy racing. However, it was close racing in three of the four fleets on Wednesday evening.

Pipers

In keeping with the very high standards which have been set so far this season in the Piper Class, last Wednesdays exciting effort was certainly no exception …… and possibly the best so far.

In ideal moderate westerly winds, the start was a closely contested affair with Robert Towart’s judgement with a port tack start giving Staypuff the edge on the short leg to the first mark at the head of the Loch. The rest were in close order, however, and at the end of the first round regular front runners Billie and Tom Piper had come to the fore with Alan Waugh makling an appearance as a guest helm  Andy Love’s Tamarind also in contention.

The race progressed with these four boats in the hunt throughout, Iain Hurrel’s Billie keeping a slight advantage until a slight misjudgement at the very last mark gave Fergus Campbell, Stuart Brown and Ali Gordon the nod in an infringement resulting in a penalty turn by Billie. Even then, however, the result was not decided as the customary sprint finish by Tamarind up the final leg pulled her into a very close runners up position behind Tom Piper, the first four boats finishing within seconds of each other.

This result ties up the Series for the Tom Piper crew with four first places and one race still to run and is a fitting reward for her overall consistency this season.

1^st         Tom Piper – Fergus Campbell

2^nd         Tamarind – Alan Waugh

3^rd         Billie Piper – Ian Hurrel

4^th         Stay Puff – Robert Towart

5^th         Leander – Jim Campbell

Dinghies

There was close racing in the dinghies this week with only seconds separating the top three boats once the handicaps were applied.

1^st         Home Brew - Albacore – Peter McWhinnie

2^nd         All the gear – Laser Radial – Harris Munns

3^rd         Painted Warrior – Contender -Neil Wilson

4^th         Killer B – B14 – Fin Hurrel

White Sail

It was close racing again in the white sail fleet, with Moonlight close on the heels of Judicious for most of the first lap. Judicious slowly pulled away for the remaining two laps, but her lead was not enough to win after the handicaps had been applied.

1^st         Moonlight - Sonata – Nige Scriven

2^nd         Judicious – J30 – Jim Hoey

Flying Fifteens

With most of the Flying Fifteen fleet awaiting repairs after last week’s excursion to Gourock, only one boat made it to the line.

1^st – More Mischieff – Chris Bowen