WET and altering conditions last Wednesday tested the nerves of all the competitors at Holy Loch Sailing Club, as the sailors battled the conditions to get out on the water.
In the five strong Piper class, all of the boats crossed the starting line together and struggled with the light conditions. The ever-determined Staypuff, led by Robert Towart, held her nerve well to lead at the first mark. After the second mark at Kilmun, however, the whole fleet turned itself inside out within 30 seconds, putting the bright orange Talisker in the ascendency before the season’s pacesetter, Tom Piper, settled down with some very astute tactical decisions and excellent spinnaker handling to establish a comfortable lead by the end of the first round. From then on, it was only a race for second place with class captain Iain Hurrel manoeuvring Billie into the runner-up spot behind the victorious team of Duncan Munro, Stuart Brown and Ali Gordon.
Elsewhere, only two Flying Fifteens raced. For the first lap there was no separating Ali Marshall in Trigger and Jim Maclean in Woffle, but Trigger managed to go up a gear in the second round to take a convincing victory.
Meanwhile, two white sail boats competed on Wednesday. Even though the racing on the water did not look very close, once the handicaps were calculated the results revealed a very close race, with Jim Hoey’s Judicious beating Nigel Scriven’s Moonlight by less than two seconds, rounding off another busy week on the water.
Piper results
1, – Tom Piper (Duncan Munro, Ali Gordon, Stuart Brown); 2, – Billie Piper (Iain Hurrel, Finn Hurrel, James Russell); 3, – Tamarind (Andy Love, David Bonnar, James Heggarty); 4, – Talisker (Jamie Rogers, Matilda McLaren, Neil McLaren); 5, – Stay Puff (Robert Towart, Charmaine Boyd, Caroline Clarke).
Flying Fifteens results
1, – Trigger (Ali Marshall, Mark Turnbull); 2, – Woffle (Jim Maclean, Mr Iain).
White Sail results
1, – Judicious J30 (Jim Hoey, Ralph Houston, Andrew Leech); 2, – Moonlight Sonata (Nigel Scriven, Chris Wilson, Mrs Wilson).
