West Highland Yachting Week

West Highland Yachting Week - Days 5 & 6

by Alison Chadwick 4 Aug 2012 06:56 BST 28 July - 3 August 2012

West Highland Yachting Week action © Craobh

Light winds return for Regatta fleet (2nd August)

After the strong winds of the passage race to Tobermory from Oban yachts in the West Highland Yachting Week fleet found a complete contrast in the light and patchy winds off Tobermory. The fleet split again into the Tunnock’s spinnaker Fleet that raced a windward leeward course off Mingary Bay and the Argyll Fleet that raced round the spinnaker fleet to Ardmore, Quinish and the Ardnacross Bouy. With a shifting wind it was difficult to set the course initially and the wind did shift as the race went on for both fleets lightening away completely at the finish. With no predicted wind filling in Race Officer Malcolm MacGregor did not run a second race for the Tunnock’s fleet.

Jonathan Anderson and Murray Findlay’s secured their Class 0 lead in the new XP38i Roxstar whilst in Class 1 Iain Laidlaw liked the light conditions in his J97 Jaywalker taking the win from Roddy Angus in Misjif. John Watson’s Texa won Class 2 from the Chalmers’ Sunrise with a great battle going on in this class at the top. Another boat finding the conditions good for them was Richard Shellcock’s Delphia 24 Racer Knuts who won Class 3 from Steven Forteith racing Shadowfax and John MacKenzie’s Stoirm Mhor. Class 4 was taken by Hoodlum from Leomaris of Clyde and Mystic Sun.

In Class 5 and on course for an overall win was Leaky Roof II whilst Sigmatic took another win in Class 6. Revelry won Class 7 and the Fyfe’s Popcorn took another bullet and win in Class 8. The smallest boat in the fleet Findlay’s Clark’s Red October found her form to take a second. The beautiful McGruer built Malindi of Lorne took a well deserved win in Class 9 from Tom Wilson’s Seamaster 925 Smithereen and Judy Orr’s well sailed Eureka, a former overall class winner.

West Highland Yachting Week receives sponsorship support from Tunnock’s, The Oban Common Good Fund, Argyll and Bute Council, Tobermory Whisky, Tobermory Harbour Association, Caledonian MacBrayne, Scottish Fuels and the Crown Estate with help in kind from Flit Self Drive and West Coast Motors. Full Results on the website.

Exciting finish (3rd August)

It was a strong beat down the Sound of Mull to Lochaline for the West Highland Yachting Week fleet on the final passage race of the week from Tobermory to Oban sponsored by Thomas Tunnock Ltd.

With boats initially working the Morvern shore it then paid off to tack to the Mull Shore where tide and a wind lift made for significant gains. However the wind died on the last stretch from Inniemore to Lismore Light and the committee finished the fleet just off Lady Rock at the entrance to the Sound. It was a shy kite run to the finish for the Tunnock’s yachts with the second half of the fleet suffering little wind at all to drive them through the line.

Another win for the SP38i Roxstar driven by Anderson and Findlay secured the point series in Class 0 with just five points and tying them with Leaky Roof II in Class 5, both contenders for tonight’s overall trophy. Jeffrey and Scutt in Carmen II took second overall and Geoff Bowerman’s No Worries third.

John Murphy’s Sun Odyssey 49 took the silverware in Class 1 on the passage race from More Misjif and Roddy Campbell’s Windmark II and secured third overall in the series from Iain Laidlaw’s J Walker and More Misjif. Although dropping to a third on the passage race, Sunrise won the Class 2 battle from Texa with Lorca J in third place overall on points.

Winning Friday’s passage by ten minutes on corrected time John MacKenzie and the ‘Skye Boys’ took a second overall in Class 3. But the series belonged to Richard Shellcock and his talented sailing family who braved all conditions during the regatta to keep consistently up in the top placings and win their class.

A win in the passage race in restricted sail class 4 was taken by Mystic Sun from Hoodlum and Pandrop. This gave enough points for Williams and Johnson in Mystic Sun to finish second overall from Robin Ferguson’s Hoodlum with Leomaris of Clyde third on points.

The closely contested Class 5 with class racing saw a win for Alan Harper’s team on Leaky Roof II which gave them not only five bullets but an overall points series win and contention for the Peter Cocks Trophy for best in fleet. Oban Sigma 33 Amber Haze finished second in the passage race with Mark Taylor’s GK 34 Strike 3 third.

In white sail class 6 Jim Shield’s Slippi Jin won the passage to Oban and also the overall in class with Alan Dunnet’s evergreen Valhalla of Ashton finishing second and Oban yacht Nimrod third. On points overall for the regatta Donald McLaren’s Sigmatic was second and Valhalla third.

It was the Moody 336 Cara of Kip who took honours in the final passage race in Class 7 but over the week both Murray Caldwell’s Impala Revelry and Stevie Andrews new Supernova Pandanova both finishing on 15 points. On countback Revelry took the class overall in the series with Pandanova second and Stargazer third.

Class 8 saw a close fought finish between the Fyfe’s Popcorn and Dave Cooper’s Redwing with the final race seeing Redwing win to take the series by one point. Hot Toddy finished third overall on points.

In Class 9 Judy Orr’s Eureka also won the final race to take the points series by one point again from Malindi of Lorne with Smithereen third overall.

The winner of the Peter Cocks Memorial Trophy for the best overall performance of the regatta will be announced tonight at the final prize-giving in Oban.

Overall Results:

Class 0
1 Roxstar
2 Carmen II
3 No Worries

Class 1
1 Jaywalker
2 More Misjif
3 Erin

Class 2
1 Sunrise
2 Texa
3 Lorca J

Class 3
1 Knuts
2 Stoirm Mhor
3 Shadowfax

Class 4
1 Hoodlum
2 Mystic Sun
3 Leomaris of Clyde

Class 5
1 Leaky Roof II
2 Tangle o’the Isles
3 Strike 3

Class 6
1 Slippi Jin
2 Sigmatic
3 Valhalla of Ashton

Class 7
1 Revelry
2 Pandanova
3 Stargazer

Class 8
1 Redwing
2 Popcorn
3 Hot Toddy

Class 9
1 Eureka
2 Malindi of Lorne
3 Smithereen

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