IOM Open at Paisley Model Yacht Club, Barshaw Park
by David Smith 3 Apr 2013 13:53 BST
30 March 2013
Paisley IOM Open - Northern Ireland's Brian O'Neill makes up the rear at the leeward mark from Bill Lees, lead by Robert Rooney with Bob Hughes in second © Gordon Allison
This event, initially due to be held on Saturday 23rd March was wisely postponed for one week in the light of a forecast of appalling weather including blizzard conditions in Northern Ireland and South West Scotland. So on Saturday 30th March seventeen intrepid radio sailors arrived on a bright, dry, cold morning to a partially frozen pond.
PMYC were delighted to welcome skippers from as far North East as Peterhead and as far South West as the North of Ireland.
The initial Nor-Easterly wind suggested that the ice needed to be cleared before racing commenced so some icebreaking took place on the South side of the pond, but thankfully during the process the wind swung to South-Easterly and an ice-free course was able to be set for the seeding race.
With a long beat diagonally across the pond visibility of the windward mark proved a bit of an issue for some, but the top skippers coped well and it was Richard Rowan, Bruce Davidson, Ali Law and Robert Rooney who were early candidates for the A heat for Race 2.
A further wind shift allowed a course change, meaning skippers could follow the racing from the East bank of the pond and this was generally welcomed.
Ali Law, Bruce Davidson, Brian Summers, Drew Taylor, Richard Rowan, Robert Rooney and Bob Hughes did enough to stay in A heat for the third race.
The early morning's constantly shifting wind now chose to blow more or less from the East and so the course area was moved to the Southern bank of the pond where the early ice – now melted - had been. Thankfully for the very busy race team its direction settled somewhat for the remainder of the day.
Wind strength always remained comfortably in top suit, although it still tended to vary slightly from the settling Easterly direction but with its pressure rather fluky at that – the effect of passing over high ground and trees upwind to the East of the pond.
Ali Law and Robert Rooney took the lead in Race 3 while Bruce Davidson and Richard Rowan shared 1st's and 2nd's in races 4 and 5 either side of lunch. Brian O'Neill of East Down Yacht Club had a busy day bobbing up and down between B heat and A heat, and like many of the competing Scottish skippers, was unable to find consistency in the tricky conditions.
Races 6, 7 and 8 saw Ali Law and Robert Rooney sharing the first places with Bruce Davidson there or thereabouts while Richard Rowan had an uncharacteristic run of lower place finishes.
Ali Law took Race 9 from Robert Rooney and Richard Rowan. The veteran One Metre designer Hugh Shields, comfortably won both B heat and A heat of Race 10 to much acclaim with his latest McShee with Richard beating Bruce into 3rd place with Ali 4th. Brian Summers, making a bit of a comeback, came 5th with Robert finishing 6th.
Brian, along with Drew Taylor, Bob Hughes, Ralph Knowles and David Stewart all had some good finishes but still could not manage to consistently remain in the A heat.
Relatively small changes in wind direction took place during the afternoon and the race team did change the course from port rounding to starboard rounding to compensate for this; it caused no particular problems at the windward and wing marks but an 'auto-pilot effect' at the leeward mark caused some skippers to pass on the wrong side, having to retrace their path. Sadly this happened in Race 11 and the leader, failing to correct his route, had to retire after finishing.
After a full day of short and highly intense races the top positions were very close.
Ali Law and Robert Rooney finished joint top with 21 points each. Ali took first place, as on count back he had four first places to Robert's two, claiming this to be his first ever win at Paisley! Bruce Davidson was third with 22 points and Richard Rowan fourth with 25 points.
Thanks are due to the Race Team of Gordon Allison, Terry Allison, John Mason and David Smith, for their smooth running of the event in very difficult conditions, and also to the skippers for their good spirit of sportsmanship generally taking their penalty turn promptly. There was just one formal protest.
The club very much looks forward to welcoming you all again next season.
Forthcoming events hosted by Paisley MYC:
- Scottish District R6M Championships on 13th April 2013 at Barshaw Park.
- Scottish District IOM Championships & Travellers 2 on 11th & 12th May 2013 at Castle Semple