Stewart Brewing RS400 Scottish Tour at Aberdeen & Stonehaven Yacht Club

Stewart Brewing RS400 Scottish Tour at Aberdeen & Stonehaven © Colin Davies

Stewart Brewing RS400 Scottish Tour at Aberdeen & Stonehaven © Colin Davies

With a full year lost, it was good to get a season opener up at Aberdeen and Stonehaven over the weekend of 29/30th of May.

Obviously lockdown has affected many of us, and it seems that one of the side effects to the Robertsons was that they now turn up on time to events, and managed to get their boat rigged before anyone from the club turned up, and were very pleased to get a space inside the dinghy park for once. The other traveller to the event seemed to have different issues, and misjudged the length of his mast. We will confine his mishap to the 2020 season, for good order.

It was maybe a good job there was a small fleet for the training day that was planned, being run by Stewart and Sarah. The issues with a sea breeze in the north east is that it often brings the haar in. There was just enough visibility to set a small training course very close to the beach. The wind coming over the headland at the entrance to the harbour provided tricky conditions for the training, with a couple of unintended splashes. Once ashore, there was a quick debrief before the BBQ was lit. A good socially distanced social was held, but the first defective equipment was noted that evening by Neil, who reckoned one of the wine glasses had hole in it due to how quickly it was draining.

Sunday, and the haar seemed to get a bit thicker, with visibility reduced even further. A quick discussion was held after the obligatory bacon rolls, and a decision was made to pack up and head to the club's other sailing location at Loch of Skene, some 15 miles inland. Upon reaching the new racetrack, it was likened to a different country with a warm Force 3 coming in from the south east corner of the loch.

Stewart Brewing RS400 Scottish Tour at Aberdeen & Stonehaven - photo © Colin Davies

A quick rigging and all were on the water for the first of the 6 planned sprint races. Race 1, and it was looking like situation normal at the front of the fleet until the Robertsons were caught out with a typical Skene shift, forcing them to tack, and started heading backwards at the windward mark into Neil and Ewan. This left a gap for Bob & Nadia to sneak into the lead. Stewart and Sarah then fought back to take the lead again, before Neil & Ewan found a good gust going the other way to sneak through for the win at the finish. Donald and Jamie kept close to the leading trio to finish ahead of Andy and Naomi.

Race 2, and another tight start. Something must have distracted Stewart, and he slipped the mainsheet for a rare error, ending up dunking himself in the tea coloured water. This must have woken him up, and he charged through the fleet to take the second race.

Stewart Brewing RS400 Scottish Tour at Aberdeen & Stonehaven - photo © Colin Davies

The start line was re-positioned for race three to extend the races to a lengthy 12 minutes. This time Bob & Nadia managed to find a private gust on the race track to sneak past the leaders and get the win. Stewart and Sarah taking 2nd by less than a metre from Neil and Ewan, in the closest finish of the day.

With the slightly longer beat, it seemed to settle things down, and the Robertsons finally shaking off their rustiness and heading for 3 further wins to seal the event. 2nd place was still up for grabs until the final race, where Neil and Ewan just claimed it on last race countback from Bob and Nadia. Andrew and Naomi came 4th, with Donald & Jamie in 5th.

As usual, we would like to thank our sponsors Stewart Brewing for their continued support, and also to the team at ASYC, who managed to adapt over the weekend with the change in venue to provide a good social and good racing.

Next stop on the tour is to Largs on the 12/13th of June, which is this year's Scottish championships, and forms part of the larger national Rooster tour.

Overall Results: