North East Clubs 2007 Late Series Event 3 – Buchanness – 7th December 2007

Report by Ali Law

Eight skippers arrived at Peterhead for the last race of the late 2007 winter series. The race team comprised RO Colin Deakin and Scorer Colin Cawte – Ali Law assisted by manning the rescue boat and setting up the courses. Colin called the skippers for the briefing and outlined his plan of action for the day. All boats were starting off scratch and he would act as observer dispensing with the need for a bye boat – as it turned out all skippers behaved and resolved their infringements on the water.
At the start of the morning’s sailing the wind was about 2mph andS/W by S “just as the Met office predicted”. The course was a windward, leeward course sailed twice round. The start was at the north end of the reservoir and the finish line at the S/W end, this gave ample opportunities for tactical sailing and if a mistake was made, there was time to get back into the race. The sailing was extremely close and very exciting at times, as the boats converged at the marks. The course was a starboard rounding which meant you had to have your wits about you as you prepared to round. In the afternoon the wind slowly backed to a S/E direction and this did give the race team a headache as they tried to adjust the course, they eventually settled for a triangle sailed round twice which was different and added to the challenge.

Ian Dundas got off to a cracking start with his Stealth Mark1 winning the first race in light conditions. He was closely followed by Ali Law sailing a new wooden design from GB “which is still in the tuning stage “. Third was Steve Taylor with another of GB’s designs and this set the tone for the rest of the day. However, they did not get it all their own way. Bill Reid and John Owens had a good steady regatta and good middle of the road scores. Brian Robertson pulled off a win in race 10 and Colin Tait managed a win in race 9 which was very good as he had been away sailing full size yachts all summer. Peter Lowe also had some good results and showed a lot of promise for the future; he also has had a long enforced lay off.

Ian ran out a worthy winner on the day with Ali and Steve close behind. The race team did very well keeping the skippers on their toes and moving the racing along at a steady pace. The comfort breaks were taken every two races and coupled with the long courses and very close racing this worked very well. Everyone left with a smile on their face which ultimately is the test of a good regatta.

Overall Winner for the Late 2007 North East Clubs Winter Series was Ali Law who had won the first two regattas at Brechin in October and Aberdeen in November.

Final positions were:

Score Sheet