Bell Lawrie Scottish Series - Final

by Media on 30 May 2006 Anthony O'Leary and his Royal Cork YC crew of the Corby 36 Antix today won the Bell Lawrie Scottish Series Trophy for the second time in three years, being judged the top overall performer at the 191 boat, 13 class regatta.

O'Leary and his team notched up six wins and only dropped to one second place when they lost crewman Stuart Curtin overboard during Saturday's first race. He was rescued within two and a half minutes and they fought back to a placing which proved their discard result.

With the average windspeeds across the four days of racing rarely below 18 knots and regular gusts and squalls to 30 knots it has been one of the most memorable Scottish Series regattas for many years. O'Leary and his crew have won the Irish IRC National Championships, the UK IRC National Championships and have triumphed at every event they have entered for the last year and a half with their 10 year old boat.

'We are just delighted. The conditions have been just fantastic. The boat loves a breeze and the more it gets the better it seems to go. We had great racing in our class with, I think, three past winners of this fantastic trophy in our fleet and 20 plus boats it was just great.' Smiled O'Leary as he was photographed on the Tarbert harbourside with the magnificent trophy.

With just six points accrued over the four days of racing they were one of the lowest scoring boats in the fleet, but the judges also considered their approach and the standard of sailing in what was certainly the most competitive class at the regatta.

Their win takes the run of Irish victories for the Bell Lawrie Scottish Series Trophy to three after Tim Costello's Dublin Bay based Tiamat won Class 1 last year.

IRC Class 1, the big boat class, was won by Jonathan Anderson's First 47.7 Playing FTSE. The class went to a three way final showdown between Playing FTSE, the class leader Jaru, a J133 sailed by a mainly English crew for a Clyde owner, and the defending Scottish Series trophy holding Tiamat. Whoever won the final race would be assured of the class win. Jaru lost their spinnaker over the side after they had to drop it when it became tangled on the first downwind leg. In contrast Anderson and his team sailed a faultless race to win and clinch the series.

'This has been some of the best sailing ever for us. Some of the wins have been down to just seconds and it is a ringing endorsement for the IRC handicap system which manages to handicap different boats so well. We need a bit of breeze and the crew sailed really well.' Said Anderson.

In IRC Class 3 Bengal Magic, an evergreen J-35 from Carrickfergus owned by Chris Ferres, was in contetntion for the overall trophy until their final race when they upset their run of victories with a fourth place in the first race today. Their final aggregate was six points too, but with three past winners of the overall trophy, Class 2 was considered to be the toughest class at the regatta.

Other standout performances included Steve Goacher and his young crew on the Sonata class winning Eric The Boat. 1993's overall trophy winner was never beaten over the nine races the 17 boat class sailed. He had expected to be sailing a First 36.7 this week in IRC Class 2 but his hopes of competing against O'Leary's crew were dashed when the boat was wrecked on rocks off Stranraer whilst being delivered to Loch Fyne.

In the Sportboat Class it was also a former Scottish Series winner who triumphed with his regular core team with whom he lifted the top award in 2001 and 2002. Hamish Mackay borrowed a J80 Jazolino to win the Sportsboat fleet with a race to spare.

That was a feat matched in the 1720 Class by Graeme and Ruairidh Scott on their locally based Tarbert boat King Quick. They did not have to race today having already clinched the class win.

Results:
IRC Class 1:
1 Playing FTSE (J Anderson) 10 points,
2 Tiamat (T Costello)12,
3 Jaru (G Hutchinson) 19,

IRC Class 2:
1 Antix (A O¹Leary) 6,
2 Rosie (R Dickson) 12,
3 Salamander XVIII (J Corson) 21,

IRC Class 3:
1 Bengal Magic (Moorehead/Ferres) 6,
2 Cactus Jack (N Spurr) 14,
3 Equinox (E McDonald) 18,

IRC Class 4:
1 Thirty Something (Hall/McDonnell) 12,
2 Xebec (T Giles) 14,
3 Shadowfax (B Forteith) 16,

CYCA Class 6:
1 Exile (G Ratter) 11,
2 Blyth Spirit (M Blyth) 15,
3 Guilty (D Clow) 21,

CYCA Class 7:
1 Cara of Kip (G Goudie) 15,
2 Shoki (J McDougall) 15,
3 Piecemaker (S Hamilton) 17,

CYCA Class 8:
1 Meteor (L Jacobsen) 6,
2 Nimrod (C Evans) 14,
3 Hopscotch (R Brownlie) 15,

CYCA Restricted Sail Class 9:
1 Zara of Doon (Wilson/Lyall) 10,
2 Hansebacker (P Watson)11,
3 Kacana (L Johnston) 14,

CYCA Restricted Sail Class 10:
1 Mersonary (R Angus) 8,
2 Swedish Lady (B Curran) 15,
3 Chimaera (G Baird) 25,

Sigma 33 Class:
1 Carmen 9 (P Scutt) 17,
2 White Mischief (T Goodbody) 20,
3 Sigmatic (D McLaren) 21,

Impala 28 OD Class:
1 Hooch (M Caldwell) 10,
2 Bambi (P Doig) 20,
3 Orrkid (A Orr) 24

National Sonata Class:
1 Eric the Boat (S Goacher) 9,
2 Pied Piper (A Harper) 28,
3 So (McLure/Stewart) 36,

Cork 1720 Sportsboat:
1 King Quick (G Scott) 11,
2 Buddy White (C Frize) 17,
3 Lemon (C Galavan) 29,

Sportsboat:
1 Jazolino (H MacKay) 20,
2 Carpe Diem (Patience/Ross) 41.3,
3 Prelude (E MacKay) 43