Scottish District 2019 IOM Travellers Series Event 1 at Greenock

Scottish District 2019 IOM Travellers Series event 1 at Greenock © Hugh Shields & Bill Terry

Eleven skippers from the north east corner and from the east central belt of Scotland travelled to Greenock for the first Traveller of the year in the face of an extremely adverse weather forecast - mean wind strength at number 3 rig level with gusts in excess of the limit for number 3, and heavy rain and snow over the day, with temperatures not getting above 4degC.

However, by the time the skippers were ready for the water, it was already looking like just a horrible day. Then over the course of the day, the wind strength dropped to number 1 conditions with gusts requiring changing to and from number 2 rig. And the sun came out as well! Even better, the mean wind direction from the WSW remained relatively constant and the initial windward leeward course set by the race team remained unchanged for the day.

So the racing started on number 2 rig and immediately it was apparent that Ian Dundas had a visible margin over the rest of the fleet. He achieved 5 firsts and a second out of 6 races. In this first period, only Tich Summers got in front of Ian while quite a number of other skippers shared the second places. Colin McGinnis finally came good with one of those seconds after keeping his number 1 rig on the boat in conditions where the boat could not quite carry that rig downwind.

Scottish District 2019 IOM Travellers Series event 1 at Greenock - photo © Hugh Shields & Bill Terry

From race 7 through to race 9, the wind dropped to an easy number 1 rig level but with heavy gusts that were causing problems downwind. It was noticeable that initially Ian didn't seem to have a good setup on his number 1 rig because he was in amongst the fleet at the first mark and couldn't quite pull it back, thereby scoring 3 of his worst results over the day. Tich Summers and Stuart Teasdale both took the opportunity to take a first place each, with Sandy Mackay putting in an amazing final run with an excellent short final beat to the take the third of the 1st places.

The final races of the day from 10 through to 16 started in number 1 rig but then a period of stronger breeze forced a change to number 2. The wind dropped again for the last few races but at this point, everyone remained on number 2 rig. The mean wind direction moved more into the west which resulted in many big shifts at the top of the course to the extent that it became really difficult to get a good final approach to the windward mark. It can been seen from the results that Ian got his consistency back and that Tich after a couple of very poor results, had a good run of 1st and 2nd places. Right at the end of the day, John Owens finally got his mojo back and nearly took 1st place in the last race - unfortunately just pipped by Tich on the final short beat.

In summary, the fleet had a good days sailing with conditions that weren't too extreme but which required a lot of skill to get it right. Towards the end of the day, the competition between Ian and Tich made for fascinating watching. However, the outcome was that Ian's better consistency over the day gave him 1st place overall with Tich in second. Stuart Teasdale, a relatively new recruit from dinghy sailing and sailing a newly acquired BritPop, came third just in front of Malcolm Worsley, another new recruit sailing a Buzz design built by Tich.

At the prize giving, Ian Dundas thanked the Reace Team and the Greenock club for laying on an excellent event.

Overall Results:

Race Team:

• From Greenock MY&PBC: Richard Rowan (RO), Ian Davidson, John Mason, Bill Terry, Hugh Shields
• From Paisley MYC: David Smith (Scorer)
• From Tayside RSC: Ken McIntosh