Musto Skiffs at the Noble Marine One Design Regatta Weekend at Largs Sailing Club

Jono Shelley at the Noble Marine One Design Regatta Weekend at Largs © Marc Turner

Largs' annual One Design Regatta Weekend included the Musto Skiffs for the fourth event of the hugely competitive Scottish & Northern Skiff Tour. The eight boat Musto fleet had a smaller than expected turnout, with many regulars being tied up elsewhere. The good news was many heads were spared the notorious disco bus!

Saturday

Greeted with traditional west coast weather (rain, sprinkled with some more rain), the fleet headed out to a stable 10-15 knot south-westerly and a scheduled 4 races. The RO started racing very promptly, and it looked like it was to turn into the Jono (Shelley) and Jamie (Hilton) show.

Thankfully, Largs provided enough wind shifts to keep them on their toes, with Ian Turnbull and Euan Hurter implementing the Scottish rendition of 'Bangin' the Corners' and sneaking through on the first race's second beat. Turnbull's Specsavers subscription had obviously run out, as he crashed into a rib on the racecourse while in the lead, breaking the rack of his borrowed boat. I'm sure his swear jar is now swelled enough to pay for the next family vacation...

Hurter managed to hold off the rapid homeboy hero, Shelley, to win the megamarathon first race (1hr 15min), with Bob Yeamans in third showing his good pace on return to the fleet. The rest of the day saw the return of the Jono and Jamie show, however, not everything went their way. In true fine form, Turnbull managed to make the start for the second race (after borrowing a rack from an unused local boat), looking no slower and scalping a second place in race 3 away from the J&J pairing.

The RO did, kindly, shorten the races from megamarathons to marathons, with races up to 50min. Seldom can the athletes of the Musto fleet race for longer than 40 minutes without needing to stop for a chocolate bar (or beer), but fear not, we mostly survived, and went on to help keep Largs' coffers in fine health, as the club provided a stellar evening that was awesomely attended by all the fleets at the event.

Ian Turnbull in the Noble Marine One Design Regatta Weekend at Largs - photo © Marc Turner

Sunday

With all to play for, we were greeted with 14 to 18knots SW, and another west coast weather day (for goodness' sake, do they seriously not get sun on that side of the country?!).

The J&J show continued, but Josh Moran, veteran Trotter, Turnbull and Hurter were all chomping at the bit showing the closeness and competitiveness of the fleet. It was a day where small mistakes scattered the dreams of those hoping to move up the leaderboard.

Turnbull obviously hadn't found the right glasses, as he hit the top mark while leading in race 6. In the same race, Hurter decided to make a temporary profession change to underwater aerobics. Shelley retired in race 5 as he forgot how to rig a spinnaker, and having witnessed Hurter's venture, tried a bit of the submerged activity too.

By the final race, it really was survival of the fittest, with many breakages happening: Hurter's tackline, Turnbull's motivation, Trotter's body...

The remaining boats carried on flinging themselves around the course duelling it out for the 'King of Largs' title. Even with the pressure from a rapid Shelley, Hilton remained the cool, collected, fox that never seemed to make too big a mistake, taking another two bullets and the overall win.

A massive thank you to Largs Sailing Club and their teams for running another fantastic event, and congratulations to Jamie Hilton for putting together a championship performance to take the win.

The next Scottish and Northern Event is at East Lothian Yacht Club (North Berwick) on 4/5th June. Hope to see you there!

Overall Results:

Winners Hurter, Hilton and Shelley at the Noble Marine One Design Regatta Weekend at Largs - photo © MSCA