Jura Scottish Series 2025 - Day 2

Class 1 leader Something Else on course for a race win on Loch Fyne - Jura Scottish Series 2025 Day 2 © PKC Media

Brisk winds deliver unmissable, unbeatable sport on Loch Fyne - Holding on to the perfect scoreline is proving elusive

Among the 84 crews racing in ten different classes at Jura Scottish Series three teams count perfect scorelines so far. In the IRC Class 1 Brian Hall's J/109 Something Else has now accumulated five wins from six starts - discarding a second in Race 2. Neil Rosie on Madog remains unbeaten over four races. In IRC Coastal Ireland's Johnny Treanor's J/112e ValenTina has won both round the buoys coastal races. Meanwhile in the Etchells class Peter Judd and crew on Lock n Load halted the dominant Allan Manuel's winning streak, denying the 2024 overall champion a sixth bullet in the final race today, Race 7.

The bright sunshine and modest breezes of Friday's first races of the regatta may have been replaced today by moody skies over Loch Fyne, the dreich mist hanging over the Kintyre peninsula with the occasional drizzly interlude, but the fleet was rewarded by fantastic, short sharp racing across Loch Fyne in a brisk westerly breeze.

With puffy gusts to over 30 knots later and mean windspeeds hovering around 16-18kts, the sport was intense and very close, enhanced immeasurably by the use of robot controlled turning marks. Racing was physically demanding and any small sail handling mistakes often escalated to become more serious issues. It was, in essence, Loch Fyne at its best and on a day like this there are few better, more picturesque racing arenas in the UK. Flat water, shifty breezes, and for the majority of classes races which last around one hour, plus or minus, is an unbeatable recipe. And the forecast for the coming days has improved.

The six strong IRC Coastal fleet may be relatively small in number but it represents the crème de la crème, the biggest performance boats which generally have a high proportion of very good and successful sailors on board. Ireland's Johnny Treanor's ValenTina triumphed today on a long course of more than 25 miles. They were pushed hard today by Arran's Thomson brothers on the Swan 40 Sloop John T who were just 38 seconds behind on corrected time after just over four hours of racing.

Owner of one of the most successful boats at their major regattas at home in Ireland, remarkably it is Treanor's first time at Scottish Series, racing on Loch Fyne and - predictably - he is loving it:

"We are surprised to win today, obviously very happy, as it was so close. It was long course with a little bit of everything, from total calm to too much breeze. I think on balance today we pretty much got everything right. We had a few little problems with sail hoists but no major problems. Actually we were over the start line at the start and had to re-start and claw our way back into it."

Treanor added. "I am really enjoying the racing. I did want to come last year but the boat needed some work done on her and we missed it as it was not quite ready on time. It was down to a couple of days and so we were disappointed. But I am learning very quickly that Loch Fyne is a very difficult place t sail. There is very little consistency."

An additional challenge for the ValenTina crew en route to victory was looking after a crew member who dislocated his knee whilst hoisting the Code Zero.

Aboard the boat which won Cork Week outright last year North Sails Ireland's Maurice 'Prof' O'Connell helps keep the wheels on the bus. 'Prof' is back in Tarbert for the first time in five years.

O'Connell recalled, "We had plenty of variety, loads of sail changes. We had an A3 up, we had the Code Zero up, it was busy. The coastal races are brilliant here, there are so many sail changes, it is crazy at times. You have to be ready to change at any time and that keeps the crew really engaged. The coastal stuff here is really fun, really fun...good craic!"

And so Irish boats lead both of the top IRC Divisions as Brian Hall's J/109 Something Else took two more wins in IRC 1 to now hold an 11 points margin at the theoretical midpoint of the regattas. In the breezy conditions today the J/109s monopolised the top places.

Adam Ovington's successful, immaculate half-tonner Head Hunter is now well in front in IRC Class 2 after winning the first race today but then taking second behind Nick Marshall's J/92 Satisfaction in the second windward leeward. The boat is co-owned by Ovington and Nathan Batchelor of Ovington Boats. A Van de Stadt 1984 design which started life as a Hunter Boats HB31 RS, the team's main target this year is the Half Ton Cup in Torquay this summer. Winners here last year Head Hunter has an updated rig after breaking her mast in Ireland last Autumn in a collision in the first race of the IRC Europeans, Batchelor explains

"We had a great time last year winning our class and IRC overall. So after the mast broke we have had it in Ovington Boats over winter. We took 200kgs of weight out, we moved the engine forwards, new mast. So this year the boat is lighter with a bigger mainsail, we felt we had too much righting moment with a big keel. Today was the most wind we have sailed the boat in after only having it for eighteen months. We got two good race wins and then in the third race we saw 32 knots and we had a collision at the windward mark and had to do turns and then we had a big broach and we still finished second by only six seconds. It was close."

The boat is not short on talent, Batchelor steers, Adam Ovington trims the mainsheet, multiple Flying 15 World Champion Chris Turner trims, SB20 world champion John Pollard does tactics and Nick Craig does the pit.

"These 'tonner' type boats are such fun to keep evolving them and adapting them," Batchelor asserts.

Alan Dunnet's Swan 36 Valhalla of Ashton maintains top spot in CYCA Class 1 but the star of the show today was Richard Urquhart's International 8 Metre Spirit. They sailed two tidy races on the modern classic 1984 built Pelle Petersen design to win both. Finn Aitken's Impala 28 crew on Arcade are racing ahead in CYCA 2.

Murray MacDonald and the Autism on the Water team are putting together a strong challenge for the CYCA Restricted Sail class now having won three races in a row between yesterday and the first two races today. MacDonald does fantastic work with the charity organisation he founded to develop sailing opportunities for individuals with autism and the crew here are working well as a team and proving very competitive in their Impala 28.

A pristine pin end start was the launch pad to victory for Peter Judd and the Lock n Load crew in the Etchells fleet, staying ahead of the class leading Bounce Back which now counts five firsts and a second. In the Hunter 707 fleet Dara O'Malley's Sea Word won Races 5 and 6 today but the Tsunami 2 crew led by Nick Kirk have established a comfortable margin and look set to repeat the class win of last year.

Event website: www.scottishseries.co.uk
Full results: halsail-1e484.kxcdn.com/Result/Public/89362?EventID=5118