Kelpies Cup Races and Three Bridges Cruising Muster 2026 at Port Edgar Yacht Club

Kelpies Cup © Linda Cooper

In 2013, the entrance to the Forth and Clyde Canal was marked with a pair of 30m high monumental steel horse heads - the Kelpies. To commemorate this, Scottish Canals donated The Kelpies Cup to the Forth Yacht Clubs Association (FYCA) to encourage sailing in the Forth Estuary.

The Kelpies Cup event underwent a bit of a revival in 2025 and now has really taken off in 2026 with a composite event hosted at Port Edgar Yacht Club (PEYC) near Edinburgh involving yacht cruisers, plus yacht and dinghy racers. A grand total of 51 boats in all with visitors from all over the East coast of Scotland coming from clubs as far afield as Anstruther, Arbroath and Dunbar; with short stay berthing at Port Edgar sponsored by the marina, FYCA and PEYC.

Blackness Castle from the cruise - Kelpies Cup Race at Port Edgar - photo © Rob Hemesley

The Yacht Race

The idea was simple, a race on the Forth, to connect two famous Scottish landmarks from the shadow of the celebrated Forth Rail Bridge, racing west on the flood tide towards the stunning Kelpies statues at Grangemouth.

Jim Scott, RO for the Yacht fleet, aided by Paul Deponio, planned staggered starts in handicap groups with the aim of the whole fleet rounding a navigation buoy at slack water to return with the ebb tide and finish back at Port Edgar. Results would be split into the two FYCA divisions based on a 975 handicap split. The course and start times would depend on the wind strength and direction, so had to be decided on the day.

On the day, the weather was kind - fickle but kind. Light, shifty winds and dry, sunny conditions (despite an 'iffy' forecast) foretold a fine afternoon's sail. With 8-10 kt of WSW wind forecast, the Boness buoy was selected and start times announced at 11:30. Then the wind died to almost nothing at 12:00 and a much shorter course to the Blackness buoy was set in time for the first start at 13:28, just when the wind started to pick up again.

A hint of the Pursuit Race starts of old!

Group C race start - Kelpies Cup Race at Port Edgar - photo © Dale Sandercock

A total of 21 yachts in handicap groups A-D started at 8-min intervals on a close fetch upriver in light conditions with the wind coming and going, before becoming a beat as the fleet neared the Blackness buoy.

The lead 707 from group C caught up with group B yachts just after the turning mark. The return leg was a spinnaker reach as the wind picked up, with faster boats having to stay high to get past. The lead 707 overtook group A yachts that had sailed close to the south side just as the wind backed to the south and became too tight for spinnakers. 'Thin Ice' took line honours, with half the fleet finishing in the next 5 minutes.

The FYCA Div-1 race was won by the 707 'Thin Ice', owned by Tim Seed and skippered by George Scrivener from PEYC, they also had on board the furthest travelled crew who came from Cleveland Ohio, but we suspect not specifically just for the Kelpies Cup. Second was Walter MacDonald's 707 'Old School' and third, Stewart Shearer in Mojito, another 707.

FYCA Div-2 went to the Salty Dog 'Louise' skippered by Andrew (Pud) Gibson of Forth Cruising Club, followed by Kenny Wilson's Salty Dog 'Valkyrie' from Burntisland SC. Third was Seb Hascilowicz who had opted out of the dinghy racing for the day to sail with the yachts in an ILCA 6 (Laser Radial). A long way for a small boat.

The overall combined result for the Kelpies Trophy went to Andrew Gibson with 'Louise'. Interestingly, 'Louise' was sailing off the lowest handicap in the entire fleet so, it's congratulations to Andrew. Second in the overall race was another Division 2 boat and sailing off the second slowest handicap, was another Salty Dog, so, congratulations too to Kenny Wilson of Burntisland SC.

The finishing time between the two yachts was a mere 7 seconds but handicap differences made that into 41 seconds. Thin Ice from Division 1 took 3rd in the overall combined result. Prizes of the drinkable variety were sponsored by Stewart Brewing of Edinburgh

Preparing for a race start on Hardslog - Kelpies Cup Race at Port Edgar - photo © Pawel Szymaniewicz

The Cruise

Just over half of the 42 yachts taking part in the event were cruisers, with boats ranging in size from "Scherzo", a Leisure 17 to "Catspaw", a 38 ft Prout catamaran. A few intrepid skippers came down from Anstruther and Arbroath Another (wo)manfully battled adverse tides and strong winds, from Dunbar reporting 38 knots of breeze on the way. Many stayed overnight in Port Edgar Marina and enjoyed the social life as well as the sailing. They enjoyed it so much the barman had to call out for an emergency restock of the rum supplies.

Saturday morning started with a parade of boats motoring down the river, led by PEYC club yacht Eurobo under the Forth Rail Bridge and round the island of Inchgarvie. After returning up river, yachts set sail, hoping to reach a local harbour at Blackness or to explore further up the river.

Predictably none of the weather forecasts had agreed, offering wind speeds from 5mph to Force 5. In practice this meant hardly any wind at all to begin with. The fleet therefore drifted or motor sailed upriver for the first hour or two. Several boats moored or anchored at Blackness and went ashore to enjoy the club's well-known hospitality. Others carried on up-river towards Grangemouth and the Kelpies.

Around 2PM there was enough wind to sail, and the cruise fleet could see the racing starting in the distance from Port Edgar. Eurobo reported that after the parade they drifted up to Blackness with more tide than wind, where they anchored. Then, whilst waiting for the Blackness BC Ferry to get them ashore the wind piped up so they put sails back up, lifted anchor and sailed to the Kincardine Bridge 13 miles upriver before coming back on a close reach to get back to Port Edgar just in time for the BBQ and prize-giving.

The wind continued to increase throughout the afternoon, with some sizeable gusts, so the return to Port Edgar was much brisker than the outward journey and our local friendly dolphin came to greet us as we came back into the harbour.

Thanks are due to Judith Bull for co-ordinating the cruise fleet.

Harbour Escort - Kelpies Cup Race at Port Edgar - photo © Harris Tait

The Dinghies

Over in Queensferry Bay, the Dinghy RO was also trying to second guess the wind. Like many clubs, PEYC runs much of its dinghy racing from a shore based starter's box and a set of fixed marks. However, once a month, dinghy racing moves into Queensferry Bay with a committee boat start, and traditional Olympic style courses using laid marks. This was one of those days.

Fortunately, as boats appeared in the bay, the wind filled in, first from the West but then oscillating all afternoon at 10 - 12 kn between South-West and South. In a North facing bay, this makes for some challenging shifty and gusty conditions.

Race 1 was a starboard hand rounding triangle course with the leeward mark set offshore as far as the bank before the main channel would allow.

John and Kate Mucklow - Kelpies Cup Race at Port Edgar - photo © Linda Cooper

A lull in the wind 30 seconds before the start meant a few boats were a bit late at the line but the wind was soon back, and boats split tacks to the windward mark. Alex Asyunkin took his Blaze well to the left, which was a good choice as the flood tide would lift him to the mark. John and Kate Mucklow in their RS200 went right with the windshifts.

At the top mark there was not a lot in it. On lap 2, the five Supernovas caught up a lot and at the end of lap 3, Pete Sykes' Supernova came in first just 1 second ahead on corrected time from Alex's Blaze. Results were close with just 5 seconds per lap separating the first four boats.

Gordon Dickson - Kelpies Cup Race at Port Edgar - photo © Linda Cooper

Race 2 used a Windward Leeward course. As the wind kept veering temporarily towards the west, favouring the committee boat end, it was quite busy there.

Sykes and the Mucklows were amongst those who, having been bitten by arriving late in race one, naturally arrived early just in time for a strong WSW gust and were seen belting down the line to start well down wind of the rest of the fleet. Reading the wind shifts was key and after four laps Pete Sykes and Calum Robertson in Supernovas were well ahead, accompanied by Rhys Gorman and Robyn Phillips in the RS400.

Pete led by a few seconds at the last leeward mark but he and Calum split tacks on the way to the line, crossing it at opposite ends. Hoot...Hoot went the committee boat, and both sailors congratulated the other one for crossing first, it was that close.

Race 3 went back to the triangle course, only two laps this time as the BBQ would be lit soon. Calum stormed ahead in the Supernova and Rhys' RS400 helpfully identified the worst of the gusts by capsizing and forewarning the fleet. Calum and Alex crossed the line together with Pete 20 seconds behind.

We owe thanks to Simon and Cath Bryant (usually in a Scorpion or a Mustang 30) and Linda Cooper making up the committee boat team and to Martin Crook and Graeme Smith on RIB.

The Social Side

Post racing, Gerry Fitzgerald and his team put on an excellent barbecue in the evening sun and racers and cruisers alike swapped notes on the day, commenting on the "accuracy" of the various weather forecasts and resolved to pray for a nice consistent F3 Westerly prevailing wind next year.

And finally, Linda Cooper, our ex-Commodore put in hours of work co-ordinating three very different facets of our sport into one superb event with 51 boats and around a couple of hundred people. We owe her a great many thanks.

The Big Tent - Kelpies Cup Race at Port Edgar - photo © Anna Mitrovic Kotuckova

Dinghy Results:

Yacht Race: