Local sailor wins again

Ian Baillie won the RS300 Fat Face Scottish Championship for the second year running

Dalgety Bay Sailing Club was the scene of the Fat Face sponsored RS300 Scottish Championship, included as part of their annual regatta on the 20-21 May. Over the cool and showery weekend in light to moderate winds, local sailor Ian Baillie dominated the fleet to retain his trophy for another year.

The wind blew in from the East on both days, not quite reaching ten knots on Saturday but up to 15 knots on Sunday. This is probably the best wind direction for Dalgety, kicking up some nice waves to play with and with sunshine on Sunday afternoon, it produced some sparkling sailing.

Baillie’s strength was upwind where few were able to consistently match his speed. All the races followed a similar pattern of Baillie being able to pull away upwind and keep control of the fleet.

However downwind both John Wilson (Prestwick) and Ross Watson (Loch Tummel) showed enough speed to pressure Baillie, especially in the lighter winds, with Wilson in particular more than holding his own.

The racing behind Baillie was close with Wilson generally getting the better of Watson, Tim Keen (Viking), Mark Henman (Sunderland), who was first A-Rig and Chris Noble (Largs), enjoying his first RS300 open. Tim may well have done better had he not got stuck behind a traffic jam of Toppers on the slipway and missed the start of Sundays first race.

There were plenty of tired bodies at the end of the regatta, but as usual there were plenty of those famous RS300 smiles.

Many thanks to Dalgety for hosting a terrific event and to the sponsors, Fat Face and Purvis Construction.

Results:

1-Ian Baillie
2-John Wilson
3-Ross Watson
4-Tim Kean
5-Mark Henman