Local lad makes the difference

Andi Robertson reports from the opening day of the Bell Lawrie Scottish Series

Irish crews hold the upper hand after the first day of racing at the Bell Lawrie Scottish Series on Loch Fyne. With perfect scores, two wins apiece, the Royal Cork YC boats Jump Juice and Blondie III have already stamped their authority over IRC Classes 1 and 2 respectively to suggest that the Scottish Series Trophy may again be bound across the Irish Sea.

Jump Juice executed two strong starts with owner Conor Phelan on the helm, Irish Olympian Mark Mansfield trimming the mainsheet and Ruairidh Scott calling tactics. Scott, who did all his early sailing on his native Loch Fyne, kept Jump Juice on track in the difficult shifting breeze.

Racing down to the far south of Loch Fyne, at the entrance to the Kilbrannan Sound, where the hills of Arran presenting a majestic backdrop, the windshifts presented a good opportunity to make gains, while the regular squalls required the crews to stay alert.

Race 1 was contested in a brisk north-westerly breeze which and was punctuated early on by the daddy of all 30 knot squalls which caught many of the Class 2 and 3 boats as they headed downwind under spinnaker. But as ever Loch Fyne favoured those who were prepared to change up and down the gears.

"It was never easy, quite tricky most of the time," admitted Scott, a past winner of the Scottish Series Trophy. "The boat is quick, which helps. We got good starts both times and the boat is nice and responsive, and we were able to adapt the conditions well. It would have been all too easy to make mistakes and we had nothing major in that department. It was a real 'snakes and ladders' day, one to maximise the good moves and minimise the bad ones and we managed.

"Ours is a pretty good class, I think there are five or six past Scottish Series winners, so the start lines were pretty tight, but I think over the day the wind was swinging through 100 degrees! For me it is good fun to come back here. I have not done as much racing way down in the south of the Loch, and the last times I've been here it has been on the 1720, so Class 1 is a good challenge. And the crew are enjoying it. They were complaining it could be a few degrees warmer and for me it is a good reminder of how beautiful it is here. We were going back into Tarbert tonight after racing and it was just beautiful."

Blondie, the Corby 37 of Eamon Rohan has Irish Star Olympic campaigner Maurice 'Prof' O'Connell steering and North Sails Ireland's Nigel Young on tactics along with North UK's Neil Mackley trimming the mainsail. Their two wins kept at bay one of the two 8 Metres racing in Class 2, Lafayette. Andy Budgen's Sigma 38 The Project leads Class 3 with a second and first in the 20 boat fleet, while the Sportsboat class is being lead by Charlie Frize's 1720 Buddy Ell.

Overall Results after Day 1, Friday 25 May

IRC Class 1:
1 Jump Juice (C Phelan) 2 points
2 Spirit of Jacana (A B & J Douglas) 5
3 Local Hero (G Howison) 6

IRC Class 2:
1 Blondie III (E Rohan) 2
2 Lafayette (M McKillop) 6
3 Rosie (R Dickson) 7

IRC Class 3:
1 The Project (A Budgen) 3
2 Bengal Magic (Moorehead/Ferres) 6
3 Movistar Bleu (R Killops) 7

IRC Class 4:
1 Antix (J Allen) 2
2 Hooch (M Caldwell) 5
3 Bambi (P Doig) 8

CYCA Class 6:
1 Stoirm Mhor (J MacKenzie) 3
2 Amarilys (W Malone) 6
3 Respite (C McLachlan) 6

CYCA Class 7:
1 Mallie (McLelland/McFadyen) 4
2 Shoki (J McDougall) 4
3 Valhalla of Ashton (A Dunnet) 5

CYCA Class 8:
1 Pointer (B Robertson) 6
2 Hopscotch (R Brownlie) 7
3 Whirligig (K Agnew) 7

CYCA Restricted Sail Class 9:
1 North Star (R Smith) 2
2 Scooby Doo (D Crowe) 4
3 Skerryvore II (E Buchanan) 6

Sigma 33:
1 Ziggy Stardust (Hull/Hathaway) 11
2 Sigmatic (D McLaren) 13
3 Sea-Pie of Cultra (J Colman) 15

National Sonata:
1 So (McLure/Stewart) 7
1 Pied Piper (A Harper) 7
3 Rhapsody (W Paton) 10

Sportsboat Class 1:
1 Buddy Ell (C Frize) 3
2 Tabula Rasa (C Frize) 9
3 Water Tiger (C Macdonald) 9

Sportsboat Class 2:
1 Wombat 2 (E Mackay) 5
2 Grouse (S Pender) 7
3 Carpe Diem (Patience/Ross) 8