Winning wicket

Mills 36 Prime Suspect can't put a foot wrong at the Old Pulteney IRC Scottish Championship

Despite a difficult Clyde day for the 35 yachts assembled for the Old Pulteney IRC Scottish Championship, Charlie Frize and crew aboard Mills 36 Prime Suspect didn’t put a foot wrong. And their endeavours were rewarded with steadily improving results all day, leaving them topping the ‘big boat’ IRC1 class after three races

The Rhu-based yacht, new to Frize and crew this year, had a fairly forgettable Scottish Series a fortnight ago, with plenty of damage to repair, but there’s no doubt the yacht’s now on song.

“It’s hard for a boat like us to hang onto the big boats sometimes,” said Frize. “But I’m very happy with today’s racing; really enjoyed it. And we’re able to get a fair idea of what the boat can do when she’s not damaged. We just need to do more of the same in the final two races.”

It wasn’t completely plain sailing in IRC1 and, despite looking hard to hold, Allan Hogg’s King 40 Argie Bargie, fresh from her IRC1 class win at Scottish Series, showed that she was just human after all. A tangled spinnaker at the leeward mark in the final race of the day turned a good on the water lead into a dismal last place, as the problem proved difficult to resolve. Nonetheless, she continued to race and, despite a last place in that race, was still lying second overall, a single point adrift of Frize.

Probably the star of day one, however, was John Corson’s Corby 33 Salamander XX. Thriving in the conditions which caused so much pain, quite literally in some cases, for others, the crew didn’t put a foot wrong and were rewarded with three first places for their efforts.

“This really was a good day for us,” said foredeck crew Stevie Corson. “We’re the second fastest on handicap, but the smallest boat in the class. But we got good starts, managed to get where we wanted to be on the first beat and, once the spinnaker was up on the leeward leg, we were able to extend. She’s a quick, wee boat, very responsive - we managed to sail smart and we just have to go out and continue to do that. Another bullet would seal it for us, but we’re not complacent.”

Despite good sailing for some, the conditions really were very tricky with gusts of up to 35 knots blasting through the fleet.

Racing north of Great Cumbrae near Largs, numerous spinnakers were hoisted incorrectly and some just refused to come down. Two people were injured - a hand injury aboard Mickey Finn IV and a head injury on Hobbes Express; both crew members received medical treatment.

And other yachts were forced to retire with damage, not least IRC1 stalwart Playing FTSE - Jonathon Anderson’s First 47.7.

Elsewhere, IRC3 was being led by Nick and Miles Stratton’s new Archambault 31 A Neet Djinn, helped along in race one, by them being the only ones to have noted a change to the race instructions - a fact which effectively left the rest of the class disqualified.

And in IRC4, the Angus/Tear/Thomson trio on Hustler SJ30 Misjif topped the fleet on 6.5 points with two races remaining, three points ahead of the Eagleton/ Waterhouse partnership on half tonner Chia Chia.

Results after three races, Old Pulteney Scottish IRC Championship, Largs:

IRC1 – Prime Suspect (C Frize) 7 points, 2 Argie Bargie (A Hogg) 8, 3 Absolutely 2 (Bramall/Kelly) 8;

IRC2 – 1 Salamander XX (J Corson) 3, 2 Sloop John T (I&G Thomson) 10, 3 Animal (K&D Aitken) 12;

IRC3 – 1 A Neet Djinn (N&M Stratton) 4, 2 Enigma (H Morrison) 14, 3 niJinsky (R Yates) 17;

IRC4 – 1 Misjif (Angus/Tear/Thomson) 6.5, 2 Chia Chia (Eagleton/Waterhouse) 9.5, 3 Antix (J Allen) 9.5.