Breeze up

Day of 30 knot gusts and broken masts at Brewin Dolphin Scottish Series

After a relatively benign opening to the Brewin Dolphin Scottish Series regatta on Friday, competitors today enjoyed the full brunt of challenging blustery southerly winds which produced tough competition at times and some high speed racing.

While some of the smaller sportsboats were taken to the edge of control as the malicious dark gusts span off the Kintyre shore, even many of the larger IRC handicap racer-cruisers had some nervous moments when the squalls topped 30 knots at times.

Two masts were broken: Hayley's Comet, the Grand Surprise in IRC Class 3 was brought to earth with a crash, as the first casualty, then Alan Harper's Sonata Pied Piper had their regatta cruelly ended when their mast collapsed with a bang whilst running downwind under spinnaker.

It was a day when slick, assured crew work was rewarded and small errors or even little material breakages were punished.

In IRC Class 1 Allan Hogg and his crew on the King 40 Argie Bargie managed to string together back to back wins to lead the five boat division by six clear points from Playing FTSE, the First 47.7 of three times Scottish Series Trophy winner Jonathan Anderson.

Two wins in IRC Class 3 for Nigel Biggs and his Checkmate Sailing Team, where the same principles applied on their J/109 Christie Cancer Care - smart starting and clean crew work - also applied as they overhauled the Clyde's John Corson on Salamander XX. After two wins yesterday the Clyde crew made two second places today to share the same six points tally.

But sheer consistency has been the watchword so far for the Bateleur 97 crew lead by Tich Summers. Twice winners of the overall Scottish Series Trophy, the Bateleur team have now finished second in all four of their races so far.

"It was good today," commented Bateleur's Scott Graham, who has been promoted to tactician on board the BH36 after 21 years on the bow. "We sailed pretty well and made some good calls. The race officer got things just right getting the second race off smartly."

While they managed to drop their main spinnaker in the water and get away with it to win the first race for Class 2, Richard Fildes' Welsh Corby 37 Impetuous did not get off as lightly in the second race and could only rescue a fifth when they dropped another sail off the bow. They trail Bonar's Tay crew by two points.

The Sigma 33 fleet are competing for their class championship and it was the local Clyde boat Sigmatic, which emerged with a big lead in the windiest second race. Donald McLaren's crew won the class here last year and were calm and composed in the windy racing to earn the overall lead in the 15 boat class one design cruiser-racer class ahead of two boats from the Royal Ulster YC.

In IRC Class 4 Robert Yates' J/92S NiJinsky collected two wins as well as plucking a man overboard off another competing yacht during the first race of the day.

Results after Day 2:

IRC Class 1:
1 Argie Bargie (A Hogg) 5pts, 2 Playing FTSE (J Anderson) 11pts, 3 Local Hero (G Howison) 11pts
IRC Class 2: 1 Bateleur 97 (C Bonar) 11pts, 2 Impetuous (R Fildes) 11pts, 3 Tan It (P & R Harris) 16pts
IRC Class 3: 1 Christie Cancer Care (Biggs/Hyland) 6pts, 2 Salamander XX (J Corson) 6pts, 3 Tigh Soluis II (K Grant) 18pts
IRC Class 4: 1 niJinsky (R Yates) 8pts, 2 Movistar-Bleu (R Killops) 11pts, 3 Hops (Bolton/Robertson) 12pts
IRC Class 5: 1 Antix (J Allen) 8pts, 2 Chia Chia (P & A Eagleton) 11pts, 3 Shadowfax (S & B Fortieth) 16pts
Sigma 33 Class: 1 Sigmatic (D Mclaren) 10pts, 2 Signet (R Armstrong) 14pts, 3 Fandango (Prentice/Fair/Byres) 16pts
Sonata: 1 So (Higgins/McLure/Hutchinson) 6pts, 2 Blue Tack (D Boatman) 8pts, 3 Jazz (K Manderson) 10pts
Sportsboat Class1: 1 Tabula Rasa (C Frize) 4pts, 2 Water Tiger (C MacDonald) 9pts
Sportboat Class 2: 1 Prelude (Manuel/Bourke) 11pts, 2 Haggis (E Mackay) 11pts, 3 Robber's Dog (J Shelly) 13pts
RS Elite Class: 1 Elixir (S MacLean) 7pts, 2 Fullmarks (M Brien), 3 E'Tu (S Powell) 10pts.
CYCA Class 6: 1 Celtic Spirit (B Robertson) 7pts, 2 Aquasmart (C Davis) 12pts, 3
Skywalker (I Laidlaw) 16pts
CYCA Class 7: 1 Bambi (P Doig) 5pts, 2 Tangle O'The Isles (J & V Gough) 9pts, 3 Piecemaker (S Hamilton) 12pts
CYCA Class 8: 1 What's New Pussykate (S Scott) 4pts, 2 Hesperus (C McVey) 5pts.
Restricted Sail Class 9: 1 Xanadu (A Knowles) 5pts, 2 Scary…the Boat (S Andrews) 7pts, 3 Lady Rhona (I Cameron) 11pts
CYCA Class 10: 1 Finesse (D Walter) 3pts, 2 Poppy (J Roberts) 7pts.