Holdfast II takes Scottish title

A report from the final day of racing at hte Old Pulteney IRC Scottish Championship

It was tight at the top, but Ruaraidh MacLeod and his crew on Holdfast II have lifted the Old Pulteney IRC Scottish Championship crown.

At the Clyde-based regatta, organised by Mudhook Yacht Club, Holdfast posted two second places to arch rival Carmen II’s two firsts on day two of the competition. But consistent sailing on day one of the competition had been enough to see MacLeod’s team lift the trophy, beating Paul Scutt and Allan Jeffrey’s crew on Carmen by a single point.

“Really happy with this result,” said MacLeod. “We’ve had a good regatta, despite letting Carmen slip through on race one of the second day - we took the wrong side and she slipped through. But we didn’t make the same mistake in the second and covered Carmen throughout.

“The light conditions which we’ve had all weekend have really suited us and there’s been good teamwork and tactics on board. I think our next big regatta is likely to be West Highland Yachting Week, so we’ll look forward to that.”

A single point loss after winning the last two races of the competition is a bitter pill, but the Carmen team remained philosophical. “It was always going to be tough,” said Paul Scutt. “It’s tempting to get involved with matchracing when you have two identical boats leading. But you have to keep watching what’s going on elsewhere. We had a great Scottish Series [Carmen won IRC3], but this only our second season - we’ve got new sails and the teamwork is getting better all the time.”

And, if you thought IRC2 was close, the class one yachts went one better. A mere point separated first and third places in the big boat class, with the top spot taken by Richard and Paul Harris’ Sydney 36 Tanit. Languishing only half a point adrift in second was John Corson’s nippy little Corby 33 Salamander XX, and just one more half point down the list was Jon Fitzgerald and crew aboard the Farr 40 Thunderbird.

“Fantastic, very, very happy,” said Richard Harris. “A great result against such a strong fleet. “We were over the line at the start of the second race, which the crew got rather excited about, but we just had to go back and get on with it. Managed to move up the fleet from the back though, and we got a second for that race in the end.

“ Tanit loves these conditions - about 8-14 knots - so it was just perfect for us. The boat’s four years old and this is our best result so far.”

And there was plenty of optimism, too, aboard Thunderbird. Class one combined the traditional IRC1 big boats with the top half of the yachts which would normally be in the IRC2 class, making it tough for the traditional big hitters.

However, Jon Fitzgerald and his crew were more than delighted with their third place.
“We were the first of the traditional big boats and I’m very happy with that,” he said. “We were last at Scottish Series, but we’ve had great fun here. We took line honours in all of the five races, which, too be honest, we should have done. We led from start to finish in the first of day two’s races, winning by enough to give us a first on corrected time. In the second, we had stretched another good lead, but the breeze strengthened and brought the rest of the fleet in closer behind us.”

Cutting her teeth in big boat racing was Olympic sailor Charlotte Dobson, on board Thunderbird, who narrowly missed out on a place in the women’s single handed Laser Radial class for Beijing. “Had a lot of fun,” she said. “It’s very different to the Radial, especially communicating with nine other people on the boat, rather than just me.”

Old Pulteney Scottish IRC Championship, Clyde (Mudhook Yacht Club).
Overall results after three races:

IRC1
1 Tanit (R&P Harris) 10 points
2 Salamander XX (J Corson) 10.5
3 Thunderbird (C Tiso/J Fitzgerald) 11
4 Sloop John T (I&G Thomson) 12
5 Argie Bargie (A Hogg/DRalston) 14

IRC2
1 Holdfast II (R MacLeod) 7
2 Carmen II (P Scutt/A Jeffrey) 8
3 Off Limits (G Firth) 12
4 niJinsky (R Yates) 12
5 Enigma (H Morrison) 18

More pics on page 2...