Results / Open Loch Tummel SC - 04/10/2014

RS200 JP Watersports Scottish Tour

Loch Tummel Sailing Club

The final event of the 2014 RS200 JP Watersports Scottish Tour took place at Loch Tummel Sailing Club on 4 October. The 10 boats that braved the drive through the monsoon like conditions that were engulfing Scotland that morning arrived at a rather soggy Loch Tummel to find the rain clearing and, bang on 11:00 as forecast, a light westerly breeze filled in.

The first race got away at the first attempt in a reasonably consistent (for Loch Tummel) F2. Taking advantage of the shifts upwind and finding the gusts downwind proved to be key. Racing was close throughout with the lead chopping and changing between Chris Perry/Kirsty Lyton, Tim Ellis/Niamh Harper and Fiona Rigg/Ashly Martin.

On the approach to the final leeward mark Team ‘soon to be Perry’ had a self diagnosed ‘rabbit in the head lights moment’ and ended up taking penalty turns dropping them back to 4th on the water although they subsequently found out they had been OCS. This allowed Team ‘Riggartin’ to take the first race win followed by Team ‘Ellisarper’ in 2nd and Ewan/Robbie Wilson in 3rd.

The westerly breeze then disappeared and had a brief flurry of blowing from the south. Rather than waste time resetting courses the race officer wisely decided to send the competitors in for a rather earlier than planned lunch. Once fully fed and watered the competitors returned afloat and were greeted with rather stronger westerly breeze for the start of the second race. This did however gradually drop as the race progressed allowing the lightweight teams of Riggartin and Bess/Andrew Homer to claw their way through the fleet to finish 1st and 2nd with Allan/Amy Lennox in 3rd. A similar affair followed in race 3 with Team Riggartin managing to squeeze through for a third win with Team Lennox improving to 2nd and Team Ellisarper in 3rd.

Race 4 and the breeze had picked up to a fairly solid force 4. Team Wilson took advantage of the breezier conditions to take the win and Team Lennox were starting to put together a consistent string of results with another 2nd place and Gavin/Finlay Mackinnon picking up a 3rd. The breeze dropped a notch for the final race but with the race officer running this one to the full 5 laps the hiking muscles were definitely starting to ache. Local duo Ellisarper managed to take the final bullet of the day with Ben Wilcox/Rachel Offer enjoying the breezier conditions in 2nd and Team ‘soon to be Lytton’ in 3rd.

Once the boats had returned ashore and the points had been counted Team Riggartin had done just enough in the final race to secure the overall win. Team Ellisarper’s win in the final race gave them 2nd and Team Lennox 3rd.

The competitors then enjoyed some fantastic catering by Loch Tummel sailing club followed by the class AGM, series prize giving and prize draw. Stuart Teasdale’s name came out of the hat in the hat for the new jib kindly donated by our sponsor JP Watersports and the overall series prizes went to:

1st Fiona Rigg and Liz Copland/Paul Rigg/Ashly Martin

2nd Allan and Amy Lennox

3rd Bess and Andrew Homer

Thanks must go Loch Tummel for a great event that wrapped up a fantastic season for the Scottish RS200 fleet. Plans are well underway for the 2015 series - let’s make it even better!