Results / Royal Tay Open Royal Tay YC - 08/05/2004

The Scottish RS300 season kicked off at the Royal Tay�s opening regatta on the weekend of the 8/9th of May and produced some very tight and competitive racing in the difficult conditions. A shifting, gusty force 2 to 3 northerly greeted the sailors for the first race, which together with the flooding tide made the decisions of whether to go with the shifts or the tide a difficult one. All three races on Saturday were very closely contested by Ben Yeats, Ian Baillie and Paul Barker, with Eddie Griffiths getting in amongst them but was not quite consistent enough to figure at the end. After three races Ben, Ian and Paul were each scoring a 1,2,3 and had all led for a time in each race. Ben took race 1 after squeezing out Paul at the last windward mark, with Paul then capsizing to let Ian through. Paul deservedly won race 2 from Ben and Ian sped off down the last run to record a win in race 3, with Paul picking the right shifts to edge out Ben on the line. Sunday produced less wind, which caused a postponement until close to low water when a light easterly and the slack tide enabled a deciding race to be run. Ian led at the first mark but Ben overtook him on the reaches, with the roles being reversed on the next lap when Ian passed Ben on the reaches. Then the tide began to have a greater effect and Ian�s covering tack allowed Ben to reach the slack tide near the shore first and draw ahead. It was increasingly difficult to judge when to make an attempt to reach the finish line. Ben went first, Ian held on further but Ben was right and won the race and the event. Eddie was unlucky not to take second, with penalty turns near the line proving costly.