Scottish Nationals at St Mary's Loch

The final event of the National Series, the Scottish Nationals, was held at St Mary’s Loch over the Bank Holiday weekend.It was horrendously windy on the Saturday with crews experiencing their worst conditions ever. In order to avoid a second inversion crews had to hold the bows into the wind.

Scottish Nationals at St Mary’s Loch

Off on a planing reach - photo St Mary's Loch SC

The fleet set off to the race area at the far end of the loch in a force 6 South Westerly a long planing run of over a mile. As the start time approached the wind increased and several boats decided that discretion was the better part of valour and turned for home.

At the start time of 14.00 the committee boat recorded 36knots of wind and the postponement flag went up. As the wind eased a little the first race got under way on a windward/leeward course! In fact it was a good decision by the race officer because at least boats could choose when to gybe rather than there being general carnage at the wing mark.

Jon Woodward and Alex Halliwell were first to the windward mark and a leading group of half a dozen boats pulled away from the rest of the fleet. The runs were entertaining, surviving the gusts and dodging the capsized hulls. On lap two a massive gust wiped out most of the leading group, only Ges Brown & Julie Moore along with Jon & Alex of that group stayed upright.

At the finish Jon & Alex were first across the water but the had fallen foul of the Race Officer and were disqualified for sailing through the finish line on the downwind leg. This left Ges & Julie to take the gun with Al;I Morrish and Tim Vick second and Steve Graham and Chris Blundell third. Only six boats finished in the very testing conditions.

The sail back saw several more capsizes and the fleet retired to the clubhouse for an evening of food, drink and tribal dancing.

Sunday dawned with the wind down to a sensible F3 to 4

In race two Euan Dunn and Ailsa Redpath got away well at the start and were never headed, Ges & Julie were second with Pete Lawson & Gareth Balfour third.

In race three there were several place changes before Steve and Chris pulled through to take the gun Jon & Alex were second with Tim & Ali third.

This left any one of five boats in with a chance with taking the championship. In the event it was Steve & Chris who grasped the chance. They sailed a superb first beat to go well clear. Ali & Tim won the battle for second and were perhaps closing a little on the leaders at the finish. Local boat, Mr Snappy sailed by Roger Willoughby & Shona Redpath came through into third.

This meant that Steve and Chris were Scottish National Champions with Ali and Tim second and Ges and Julie third. The result also meant that Steve Graham was winner of the Enterprise National Series

Alison Payne & Kevin Law won the silver fleet at the event, Martin Bottomley & Ray Ball were second with Matt Hope and Holly Hope third. Overall, however, Martin & Ray won the Silver fleet for the National Series

Leading boats rounding the windward mark - photo St Mary's Loch SC

Results

Enterprise 2009

Series Place	Sail No	Boat	Owner	Series Points	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4
1	23223	Heavy Petting Zoo	SteveGraham/Chris Blundell	5	3	7	1	1
2	22270	Smoke on the Water	Ali Morrish/Tim Vick	7	2	6	3	2
3	23194	Wimp	Ges Brown/Julie Moore	8	1	2	5	5
4	23089	Simply Red	Jonathon Woodward/Alex Halliwell	12	RAF24	4	2	6
5	22528	Pump It Up	Euan Dunn/ ?	13	6	1	6	11
6	22405	Thunderbird 3	Pete Lawson/Gareth Balfour	15	RAF24	3	4	8
7	22112	Tutu Won One Too	Charles Morrish/Alison Robertson	17	5	5	7	12
8	22823	?	Mike Cossey/Christine Barron	27	DNC24	13	10	4
9	22322	cast off	Keith Tyler/Katie Tyler	28	DNC24	11	8	9
10	20379	Mr Snappy	Roger Willoughby/Shona Redpath	30	DNC24	8	19	3
11	21318	Shocking	Alison Payne/Kevin Law	32	RAF24	9	9	14
12	23243	Risk-E	Martin Bottomley/Ray Ball	35	RAF24	10	12	13
13	22908	Spotty	Matt Hope/Holly Hope	38	RET24	12	11	15
14	22199	?	Pete Middlemas/Dorothy Cragg	43	DNC24	14	13	16
15	22874	Emerald Wednesday	Alistair McDonald/Peter Gasken	44	RAF24	18	16	10
16	21645	Betabeworthit	David Milroy/Kate Odling	47	RAF24	15	14	18
17	23094	Gengis McKhan	Tony Walker/Laura Geddes	51	RET24	19	15	17
18	22901	Out of the Blue	Paul Young/Phil Harrison	52	4	DNC24	DNC24	DNC24
19	22126	Shulua	Maggie Ellis/ ??	54	DNC24	16	18	20
20	22114	Nita Nitro	Loz Young/Kristy Wonders	55	DNC24	DNC24	DNC24	7
21	21545	Anticipation II	Joe Helm/Gordon Haycock	55	DNC24	17	17	21
22	20262	?	Gregor Watt/Bruce Scott	62	DNC24	20	20	22
23	21940	?	Gerry Goodfellow/Gillian Taylor	67	DNC24	DNC24	DNC24	19

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