Fisherrow Yacht Regatta: Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd September 2024
Two days of yacht racing around the cans. Our racing fleet consists of a variety of bilge keeled and lifting keeled cruisers from 18 foot Micro 18s to a 33 foot Jeaneau and everything in between. Visitors are very welcome.
Photo credit - Gary Mees
After a brief Indian summer which lasted all of one blissful week the weather slammed back into autumn for the Fisherrow Yacht Regatta on the 21st & 22nd of September.
A short sloppy swell and a perfect 15 knots of breeze from the north east greeted our competitors, just a shame that after such a technicolour week of sunshine that everything had turned monochrome. The sky was grey, the sea was grey, winter clothes were donned and spotting the marks of the course ended up being the crew’s biggest challenge.
Photo credit - Belinda Guo
On the start line was “Swirley”, a Westerly Griffon and usually the boat the beat at Fisherrow although with the skipper being on holiday, hope was stirring in the hearts of the competition. However with Russell Ramsey was taking over at the helm with a crack crew helicoptered in from Port Edgar, that hope would have to be tempered. FYC Commodore Dennis Walton’s Moody 27 “Sulumar”, always a dangerous opponent, was looking very sleek and shiny with a full set of brand new sails and a freshly scrubbed bottom. “Artemis”, a Westerly Merlin in her first year of ownership, helmed by FYC stalwart Mark McClelland, was looking forward to mixing it up after a successful first season to date. Beneteau Sun Odyssey 331 “Spero” was freshly returned home from spending the season on the west coast. She made it home in two large hops around the North coast of Scotland the previous week and was racing for the first time at Fisherrow although her skipper Stuart MacDonald is a veteran of many of our regattas in various different boats.
Both the club owned Kinsman dayboats “Wee Mo” & “Wee Joe” were on the start line crewed by various dinghy sailors over the weekend. Finally “Rebel Rebel” a Pegasus 700 helmed by Jose Vaz and “Firecracker” a club 19 helmed by Paul Hay (who was also the troubadour for the fleet’s entertainment on Saturday night) completed the line up.
The excellent race committee gave us three races on the Saturday, all characterised by competitive starts and close racing with the boats often within touching distance and the lead changing hands several times. The usual suspects came out on top with Artemis leading overnight with three firsts and Sulumar and Swirley battling for second spot with only 1 point in it, all three had a chance to win overall with a good showing on Sunday. There was good racing enjoyed throughout the fleet with many rivalries emerging around the course.
Photo credit - Belinda Guo
Sunday came and perhaps inevitably Swirley found her stride, showing excellent speed in the slightly reduced wind conditions, once she got her nose in front she was impossible to catch winning race 1 by thirty seconds from Sulumar with Artemis being pushed down to third place after a disastrous mistiming of the start. (Note to self - the flag sequence that is displayed for only one minute to go is exactly the same as that for five minutes to go, best to assume the former rather than the latter case in future.)
This mixed things up and left everything down to the last race, in the case of a tie in the overall number of points, the placing in the last race can decide the whole regatta so everything was to play for and the pressure was rising.
Manoeuvring for starting position Artemis and Swirley were engaging in a bit of match racing with the boats dancing around each other vying for pole position and to stop their competitor using the rules to force them into a foul which would require the offending boat to do 2 full 360 degree turns before starting. All of this only benefited Sulumar who was free to start in free air.
After a clean start for all three boats, Swirley found her legs almost immediately stretching out a commanding lead, keeping her nose clean and mistakes to a minimum, she won the final race by a clear 2 minutes, Artemis was lying second on the water but the big question… was she far enough ahead of Sulumar to clinch the needed second place on handicap in order to win overall? The two boats had been close on the water throughout the race, Sulumar’s pursuit proving impossible to shake off. After finishing, all eyes on Artemis were on their watches while waiting to see how close behind Sulumar would finish, some quick mental arithmetic suggested that if the gap was longer than around 54 seconds they were in the clear. The finishing hooter sounded at 50 seconds, but that might have been for a Kinsman finishing between the two boats, Sulumar finished closely afterwards, so close that we would have to wait for the times to be fed through the handicap program to be sure.
Photo credit - Belinda Guo
In the end, Artemis had done just enough beating Sulumar by only 22 seconds on corrected time and with each boat being able to discard their worst result, Artemis had clinched the overall win with 5 points, Swirley close behind with 7 points and Sulumar taking third with 9 points.
A great weekend of racing in good breeze and many thanks are due to the Race officer Trevor Mackay, his assistants and rib crews and to David Wilkie for providing the committee boat Countess Linda, surely much more comfortable than an open rib for three cold and bumpy hours each day! Thanks also to the social team ashore organised by Ellen Henderson-Dott (also crewing on Artemis) and Paul Hay for the musical entertainment.
Finally well done to the sailors competing in their first yacht regatta, I hope everyone had fun and we will see you all next year!
The results on the Fisherrow Yacht Club website
Previous Years:
- 2014 Dinghy results
- 2014 Yacht results