Musto Skiff Scottish Championship at Chanonry Sailing Club

Musto Skiff Scottish Championship at Chanonry © David Bell

Musto Skiff Scottish Championship at Chanonry © David Bell

On the weekend of 1st, 2nd August a strong fleet of 15 Musto Skiffs gathered at Chanonry Sailing Club, Fortrose in the North of Scotland for the most northern UK skiff Traveller to date. The event was combined with a Scottish Skiff series event and the Scottish Musto Skiff Championship.

The fleet consisted of an almost full turnout of the local fleet together with a selection of the top helms from Scotland and a large contingent who made the trip up from the North of England.

Saturday's strong wind forecast potentially put some off, but on arrival and rigging the race area looked ideal for the day's racing. As the first start approached and the boats launched the wind increased to a variable force 4-5 and this combined with a strong tide against produced a very short steep confused sea state. After a short postponement the first race started with close racing, but almost as soon as the first boats rounded the windward mark the capsizes began. Most boats took the perceived easy option of hoisting and heading out on starboard tack but as was quickly realised this just took them into the worst of the waves and by the leeward mark most had spent some time checking their rudders for weed. Dan Trotter coped best with the conditions and lead home Jono Shelly and Ben Yates from the home club.

The next two races followed a similar pattern with most people opting for the less lumpy North shore both up and down wind to try to avoid too many capsizes. It turned out that if you could stay mostly upright for the entire race then there was a fair chance of a good result.

After a bad first race Ian Renilson was back on form and showing everybody how it was done closely followed by Jono and Ian Trotter in both the 2nd and 3rd races.

The positions after day 1 were very mixed with most of the top half of the fleet having a good race, a bad race and one in the middle so it was all to play for on Sunday.

Sunday dawned calm and with little sign of any wind materialising and non-forecast some of the further travelled competitors decided enough was enough.

Despite the conditions after a lengthy postponement the race officer started the first race on Sunday in a very light and patchy breeze which just about allowed the boats to move. The lighter weight crews showed their hands with Ian Ellis taking the gun from Iain Morton and another steady performance from Jono in third.

After a further lengthy postponement and just before everybody was about to give up the sea breeze eventually filled in to give perfect conditions for the last 2 races with force 3 and flat water.

Battle ensued at the front between Dan and Jono. Jono had the slight edge upwind with Dan being quicker down. Both races went to the wire with Dan taking two first. The next 6 boats followed hot on their heels and showed the strong strength in depth of the fleet with place changing throughout and both races producing very different results.

This left Jono as the new Scottish champion without taking a race win all weekend but with the difficult and varying conditions a remarkably consistent set of results. Dan Trotter finished second despite 3 race wins.

Thanks must go to Chanonry Sailing Club for running another superb event.

Overall Results: