Scottish District 2021 IOM Travellers 2 at Tayside Radio Sailing Club

OM Scottish District Travellers 2 at Tayside Radio Sailing Club © David Williams

Ten skippers attended the 2021 Scottish District IOM Travellers 2 event at Forfar Loch on Saturday 10th July 2021. The event was hosted by Tayside RSC who implemented Covid measures for the day. The day was initially overcast with a light ENE breeze blowing along the loch.

Race #1 was won by Richard Rowan (Greenock MY&PBC sailing his Cheinz) chased by Aberdeen MYC skippers Ian Dundas, Steve Taylor and John Owens. These four also shared the top four positions in Race #2 closely followed by Sandy Mackay (Kinghorn RSC). In Race #3 Gordon Rae (Ayr Bay) sailing his new Venti joined the top group with a 4th place and in Race #4 the top three positions were all wooden Corbie designs - 1st was Steve Taylor with a Corbie 5, 2nd was David Stewart with a Corbie 1 and 3rd was Ian Dundas with a Corbie 6. Race #5 was again a tussle between Richard Rowan and the Aberdeen skippers closely followed by the woodies of Ian Davidson, David Stewart and Colin McGinnis.

OM Scottish District Travellers 2 at Tayside Radio Sailing Club - photo © David Williams

As the day progressed, the weather became brighter and the increasing breeze swung southerly although it had significant lulls. This created challenges for the race team to set a good beat. Eventually a zig-zag course was set with two beats and a long reach back to the leeward mark. This was also challenging for the skippers to judge when to tack around the distant marks, avoid the holes and spot the lifts to the marks. Throughout the fleet there was close but very fair racing and positions were easily lost through slight misjudgements or hard gained through correctly reading the shifts.

Although Steve Taylor was consistently doing well away, he could not relax as Ian Dundas was close behind and good results were being recorded across the fleet. Following technical difficulties in the morning, Colin McGinnis made gains in the afternoon coming 1st and 2nd in Races #9 and #10 and Gordon Rae was 1st and 2nd in Races #10 and #11.

OM Scottish District Travellers 2 at Tayside Radio Sailing Club - photo © David Williams

In all, thirteen races were enjoyed in a friendly spirit with dominance being shown by the Aberdeen MYC members from the start. Ultimately, the results were 1st Steve Taylor, 2nd Ian Dundas and 3rd Richard Rowan beating John Owens on countback. The Tayside RSC race team were wholesomely thanked for running a superbly organised event at this excellent venue.

Overall Results: