Scottish District R6 Meter Championships at Paisley Model Yacht Club
by Gordon Allison 18 Apr 2013 06:04 UTC
13 April 2013
Gordon Allison Scottish District R6 Meter Champion © Gordon Allison
On Saturday 13th April, Paisley Model Yacht Club hosted the Scottish District R6 Meter Championships. A couple of late call offs left a fleet of seven.
The weather was excellent, with a steady south easterly wind which remained constant in direction throughout the day with only very sparse lulls.
Race officer for the event was Bill Lees who set a standard triangle/sausage course.
At the start of racing, both Hugh Shields and Pat Johnston of Greenock suffered boat problems with Pat breaking his rudder. Hugh's problems proved to be terminal and would not race all day. Pat meanwhile, missed the first few races while he got the epoxy out!
The first race was won by Gordon Allison sailing his Ravenna closely followed by Nick Cowern from Levenhall sailing his Renaissance. David Smith sailing his Octavia won races 2 & 3 which was going very well in the light wind.
Pat Johnston managed to repair his boat and when he got going he managed to win 4 races in a row showing all the other skippers that he would be a force to reckon with. The morning session saw great close racing and proved that these yachts were pretty evenly matched in speed and tactics proved to be all important.
All skippers suffered various minor problems with their boats at some point in the morning session,
Notably, there were only a few infringements hailed by the race officer, most of them for jumping the gun! All of the penalties were completed with excellent sportsmanship.
After a break for lunch, racing resumed with Pat Johnston hoping his rudder repair would last.
Both Nick Cowern and David Smith were battling for places behind Gordon Allison, who found excellent consistency in the afternoon session by winning all the races and becoming the new champion.
All the skippers thoroughly enjoyed the day and were commended by Race Officer Bill Lees on their conduct, sailing and sportsmanship.