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Castle Semple open meeting
A small but
select band made their way to Castle Semple for the second of the
Scottish travellers series. This was the first time that National 12s
had gone to Castle Semple and after hearing stories of a shallow loch
with barely room to swing a cat, the two visitors were suitably
surprised to find a wide open expanse of water considerably larger than
their home clubs with no obvious signs of shallows (although there did
seem to be an awful lot of buoys).
Local man Duncan Elder crewed by Dawn Kyne joined the two
visitors for the first race with a blustery wind giving testing
conditions. Bernard crewed by daughter Ellie in vintage boat Xanthus
made a good start and was first round the windward mark, with Angus
crewed by son Rohan in Agent Orange rounding second. The superior speed
of Angus’ more modern boat soon showed as he passed Bernard on the run,
but opting to go about at the second gybe mark cost him dearly as
Bernard took the lead. Angus then appeared to have some directional
problems as Duncan appeared to be catching him up, but on the long beat
up to the start Duncan fell in, losing a buoyancy bag and ending his
race. Bernard was coping with the conditions better than Angus and
stretched out his lead, while Angus went for a brief swim after his crew
fell on top of him. (There are disadvantages to your crew standing up on
the broad reaches and runs). The boats
came ashore between races to get something to eat while Duncan sorted
out his boat and Angus added some more surf wax to the bottom of his
boat.
The wind appeared to drop to more civilised levels while we were
at lunch but as soon as the boats hit the water it increased again.
Bernard again made it first round the windward mark and this time nobody
looked like catching him, Angus going very fast at times but not always
in the right direction took another second.
Soon after the boats came in the wind started to drop and the sun
came out and a lovely evening ensued. A barbeque was laid on by the club
with a good number of club members turning up to join in the fun; the
visitors enjoyed the wonderful hospitality.
The following morning dawned with low cloud and drizzle and to
add to our woes the wind started to get up. However the rain soon
stopped and the sun started to peek through, the wind reached a similar
strength to Saturday but was much steadier.
It was obvious from the start that Angus and Rohan were on a
mission: achieving a near perfect start they were first round the
windward mark and continued to pull away from the other boats. A nasty
gust on the run tipped Duncan in which prematurely ended his day. The
second race was sailed back to back. This time Bernard got the better
start, sneaking across in front of Angus on port, but Angus was first
round the windward mark and, looking like a different sailor than the
day before, pulled rapidly away from Bernard to take another first.
After another excellent lunch it was decided to have another
race. Bernard’s crew had had enough and Bernard felt that Xanthus had
had enough as well so he borrowed Duncan’s boat and crew. By now the
wind had dropped off considerably. Bernard was first round the windward
mark after Angus had got entangled in a sailboarder (one of the major
hazards of Castle Semple) and while Angus was chasing hard on the run he
realised that he had sprung a serious leak and decided to retire before
he did any more damage. This left Bernard to finish the race on his own. With Bernard
not being able to count the last race as he was sailing a different boat
Angus and Rohan came out on top winning their first open meeting.
A massive thank you must go to Castle Semple for putting on such
a great event for so few boats. They even managed to find a special
medal for Ellie, all the visitors (Bernard brought a camper van full)
had a wonderful time and I just hope we can get enough boats together to
make it worthwhile going back next year.
Overall results 1st
Angus Beyts and Rohan Beyts
3406 Agent Orange 2nd
Bernard Clark and Ellie Clark
2149 Xanthus 3rd
Duncan Elder and Dawn Kyne
3414 Piuma la Vento
Author: Angus Beyts
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