This is a report of the Lord Birkett Trophy held at Ullswater on the 7th and 8th July 2001.  The event was part of the Albacore Race Circuit.

Seven Albacores turned up at Ullswater Yacht Club for the annual Lord Birkett Trophy held on the 7/8th July.  A total of 215 boats turned up and all the Albacores did extremely well.  There were two races, one on Saturday, and one on Sunday.

We were greeted on the Saurday with virtually no wind whatsoever, but the wind did kick in in the last half hour of the race, the race lasting almost 3 hours.  Armstrong led the Albacore fleet from the start, with Booth hot on her heels.  Her lead was dis-established on the run to Norfolk Island, but she cunningly managed to claw back her lead on the final beat to finish.  Snowdon finished just behind Booth, and the results were Armstrong 1st, Booth 2nd, Snowdon 3rd.

On Sunday, the weather was certainly not in our favour, as it was raining terribly, but at least there was a little more wind.  There was extrememly close racing between the first three Albs, and between the second half of the Albacore fleet.  Peter Snowdon led the albacore fleet from the start, establishing an incredible lead.  Booth battled with Armstrong, but she managed to finish in 2nd place in the Albs.  In the latter half of the Albacore fleet, Brisley was 4th, Challen 5th, Chalder 6th and White 7th.  The finishing result was Snowdon 1st, Armstrong 2nd, Booth 3rd.

It would be excellent next year to see even more Albacores at this event, as it really is a good open meeting.

Results,

1st Alb 7416 - Peter and Debbie Snowdon - Scaling Dam - 1st Overall.
2nd Alb 7518 - Judy and Paul Armstrong - Scaling Dam - 2nd Overall.
3rd Alb 7523 - Derek and Mark Booth - Bolton Sailing Club - 6th Overall.
4th Alb 7010 - Dave Chalder and Edward Cusack - Elton Sailing Club - 22nd Overall.
5th Alb 6960 - Stephen and Alex Brisley - Scaling Dam - 47th Overall.
6th Alb 6823 - Simon Challen and Sally Cottingham - Covenham Sailing Club - 48th Overall.
7th Alb 6405 - David and Philip White - Scaling Dam - 60th Overall.

Chichester YC 8th July

Chichester Lake felt fairly busy on Sunday, July 8th, when Chichester Yacht Club played host to an entry of thirty RS400s and eight Albacores for a joint Open Meeting for the two classes. There was a fresh breeze, which backed steadily through the day from westerly to south-south-westerly, with gradually clearing skies, and there were sharply varying gusts, so that everyone had a vigorous day’s sailing. Albacore starts were dominated by the eventual overall winner, who had three firsts.

The course  was reverse P-shape, with a fairly short first beat  which brought the fleet to the weather mark in  rather a bunch, with very close tacking by those coming in on port. Down the tactical run the fleet spread out a bit more, but it was still a fairly frantic scene among the bunch behind the leaders, through which the Albacores had a to pick a careful route to avoid being targets for the bowsprits! As the day wore on there were several capsizes  among the RS fleet, though most recovered to  finish after a loss of some places, but the  Albacores covered the course with suitable dignity and stability!

Results :

1st. No. 8011 : Neville Herbert & Steve Penfold, Maidenhead, S.C. 2 pts
2nd. No. 6922 : Michael & Stephen Brothwell : Bexhill S.C. 4 pts
3rd. No. 7988 : Victoria Brooks & Richard Thorpe, Maidenhead S.C. 5 pts

The winners!

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Albacore Scottish Championships Largo Bay 30thJune/1stJuly

Albacore,s gathered to contest this year,s Scottish Championships the sunshine offered a reasonably pleasant
day with a fresh force 3/4 breeze.

Stuart Gibson and Gavin Berry showed a clean pair of heels up the beats but chased hard on the off wind legs by both Jim Sinclair and Crawford Reid, the wind increased as the race progressed with several capsizes and breakages forcing retirals, although Gibson finished first it was Sinclair who took the honours as all the others sailed through the wrong gate on the windward legs, the wind increased, and when the committee took the decision to abandon further sailing, this proved to be a disasterous error.

Day two had three races to make up for the previous losses and again Gibson was first up the beat with everyone else playing catch up, Sinclair was second with Reid and Boyce third.

Races two and three followed with Gibson winning both, Reid turned the tables around and pushed Sinclair back into third place on each occasion followed up by Gordon Scott and Gordon Tosh.

1st Stuart Gibson/Gavin Berry Strathclyde Loch S.C. 3 points
2nd Jim Sinclair/William Howarth East Lothian Y.C. 6 points
3rd Crawford Reid/Colin Boyce Strathclyde Loch S.C. 7 points
4th Gordon Scott/Gordon Tosh Montrose S.C. 12 points

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Albacores at South Cerney – 6th May 2001

On Sunday 6th May, South Cerney hosted the annual Albacore Spring Tuning and Open Meeting, and thanks to a favourable weather forecast, enjoyed an excellent turnout.  There were 10 visitors from 7 different clubs, which together with a sadly depleted local fleet, made an extremely competitive 15 entries.

The North Easterly wind, which generally was about force 3, did occasionally peak to a 4 in the afternoon, giving some excellent planing reaches and interesting gybes.

The first race was initially lead by Neville Herbert closely followed by Richard and Jenny Thompson.  Peter & Sally Lawrence from Tewkesbury, were fighting hard for 3rd, with Trevor and Ann Smith in their new Speed Sails boat in 4th.  By the end of the first lap Richard and Jenny had squeezed past Neville, and during the remainder of the race disappeared over the horizon.  2nd, 3rd & 4th placed boats finished in the same sequence.

Recovering from their poor result in the 1st race, Jean & Derek Simmons hit the front of the fleet in the second race, which they maintained until the finishing gun.  Following a first beat incident Richard & Jenny Thompson fought back to 2nd , with Trevor & Ann Smith in 3rd.  A hard fight by Victoria Brooks and Richard Thorpe gave them a well-earned 4th place.

For the 3rd race, the OOD decided to give everyone some fun – 4 lively reaches and the inevitable gybes were designed to entertain both competitors and spectators.  The standard of sailing proved too good to amuse the onlookers, but the sailors had a great time.  Richard and Jenny  took an early lead, very closely followed by Jean & Derek.  Neville Herbert managed to keep 3rd place, until ex-local sailor Colin Fletcher, crewed by son Hugh, made an excellent recovery from 11th to steel 3rd position.

Final positions
1 Richard Thompson Jenny Thompson Royal Torbay 7512
2 Jean Simmons Derek Simmons South Cerney 6672
3 Neville Herbert “Iron Man” Jones Texas YC 8011
4 Trevor Smith Ann Smith Maidenhead 8000
5 Colin Fletcher Hugh Fletcher Llangorse 6936
6 Peter Lawrence Sally Lawrence Tewkesbury 7993

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ALBACORE SCOTTISH TRAVELLER

STRATHCLYDE LOCH S.C. SUNDAY 13TH MAY

A steady force 4, blistering sunshine and I couldn't find my thong anywhere, not to worry, the racing just about made up for the lack of an all over tan.

The first meeting of the season always arrives with some excitement, boats done up, replacement fittings and new sails! Ptarmigans old rags looked like a snotty hanky by comparison, however Mike Mac has promised to save me further embarrassment and send me a suit of his very best ASAP, I hope he takes installments!, anyway, the report follows.

Race 1. Crawford Reid and Colin Boyce were first to test the nerves by taking a port flyer off the start line, thank god it worked! Up and around the first mark with Jim Sinclair and William Howarth hard on their heels, a broad reach down to mark 2 which lay only 15 metres from the shore and in front of an encouraging gallery of supporters calling the jibes/sorry, gybes. Dick Downie and Linda McMullen were showing good speed on the fast planes but each of their challenges were countered and after 4 laps the positions of the 3 leaders was unchanged.

Race 2. Over the same triangular course and the wind freshening even more, Sinclair had the better start but it was Reid to the first mark, the pattern seemed set to follow that of race 1, that was until Downie mistimed a nasty gust on the next lap to windward and discovered that dispite the balmy sunshine the water was still bbbbloomming cold. Robin Ferguson needed no second chance, crewed by Susanne Boyce they had been waiting patiently for just such an opportunity and carried on to finish a well deserved 3rd.

Race 3. By this time the race officer was getting more confident and to satisfy the building numbers of spectators, set a windward/leeward course, just the ticket for a good downwind battle. Jim and Willie won the start, again, but Highland Queen or no, Ptarmigan was not for giving up, each of the downwind legs became a series of gybes to break cover and all of the beats a series of tacks to hold cover, the heat was really on, and quess what, who,s waiting for the first mistake? Yes, Gibbon as in Derek with young Katie (young woman) how things change in 6 months,,, anyway they sailed a blinder and Bloo Magic was only 20 seconds behind Reid who lost the battle for the overlap at the last mark and left Sinclair and Howarth to win by 10 seconds.

Unfortunately John McKelvie and Jim Bryce(father of Colin Boyce and Susanne)though not respectively, retired from the last race and ulimately the regatta due to gear failure.

1st. Crawford Reid/Colin Boyce 6703 Strathclyde Loch S.C.
2nd. Jim Sinclair/William Howarth 6956 East Lothian Y.C.
3rd Derek/Katie Gibbon 6852 Forth Y.C.

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SCOTTISH ALBACORE TRAVELLER ROUND 2

ROYAL WEST OF SCOTLAND A.B.C. -  26TH 27TH MAY

Royal West hosted the second round of the traveller series off Greenock esplanade, by time of the first start the forecasted 5 mph winds turned out to be twice that and set the stage for what was to be a beautiful weekend.

Race 1 Crawford Reid and Colin Boyce were first around the windward mark and onto a flying reach, hard on their heels, Dick Downie and John Kennedy went high and chased the gusts to windward while the rest of the fleet stayed low on the running tide. On reaching the second beat Derek and Katie Gibbon had moved up into third place, and come the last short leg up to the finish, Jim Sinclair and William Howarth had jumped two places into second spot.

Race 2 All boats enjoyed a close battle around most of the course and as the afternoon wore on, the gusts got stronger and offered some exiting planning for those lucky enough to catch them, Reid and Boyce got more than their share and as a result opened a sizeable lead to finish first with Downie second and Sinclair third.

Race 3 Sunday kicked off with winds very light and variable and prompting the race officer to raise the postponed flag, it was said that this was more to rest the fuzzy heads and tired legs that followed an excellent evenings ceilidh.

The first race of the day actually get away at 11.30.am with the four leading boats matching one another around the whole course, Reid just held on for first place followed by Sinclair who had Downie firmly pinned in third.

Race 4 Sinclair was off the line first and rounded the windward mark 15 lengths clear, Downie shortened the distance some with Reid trying to play catch-up, but never actually did, untill the downwind leg when Dick dropped the jib stick, as his crew made a dive for it, the boat went into a violent roll, ejected it's helmsman, then sailed on some 20 yds before he was even missed, he did however make a remarkable recovery to clinch third place behind Reid who never did catch Sinclair in first.

Results

1st Crawford Reid/Colin Boyce 6703 Strathclyde Loch S.C.
2nd Jim Sinclair/ William Howarth 6956 East Lothian YC
3rd Dick Downie/John Kennedy 7420 Royal West of Scotland ABC

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Albacore Scottish Traveller at East Lothian Yacht Club, 2 & 3 June 2001

The third round of the Scottish Travellers circuit was held at East Lothian YC, North Berwick on the 2nd and 3rd of June. An increase of 200% on last year saw the Albacore fleet swollen to 3 boats, joining 73 other boats also taking part in the regatta. Those who missed it, however, missed an outstanding weekend of sea sailing with 20 knots of wind and huge rolling waves.

Six races were held on a tight P shaped course which, in the conditions, tested boat-handing to the limit and sometimes beyond. Race one saw Jim Sinclair & William Howarth from the home club stretch away to a comfortable win with Crawford Reid & Colin Boyce from Strathclyde Loch second. The third boat, Stuart Gibson & Gavin Berry also from Strathclyde Loch, broke their rudder before the start and missed the race while they effected repairs. Race two
was a much tighter affair with Sinclair & Howarth edging out Gibson and Berry in a close finish. Reid & Colin Boyce capsized on a screaming run and came home third. In race three, Gibson and Berry disappeared over the horizon to a big win. A start line incident resulting in a protest saw Sinclair & Howarth disqualified promoting Reid & Colin Boyce to second.

Sunday dawned sunny and windy but with the wind having swung from the North East to the West. The sea was shorter but no less testing as the boats headed off up the first beat of race four. Gibson & Berry rounded the first mark first and, although never far in front, led to the finish. Reid & Colin Boyce and Sinclair & Howarth traded places throughout but at the finish it was the home boat that had edged ahead. Race five was also won by Gibson & Berry with another close fight behind. Reid & Colin Boyce sailed an excellent last lap to pass and hold off Sinclair & Howarth for a well deserved second place.

The final race was something of an anticlimax with the positions at the first mark never changing. Gibson & Berry won to clinch the event from Sinclair & Howarth in second and Reid & Colin Boyce third.

All agreed that it had been an excellent event, spoiled only by the dreadfully poor turnout. The next stop for the Scottish circuit is the Scottish Championship at Largo Bay on 30 June/1 July. All Scottish boats are encouraged to come along and enjoy the event.

Results
1. Sundowner   Stuart Gibson & Gavin Berry, Strathclyde Loch SC, #6959, Woof
hull, McNamara sails
2. Spraywax     Jim Sinclair & William Howarth, East Lothian YC, #6956,
Young hull, McNamara sails
3. Ptarmigan     Crawford Reid & Colin Boyce, Strathclyde Loch SC, #6703, Woof
hull, McNamara sails

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