Albacores at
Largs and Loch Lommond

Both of these events are top class regatta’s but for various reasons we failed to get class starts at either of them, this fortunately did not diminish the racing, and reinforced further the suitability of the Albacore to a wide range of conditions.
Largs Week-end had round the cans races on Saturday and a single passage race around the Isle of Cumbrie on Sunday. Saturday went from windy to light then back to windy with some nice surf into the bargain. Sunday was a brisk force 4 with a long hard 3 mile beat to the first mark followed by a screaming reach of another 3 miles across the waves to the south end before a relatively short run then a reach back up to the finish line.
Completing the nine miles course in under two hours the Alb was held to second overall by an Olympic squad Finn, but had “The Ptarmigan” been given allowance for her 29 years against a new state of the art Finn, at mind boggling costs, things may well have been different.
1st Crawford Reid and Issy Martin 6703 Strathclyde Loch SC
2nd John McKelvie and Scott Caldow 7775 Strathclyde Loch SC
3rd D Fleming and D Gibb 7768 RYA
4th Duncan and John Ainslie 1096 Strathclyde Loch SC

 

Loch Lommond welcomed an entry of twenty six boats to the medium handicap class which was, alas, only augmented by three Albacores. Racing was fast in the brisk conditions, the main competition being from Enterprises and RS200s, but suffice to say that the Albs showed how much fun they can be when the wind is up and other classes are starting to struggle, just ask Crawford and Issy who took a windward capsize on a huge header or Paul Metcalf-Smith who travelled several hundred miles and went swimming, after his crew fell overboard at the gybe mark.
1st Albacore and Overall
Crawford Reid and Issy Martin 6703 Strathclyde Loch SC
2nd Paul Metcalf-Smith and John Swain 6956 Ogston SC
3rd Duncan and John Ainslie 1096 Strathclyde Loch SC