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Carl Dyson Regatta 2002
76 yachts over six classes turned up
for one of Scotland’s premier event on the last weekend
in September. Dry light winds were forecast from the south with
occasional sunny periods.
Many boats were seen to be having a quick scrub prior to the
event, including my own, Blyth Spirit (X-332), which had not
been looked at since the start of the year. I was pleasantly
surprised at the lack of growth to the underside so made use
of the time giving the hull a light wet and dry treatment whilst
the tide was out.
Saturday Race One had a biased line towards the committee vessel.
Trying to position the boat there resulted in us being squashed
out in the last minute so a quick tack to port, using a useful
gap behind the committee vessel, followed by a spin round back
to the start saw us starting 30 seconds late and behind the
fleet. The fleet tacked to port and went up the north shore
whilst I stayed on starboard by myself till across to the south
shore coming into the windward mark on port in third place proved
again the benefits of clean air. The rest of the course was
fairly straightforward trapezoidal and we managed to claw back
to second place by the end between our arch rival Hops (1 Tonner)
with Chris Owen of Owen sails on board and in front of Rhett
Butler (Dehler 402).
Saturday Race Two was another trapezoidal course. Decided to
go for the middle of the line to avoid the congestion and found
ourselves close behind Hops at the first windward mark. She
gives us 54 seconds in the hour so were happy to be close to
her stern. On the last run down towards the leeward mark, Hullaballo
(Bull 7000) caught us in a port and starboard cross 100 meters
from the mark. We immediately dropped the kite and performed
our penalty 720 before proceeding to the finish. As a result
we were pushed back to fifth with honours going to Hops, Hullaballoo
and Kit Off (Corby 25).
After a brilliant party on Saturday night, we came out for the
first race on Sunday at 10am, a windward leeward course. Some
of the crew were feeling decidedly poorly with one supporting
a bucket for most of the day. The wind was slightly east of
south today and quite shifty. We put up our Banks Checkmate
Kevlar Light No. 1 along with Banks Checkmate Kevlar Sport Main
that we used all weekend. Our start was clean and safe in the
middle of the line but ended up doing another 720 following
a close encounter with Hullaballoo (again), this time near the
windward mark. From being the lead boat we were now back in
tenth place, but after a brilliant spinnaker run in shifty winds
saw us pull back most of the lost places. Results were Hullabaloo,
Hoot (Melges N-5) then Blyth Spirit.
Race Four, another windward leeward course, showed a distinct
bias towards the pin end so we went for 50m before the pin.
Following a great start we rounded the windward buoy first then,
following sailing into a hole for a short period, controlled
the race from the front. Results Blyth Spirit, Jezebel (First
30), Hullaballoo.
Race Five, an Olympic course, still had a start line with a
bias towards the pin end. Being sharp onto the start area we
had to run the line spilling speed but managed (just) to get
through before running out of space. This time we found ourselves
behind Aloutte (Sun Kiss 44) at the windward mark. They were
slow in getting their Kite up so we managed to get alongside
only to find them luffing us up and collapsing our spinnaker.
Still in second place at the wing mark we took Aloutte’s
lead and gibed onto a very tight second reach. We managed two
thirds of this leg before we had to get rid of the kite, but
did manage to stay on course (just). Next time round we did
not attempt the kite on this leg. We held on with a faultless
race to be first over the line but were piped for first place
on corrected time by Jezebel with Kit Off taking third.
Overall for the weekend in the Fast class we took honours followed
by Hops and Hullabaloo. A great weekend for us along with most
of the yachts.
Malcolm Blyth (X-332 Blyth Spirit)
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