The Laird Inter-schools Sailing Trophy - 4^th November 2006

Although originally planned to be on Saturday 28th October, due to a problem with the power supply in the clubhouse, the event was postponed to the following Saturday. Ten teams entered the race, but due to the change in date, only 6½ teams managed  (The Lenzie Academy B helm did not turn up, but the crew did, leaving Lenzie with two and a half teams)

The Winning Teams

The event was sailed in the club's Laser 2000 dinghies.  I was delighted to have a strong and steady (by Bardowie standards) breeze, as my sister who had never been in a dinghy race before was crewing for me. I had been worried beforehand that it would be too calm, or too windy and Rebecca would be put off dinghy racing. While we helped rig the boats, Rebecca was given a crash course in dinghy racing. Once the boats were all rigged, the race officer decided that all the boats must be reefed as the wind had increased a bit and it was thought that the smaller and lighter teams would be at disadvantage if we sailed with full size sails.

At a short briefing, it was explained that there were to be five short qualifying races in the morning, with each team to sail in three. The top six teams would then compete in a final after lunch.

Due to the helmsman of the Lenzie B team not turning up, I had to arrange for someone from one of the other two Lenzie Academy teams who was not in each of the races to helm for the B team. This was to cause some problems for the Lenzie teams later on.

With this complicated plan arranged, the boats were launched into the freezing cold water and the teams in race 1 set out. I was delighted that the race officers took a while to get the race started as this gave me an opportunity to continue explaining to Rebecca how to crew in a racing dinghy. She was quite surprised to learn that as the centreboard was quite stiff, the only way of getting it down was to give it a good kick!

As the race started, I was so busy trying to sail the boat, make sure Rebecca knew what was going on, watch out for other boats etc, that I forgot that I wasn't sailing an aft-mainsheet boat when we tacked, and so got into tangle with the mainsheet and tiller and narrowly missed hitting the pontoon, I then hit the leeward mark as a result of not concentrating on my steering while telling Rebecca what to do. Despite these mistakes, we finished the race in second place to the Hutcheson team, who were working well as a team and were much better at tactics than me.

By the second race, I managed to get into the habit of tacking the laser 2000 without getting tangled out in the mainsheet, and Rebecca was managing to deal with the jib, though we nearly capsized the boat once by an over enthusiastic roll tack. We were both delighted to finish in first place with Hutcheson finishing in second place.

Since the Lenzie A team were not in this race, it was my turn to helm for the Lenzie B team, with David Fraser as crew, since David's helmsman had not turned up.  The Bearsden team made a very good start and were first to the windward mark.  However, on the downwind legs, we managed to make up for our less than perfect start and got ahead, finishing in first place. Only then was I told that the helmsman was not allowed to change, so David and I (Lenzie B) were disqualified, leaving Bearsden with first place.

Race four started rather badly for most of us, somehow, I managed to get jammed between the Hutcheson team's boat and the Kilsyth team's boat. While we got ourselves out of this mess, Bearsden were quickly gaining a huge lead. I am still not sure who was to blame for the incident on the start line, not knowing which boat hit which, it all happened very quickly, so I decided to play it safe and to penalty turns to save another disqualification. We were now in last place, but Rebecca had worked out that as long as we finished ahead of Hutcheson, we would finish the qualifying races in first place. So ignoring the other two teams, we concentrated on getting ahead of Hutcheson. Eventually, we caught up with them at the leeward mark, and so followed an extremely close beat up to the finish line. We managed eventually to get ahead of Hutcheson, taking second place to Bearsden, who had finished long ago, having gained a huge head start.

I now needed to change back to being in Lenzie B, crewing for David this time, after checking with the race officer that this would not lead to us being disqualified again. In this race, the wind was not very steady, which made for hard work crewing. We finished this race in fourth position. While not a fantastic result, this was a considerable improvement on our disqualification.

With the qualifying races finished, we sailed back to the clubhouse, where the Bardowie diner provided us with hot soup and sandwiches, which were much appreciated by all competitors, who were finding that dinghy sailing in November is a rather cold experience and were grateful for the hot soup.

After lunch, the top six teams from the morning set out for the final. I was very pleased by how quickly Rebecca had picked up an understanding of what was going on, though I did have to explain why I had shouted "STARBOARD!!" at one of the other teams.

For once, I made a successful start to the race, though the Kilsyth team had managed to get ahead, where they remained until we managed to get to windward of them on the short reaching leg and so blocked the wind from them as we passed.  The Hutcheson team also managed to get ahead during the first beat, though we were not too bothered as all morning, we had been faster downwind, probably due to knowledge of the wind at Bardowie, which the Hutcheson team who usually sail at Largs did not have. By the time we reached the leeward mark of the last lap, we had managed to get a small lead over Hutcheson. The following beat to the finish line was extremely close and we finished with less than a second between us, while the Kilsyth team were not far behind. None of us could be sure as to who won, so we had to wait until the prize giving to find out. Rebecca and I, and the Hutcheson team waited anxiously while the results were read in reverse order. Third place went to Kilsyth. Hutcheson were second, leaving Rebecca and I, Lenzie Academy A team with first place and the Laird Trophy. I was, and still am, delighted to win the event, this being the fourth time I have entered the event.

The prize for first placed ladies team also went to a Lenzie Academy team:  Jamie McLean and Rachel Fraser, C team.

Finally I would like to thank Alan Cassels for organising the event, the race officers for running the races, the Bardowie Diner for providing lunch, all the teams who took part and made it such an exciting race, Rebecca MacLennan for crewing for me, and everyone else who helped make the event a success.

PS. Apologies for the missing results, I have not been able to get the complete results.

By Michael & Rebecca MacLennan, Lenzie Academy A team