Tuesday Press Report

PRESS RELEASE:

FROM THE BELL LAWRIE TARBERT SCOTTISH SERIES TARBERT LOCH FYNE SCOTLAND.

John Bainbridge and his crew of the Prima 38 White Knuckles return to their south of England base this evening will satisfied after winning the principal prize for the 217 boat Bell Lawrie Tarbert Scottish Series after posting six victories and a second place to concincingly win the 16 boat IRC Class 1 division.

This was Bainbridge's first ever trip to the always testing waters of Loch Fyne and he was delighted with his win:

" We came here to do some yachting and never expected to win the whole thing, so we are delighted. It is not an easy place to sail at all and our tactician Rick Oswald kept his cool throughout and never made any wild calls. You cannot just take every windshift and have to keep looking at what is going on around you on the water. The competition was always close and there were always boats close to us and threatening out position." He said.

The big boat class prize also went south as Richard Matthews' maiden regatta with his new Corby 41.5 Barlo Plastics proved a victorious one.

Finishing with a second place today behind Colm Barrington's smaller sister-ship Gloves Off, Barlo - which had Harold Cudmore as tactician - won with a three point cushion.

Alan Milton's Sigma 33 Pepsi, which won the top trophy outright last year, made a comprehensive defence of the Sigma 33 Class title with a very convincing first and a third place today.

In the 1720 Class the Bangor crew of Red/Green clothing led by owner Alan Espey retained their cool to win outright after taking a second and third place today, while young local Tarbert helm Ruaraidh Scott took second place and was awarded the Crawford McInnes Youth Trophy for the best young helm of the event.

Bill Mackay's string of victories in the CYCA Class 7 in the Elan 333 Eland was today extended to seven from eight starts - the highest number of wins of any class - but he was passed over in the judgement for the overall trophy as he may have been considered a professional helm in a mainly cruiser class.