Press Releases
Press releases relating to the Bell Lawrie
Scottish Series will be added here. Generally the newest will be at the top,
oldest last. Please come back at review this page regularly.
26 May 2003
From The Bell Lawrie Scottish Series,
Tarbert, Loch Fyne. Monday 26th May 2003
As the nerves start to creep into the equation on the penultimate day's races,
and - for some - perhaps even the after effects of the traditional Sunday
evening crew dinners, today proved a critical stage in the The Bell Lawrie
Scottish Series regatta on Loch Fyne as several leading campaigns foundered as
they pursue not only overall class wins, but the Scottish Series Trophy
itself.
IRC Class 1, the big boat division, remains tight at the top but the front
runners on points are now Keith Miller's new Swan 45 Crackerjack and Roy
Dickson's Corby 40 Cracklin Rosie.
Crackerjack lead both races and was often able to largely dictate their own
plays as the scratch boat in the division, but Cracklin Rosie made two time
consuming transgressions which looked to have threatened her chances of
overall victory, and did cost her the class lead.
In the first heat they rounded the leeward mark cleanly but a hundred metres
later snagged a loose, trailing line which was attached to one of the
start-line markers. Stuck fast for several minutes they struggled free and had
to stage a major recovery to get back to third in the light, shifty southerly
breeze.
Rosie's crew protested the race officer for leaving the line down during the
race, seeking redress since they looked to be reasonably clear of the buoy
which was not a mark of the course after the start.
In what might have appeared to the outsider as a stage-managed comedy of
errors, as the new First 47.7 Playing FTSE of three times Scottish Series
Trophy winner Jonathan Anderson, sailed past the stuck fast Rosie, their
mainsail halyard parted. The main glided gently to the deck in a heap and they
were unable to continue.
But Cracklin Rosie refused to lie down and not only came back to score a very
useful third in that first contest, but repeated the phoenix act again in the
afternoon after they had to take two penalty turns for separate infringements
at the weather mark.
Having been deep in the pack they came back to fourth and share the same
15points tally as Crackerjack going into Tuesday's last race of the regatta.
"One of our crew was heard to comment that even Jesus only rose from the dead
once, so we have to be happy with the way it worked out and hope our luck runs
with us tomorrow," said Rosie's Des McWilliam of UK McWilliam sails.
With owner Miller steering and Murray Findlay calling the moves Crackerjack
posted a 2-2 for the day.
Racing the Race1/ Ker 11.3 Blue Belle, bidding to win the Scottish Series
Trophy for an unprecedented third time in a row, Hamish MacKay and his team
lie fourth, locked on 19points with Gloves Off. Blue Belle won the first race
by only three seconds, but a fifth in the 13 boat class could prove weighty.
In Class 2 Chris Bonar's Bateleur scored a 4-1 to lead overall. They read the
shifts well in the building breeze of the second race and the 1997 build Iain
Murray designed BH36 was well clear on the water
After three successive wins in the 20 boat Cork 1720 sportsboat class local
Tarbert helm Ruairidh Scott dropped to second overall in King Quick after
posting a fifth and a sixth yesterday while Mike Budd's Gul escaped with two
first places to lead the class.
"The winds were very shifty and difficult and we just did not get it right. In
the first race we were well down and were actually quite pleased to get back
to where we finished. It is very hard because there are probably 12 boats in
the class which can win races and sail at the same speed, so when you make
mistakes you can end up way back in the fleet." said Scott.
With a six point cushion over third placed Red/Green (Shaun Douglas, Ulster)
the class should be decided between Gul and King Quick. The local boat has
finished runner up twice at their home regatta but has yet to win overall.
The Sigma 33 class looks well wrapped up after Alan Milton's dominant Pepsi
scored back to back wins to earn a seven point lead going into their final two
scheduled races.
Click Here for 2003 Results
25 May 2003
From The Bell Lawrie Scottish Series,
Day 3, Sunday 25th May 2003.
Light to moderate north westerly breezes which rose and fell through the both
races today again ensured that it was hard to score consistently good results
at The Bell Lawrie Scottish Series on Loch Fyne.
Class 1, the big boat division, still looks like one of the toughest divisions
to win but Roy Dickson's Cracklin' Rosie, the red hulled Corby 40 from Howth,
Ireland retained their overall lead by posting a second a fourth today and now
leads by three points from Keith Miller's new Swan 45, Crackerjack.
Crackerjack showed clear signs that she is hitting the numbers now after her
initial work up period for the boat and crew.
They scarcely put a foot wrong this afternoon and their resulting win edged
them two points clear of four boats which are tussling over third place. Three
times Scottish Series winner Jonathan Anderson has assembled a crack Scottish
crew on his new First 47.7 Playing FTSE and they head the race for third along
with Hamish MacKay's team on Blue Belle, the chartered Race 1/Ker 11.3, Bob &
Bairbre Stewart's Azure - the Dubois 40 which won Class 1 last year and is
being steered this year by Kenny McCullough - and Gloves Off, Colm
Barrington's Corby 38.
Otherwise it is a crop of regular winners which are steadily emerging in the
IRC Classes. Chris Bonar's BH36 Bateleur has their full, regular crew aboard -
some of whom who have been together for over 15 years on a number of Bateleurs.
A first and a fourth in the 6-10 knots of breeze today ensured Bateleur
overtook Duncan Grant's Australian built Titan 36 Animula. Both of these
leading boats are steered by past overall winners of the Scottish Series
Trophy. Bateleur's Tich Summers won twice in different three-quarter tonners ,
while sailmaker John Highcock steered a Moody 336 to win the main trophy.
Alan Milton's Pepsi still leads the Sigma 33 class but suffered twice let
Kevin Aitken's The White Tub off the hook on the last beat of both races to
drop from first to second. As ever the key question was whether to downspeed
to mark the opposition tightly or try and hold their distance and speed but
risk missing a key shift in the breeze, and twice The White Tub gained
additional wind pressure and wind shift to leave Pepsi in second. In the 1720
class all eyes, again, are on the local prodigy Ruaridh Scott who steers King
Quick on the Loch overlooked by his home and where he learnt to sail.
Recently qualified naval architect Scott has completed the gruelling Tour
Voile, the Commodore's Cup and several Cowes Weeks as helms and scored
international success in Student World Yachting, has won the 1720 English and
Welsh titles and placed in the top 5 at Cork and the 1720 Europeans but has
yet to win the class on his home patch. Indeed King Quick has lead the highly
competitive class into the final day before but has yet to complete the class
win at Tarbert. Three wins in succession this weekend sees King Quick sitting
six clear points ahead of Mike Budd and his crew on Gul, with the Belfast
Lough crew on Red/Green in third. Clearly if Scott and his team could continue
on the same form through until the end of the regatta they would stand a
chance of completing the fairytale if they won the main trophy as well.
Certainly there is the depth of talent in the 20 boat fleet to merit it.
But the big question is whether an unbeaten string of wins for the pretty,
classic Borresen designed BB10, Vaila, owned by Glencoe builder Peter Watt,
will be enough to overshadow the high quality race fleets and secure the
Scottish Series Trophy come Tuesday. Vaila is clearly on target with five wins
from five starts.
Andi Robertson
Newslink Media Ltd
Click Here for 2003 Results
24 May 2003
From The Bell Lawrie Scottish Series
Tarbert, Loch Fyne. Saturday 24 May, 1800hrs
As the full armada of more than 200 boats assembled for the first day of
inshore racing on Loch Fyne at The Bell Lawrie Scottish Series to be treated
to a typically testing day of light to moderate north westerly breezes it was
Roy Dickson's Howth based Corby 40 Cracklin' Rosie which stole the show in
Class 1 with a first and a second place to lead the big boat class.
With regular big shifts in wind direction the evergreen eight year old Corby
design was not only kept in tune with the changes by the talented afterguard
of UK McWilliam Sailmakers' Des McWilliam and helm John Brinkers with
tactician Jamie Boag, but they proved well able to keep the slightly older
generation boat on the pace with some of her newer and quicker rivals.
"One of the great things about Cracklin Rosie is that the owner has not been
scared to make his own modifications almost every year and he has nearly
always been right and kept the boat competitive, but we sailed a good couple
of races today." Said McWilliam, deputising for the owner who is not at the
regatta.
Indeed Cracklin Rosie initially started life when Dickson took the rig and
hardware from his two tonner and built a new Corby hull. Since then his annual
winter modification have included new keels, carbon fibre rig, and rudders,
re-ballasting and the addition of a bowsprit and asymmetric spinnakers.
With the wind shifts skewing the reaches on the traditional Olympic style
courses 'Rosie's asymmetric kites came into their own, but they also stayed
out of trouble.
Their win and second place complement a third place in their offshore race
from Bangor to give a one point lead.
An incident at the first mark of the first race between the fierce Dublin Bay
rivals, Gloves Off, Colm Barrington's Corby 38 and Azure, Bob and Bairbre
Stewart's Dubois 40, where Gloves impeded Azure at the turn cost both time,
with Gloves having to drop her spinnaker and take a penalty turn.
The step up into Class 1 for the double winners of the Scottish Series Trophy
Hamish MacKay and his crew on the Race 1/Ker 11.3 Blue Belle finds them, so
far, meeting their match perhaps not only with the fiercer competition but the
handicapper's computer.
They sailed consistently well and lead the first race from the second turning
buoy but could not hold their time on handicap and dropped to third and
followed up with a fourth in the second race to lie third overall.
Gloves Off won the second race and lie second overall.
In Class 2 past Scottish Series Winner John Highcock, principal of Saturn
Sails, steered Duncan Grant's Brett Bakewell White designed Australian built
Titan 36 Animula into the overall lead with a first and third. Their tally for
the day was matched by another past Scottish Series double winner in the shape
of Chris Bonar's BH36 Bateleur which lies second.
But with three wins from three starts, the only boat with a perfect record so
far from three races, is Peter Watt's Borresen designed BB 10 32 footer Vaila
which leads Class 4. Watt found his boat waterlogged and in a state of severe
disrepair in Bermuda. He rebuilt it over the course of a year and last year
won his class. This year, with past Clyde Master Helm Duncan Munro steering,
Vaila has established themselves as an early favourite for the main Trophy.
"We are not even thinking about that. We are here to enjoy ourselves and do
our best in the racing. It's just nice to be away from work." Remarked helm
Munro, a Gourock schoolteacher and well known Scottish artist.
In the Sigma 33 Class the UK National Champions Pepsi, owned by Alan Milton
and steered by Jon Fitzgerald, have already made their mark, topping the
leaderboard with back to back wins today.
Local Tarbert favourites Ruaridh and Graham Scott lead the 1720 Class with a
fourth and first place today in the 21 boat class.
Click Here for 2003 Results
Andi Robertson
Newslink Media Ltd
23 May 2003
Bell Lawrie Scottish Series off to wet and windy start
23 May 2003
Tarbert, Loch Fyne
Wet and windy conditions greeted the 119 crews participating in the Bell
Lawrie Scottish Series' opening feeder races to Tarbert from the twin start
lines of Gourock on the Clyde and Bangor, Northern Ireland on Friday night.
Southerly winds gusting up to 30 knots and big, breaking seas tested crews
throughout the night, but, as ever the winds abated to become light and shifty
this morning, compressing many classes for the final few miles in to Tarbert.
Classes 1 and 2 raced a 72 mile course which turned north to Tarbert at DZ,
while the other Gourock starters missed out a dog leg after DZ to sail a 67
mile race.
Many competitors reported difficulty trying to find southerly turning mark, DZ,
off the Heads of Ayr. First to find the mark and turn was Playing FTSE owned
by John Anderson and previous three times winner of the Scottish Series
The Ker 11.3 Blue Belle (Hamish MacKay) was first of the 89 Gourock starters
to break the finish line just 16 seconds ahead of Desperado with whom they had
a fierce battle over the last mile to the finish line as the breeze dropped
back to just 6-8 knots.
Blue Belle lifted the Tarbert Shield for the first boat home, crossing the
finish line at 04:53.26 this morning. Bidding to win the Bell Lawrie Scottish
Series - the regatta's top award - for a record three times back to back,
MacKay and team scored a useful third place. While the veteran Swan 64
Desperado went on to win Class 1 with Titch Blachford, Owen Parker and owner
Richard Loftus calling the shots and making, repeating their offshore race win
on last year, a Swan also won class 2.
Arran brothers Ian and Graham Thomson guided their Swan 40 to victory in Class
2, while John Corson got the better of a close tussle in Class 3 in the Elan
332 Salamander XVI.
One early victim of the conditions was the far travelled French Class 2
Jeanneau SunFast 40 of Bernard Gouy Inis Mor.
Having sailed all over the north of Europe at international regattas and
recently been delivered from Brittany a rigging failure brought Inis Mor's
mast down during the night.
The dismasting was believed to have been the result of problem which required
a product recall for many Jeanneau and Beneteau craft some four years ago, but
which was overlooked by the boat's owner.
The number of entries for this year's Bell Lawrie Scottish Series is
significantly up with over 200 yachts having congregated in Tarbert, Loch Fyne
Click Here for 2003 Results
Andi Robertson
Newslink Media Ltd, 22 Kingsknowe Avenue
Edinburgh, EH 14 2JL
Phone 0131 466 4064, Mobile 07775 671973
e-mail:
andirobertson@compuserve.com, andi@born2escape.com
March 2003
Bell Lawrie Scottish
Series - Results on your Phone
The Clyde Cruising Club have adopted a new txt
messaging service to enhance their current results and regatta information
service. The service, supplied and powered by UTEXTME, will enable
competitors to receive their own Class results as soon as each race finishes,
as well as overall results at the end of each days racing. The service may
also be used for updating competitors with time sensitive information along
with some promotional information from sponsors from time to time. UTEXTME
are delighted to add Bell Lawrie Scottish Series
along with the Clyde Cruising Club to its growing list of sailing txt service
partners. UTEXTME are exclusive txt messaging and photo image partners to
Yachts and Yachting.com. UTEXTME currently provide txt messaging services for
the following sailing events: The Raymarine Warsach Spring Series being sailed on the Solent, Americas Cup action, results from
Around Alone, Steve Fossetts' Round Britain record
breaking challenge, and has recently provided txt services for Mike Golding and Conrade Humphrey's
during their Route De Rhum. For full details of how
to join the service for the Bell Lawrie Scottish
Series and other CCC events throughout the season click here (sorry no
longer available).
The Bell Lawrie Scottish Series has been
registered as an Event with British Waterways. This entitles entrants to a
10% discount. The licensing system is being completely revamped for this
coming season with a view to increasing flexibility, however, Bell Lawrie Scottish Series entrants will pay 10% less than
standard rate for the passages.
January 2003
The BELL
LAWRIE SCOTTISH SERIES
MAY 22-27 2003, LOCH
FYNE.
Following the autumn announcement that title sponsors Bell Lawrie White have extended their support for the north of
Britain's premier annual regatta, The Bell Lawrie
Scottish Series, for a further two years, the event organisers,
the Clyde Cruising Club reveal new supporting sponsors in the shape of
international market leading sailwear brand Henri
Lloyd and Talisker whisky.
" While their financial input is essential
to being able to maintain the high standards of regatta management on the
water that the event is regularly acclaimed for, it is doubly pleasing to
welcome on board such prestigious brands that will both be highly valued by
our competitors." Opened Clyde Cruising Club Commodore Peter Fairley, " We are very
fortunate to have a wonderful mix of sponsors to support the event."
Henri-Lloyd and Talisker join Tunnocks as the principal sponsors of the three different
fleets' course areas on Loch Fyne. Their financial
contributions effectively cover the substantial on-the-water running costs to
ensure that all courses are well resourced in terms of support craft and
personnel.
The club have been working tirelessly to build on
the success of the 2002 event, and Peter Fairley
and his team are confident that the number of competing yachts will show an
upturn this year.
Among those leading international skippers and crews who have indicated
that Loch Fyne and the 2003 Bell Lawrie Scottish Series is already inked on to their new
season race calendars are the brand new Swan 45's of Keith Miller, the
Edinburgh based businessman who is a past Swan European Champion, and Ford
Cork Week High
Performance IRM class winner Glyn Williams who
will also bring one of the new Swan 45s north from its Solent base. A new class for the Laser SB 3 sportsboat is also on the cards, and there seems a good
chance that, with the continued growth of the class in northern waters, the
biggest complement of Hunter 707 sportsboats is
also likely this year.
While the process of consultation with past and present competitors to
evaluate whether a change from the long established 'long weekend' formula to
a five or six day week long regatta starting on the Sunday or Monday is well
under way, and initial feedback will soon be known, the club have responded
to competitors' desire to have 'no-spinnakers' racing for bigger or faster
boats. So this year racing under CYCA Handicapping for the Restricted Sail
classes will see two classes, with a split at 12.5 and under and 12.75 and
over.
Other initiatives which started last year will continue. Some classes will
not do the opening Offshore Race on the Thursday evening but will have a more
direct inshore race to Tarbert starting Friday
morning. Otherwise the successful formula that has served the regatta so well
in over two decades of racing remains the same.
The regatta starts Thursday 22nd May and finishes Tuesday 27th May. The
notice of race has just been published and is available from the Clyde
Cruising Club offices (phone 0141 221 2774, e-mail Hazel @Clyde.org).
20th January 2003
Bell-Lawrie Scottish Series - 2004 and beyond
The Clyde Cruising Club has written to owners entered in
the 2002 event with a short questionnaire. The CCC says: "
Together with our sponsors we are keen to ensure that the established
and successful format of the Bell-Lawrie Scottish
Series continues to provide what competitors want. Many large scale regattas
elsewhere follow a week rather than an extended weekend format. The main
advantages of a week format are a weekend buffer at either end enabling boat
preparation/postioning/repositioning and an uninterrupted
week away from work. The existing extended weekend format means a scramble
for many on the Thursday night to make the start and a downbeat end to the
regatta on Tuesday with some boats heading off early to enable crews to be
back at work on Wednesday. Also,two
working weeks are affected rather than one."
What do you think? Would you prefer a full week Scottish? If you're crew
and haven't been asked why not let the CCC know your views? email - hazel@clyde.org
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