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Bell Lawrie Scottish Series 2006
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Press Release
From The Bell Lawrie Scottish Series.,Tarbert, Loch Fyne, Scotland.
Day Three - Sunday 29th May 2006
With just one day of racing left at The Bell Lawrie Scottish Series on
Loch Fyne, past winners of the overall Scottish Series Trophy top four of
the 13 classes.
Crews were at full stretch in today's blustery north westerly winds which
buffeted down the loch with dark squalls of over 30 knots causing all
kinds of problems. "It seemed like a bit of a demolition derby at times."
Confirmed three times Scottish Series Trophy winning skipper Jonathan
Anderson who sailed to a first and a second today with his crew on the
First 47.7 Playing FTSE. They blew up their vang, which holds down their
mainsail, and had to drop their spinnaker to gybe. "It certainly cost us
time." Said Anderson, "We were just a bit nervous about gybing and so had
to be a bit careful. It was pretty windy at times, but the racing in our
class has been just great. Probably the best ever."
While FTSE's gear failure cost them time, their nearest rivals were not so
fortunate. The new J133 Jaru, which leads the class and is being sailed by
a group of mainly English pro sailors, suffered a steering failure while
on a fast, hairy reach. They dropped their spinnaker and main smartly and
had to return to Tarbert Harbour to make a repair, while FTSE went to on
to win.
Jaru was back in action for the second race and helm Jeremy Robinson of
North Sails UK steered Jaru to their third win to lead Anderson's Clyde
crew by just a single point, setting up an exciting final showdown
tomorrow.
Racing between Jaru, FTSE and the defending champion, Tim Costello's Mills
40 Tiamat has been very close throughout the regatta. "We have lost one
race by one second and one race by six seconds I think. It is that close.
It's great." Anderson reported.
In IRC Class 2 it is the 2005 Scottish Series Trophy champion Anthony
O'Leary and his Royal Cork crew on the Irish IRC Championhip winning Antix,
a Corby 35, which retains the upper hand over the newer Corby designed 36
footer Rosie which is owned by Howth's Roy Dickson and is being steered by
UK Sails John Brinkers. They had an issue with the steering of the boat
downwind when the boat is fully powered up and blew out two spinnakers
today. "It was pretty frustrating because we had Antix by a couple of
minutes in the morning until we lost the kites and the breeze just go up.
When we are reaching under kite we have an issue with the rudder
gripping." Said
Rosie's Dave Nixon. "I think that Anthony will be pretty unstoppable at
this rate.
In IRC Class 3 the Carrickfergus based Bengal Magic has composed a perfect
scoreline to place themselves firmly in contention for the overall top
trophy.
They have excelled in the strong winds. "The boat goes well when it's
breezy. It's one of those things that the
more successful you are the more you put into, so I guess we are on a bit
of roll at the moment. We thought we could do well here because we won a
couple of races last year before we had some gear failure problems. But
the
racing is great." Explained owner Chris Ferres.
In the 1720 Class it is the local Tarbert hero Graeme and Ruairidh Scott
on their King Quick which is dominating. They posted three wins from the
three starts in the north of the loch. The Scott crew won the overall
Tropy three
years ago.
In the Sportsboat class back to
back Scottish Series Trophy winner Hamish Mackay and his crew lead with
the J80 Jazolo. With a 3,2,4 for the day they should already have the
class sewn up thanks to their 20 points margin.
A perfect all-firsts scoreline may be expected of the Flying 15 world
champion and multiple Sonata title holder Steve Goacher who is the 1993
Scottish Series Trophy winner. With Volvo Youth Keelboat sailors Andy
Tunnicliffe and Gregg Pitt, who usually sail with Goacher on his 1720, in
his crew Goacher has also won the class to win with a day to spare.
Press Release
From the Bell Lawrie Scottish Series, Tarbert, Loch
Fyne
Day Two - Saturday 28th May 2006
With more breeze forecast for day two of the Bell
Lawrie Scottish Series the fleets were looking forward to a thrilling day
on the water, and Loch Fyne certainly delivered plenty of drama. For most
of the crews, a testing day on the water was followed by a trip to the
sailmakers with damaged sails the order of the day.
In the gusty conditions there were a number of
retirements, with masts tumbling on the Impala 28 ‘Bambi’ and the J/92
‘Nijinsky’.
Racing kicked off for big boats on the Graham
Technology course in 16 knots of breeze and the sun came out to play in
between some gusty showers which kept the crews on their toes. The breeze
built through the day so by the time of the second race the gusts of up to
40 knots saw even the top boats struggling.
Leading the charge off the startline in Class 1 was
Richard Loftus’ ‘Hotel California’, but last year’s winner, Tim Costello’s
‘Tiamat’ sailed a great race to finish first ahead of ‘Playing FTSE’
followed by yesterday’s winner, the new J133 ‘Jaru’. In the second race
‘Jaru’ made the best of the conditions to retain her overall lead ahead of
‘Playing FTSE’.
In Class 2 Anthony O’Leary and his crew on the Corby
35 ‘Antix’ had been looking forward to the breeze, although they were
sailing fast, a man overboard incident cost them the lead in the first
race which was won by another Corby design, Roy Dickson’s 36-foot ‘Rosie’.
However, in the second race O’Leary and his Irish crew finished two
minutes ahead of ‘Rosie’, which lost valuable time when they broached on
the final run. Peter O’Leary described the second race as ‘Full on,’
adding, ‘There are a few tired bodies after today.’
Chris Ferres’ J/35 ‘Bengal Magic’, helmed by
26-year-old David Taylor from Carrickfergus continued to dominate Class 3.
The young amateur crew are used to smaller, livelier boats, their starts
were spot on and their slick crew work was an impressive sight. Crewmember
Dillan Lyness explained. ‘Most of the people are dinghy sailors. We’ve
been sailing together now for a while and we’ve just got the boat up and
trucking. We had to hike hard today — we could have done with extra crew
on the rail, but so could everyone!’
On the Talisker fleet, all eyes were on the Sonatas,
where the Series winner from 1993 Steve Goacher was dominating with ‘Eric
the Boat’. Goacher won the first two races of the day, but was denied a
clean score by ‘Scruples’. In the 1720s Ruairidh Scott’s ‘King Quick’ was
flying and took the first two races of the day, however a damaged
spinnaker meant he had to settle for second in the third race, which
leaves him topping the class by four points from ‘Buddy White’. The
24-boat Sportsboat class is shaping up into a battle between the Sonar
‘Carpe Diem’ and Hamish MacKay’s J/80 ‘Jazolino’. MacKay had the better
day, posting two firsts and a third, while ‘Carpe Diem’ suffered in the
afternoon’s bigger breeze.
Press Release
Day One Friday 26 May 2006
On the opening day of the 2006 Bell Lawrie Scottish
Series, the 191-boat entry was greeted by a brisk 15-20 knot
south-easterly breeze and an unwelcome drenching of rain. But it’s the
racing that attracts some of Europe’s top raceboats to Tarbert, and the
conditions were ideal for a morning of tight competition.
The first starts were scheduled for 1030, and a
steady breeze ensured the fleets got away on time. For the big boats on
the Graham Technology course it was Richard Loftus’ sleek ‘Hotel
California’ which made the best of the starboard-biased line to lead
Class 1, closely followed by Graham Hutchinson’s new J/133 ‘Jaru’. By the
windward mark the order of the fleet was pretty settled with ‘Hotel
California’ holding a slim lead from ‘Jaru’. However the race was ‘Jaru’s’,
and at the finish she was over three minutes ahead of Jonathan Anderson’s
‘Playing FTSE’, with last year’s overall winner ‘Tiamat’ third.
North Sails’ Jeremy Robinson was calling tactics on ‘Jaru’,
which notched up a victory in its first outing in the Kip Regatta earlier
this month. That was a light wind affair, so the team was pleased to see
the boat could perform in more breeze. ‘We’ve done a bit of work on the
rig to get a bit more out of it,’ explained Robinson.
In class two eyes were rightly trained on 2004 Bell
Lawrie Scottish Series winner Anthony O’Leary, sailing his Corby 36
‘Antix’ with a crew which includes his two sons. ‘Antix’ had to work hard
following a poor start, ‘We had to dig ourselves out of a hole,’ explained
Anthony’s eldest son, Peter. ‘We carried a lot of breeze down one of the
runs which meant we managed to claw back a couple of minutes on the guys
in front. In the breezy stuff we’ve always felt she was quick.’
The distinctive red Corby 36 ‘Rosie’ of Roy Dickson
sailed well to take second ahead of Chris Bonar’s former Series winner
‘Bateleur 97’.
In Class 3 ‘’Bengal Magic’ from Bangor sailed an
almost perfect race to take the gun some four minutes ahead of
second-placed ‘Equinox’. ‘We worked out which way to go at the start and
just kept on pulling away from everybody,’ commented owner Chris Ferres.
Third was last year’s Class 3 winner Howard Morrison’s Sigma 38 ‘Enigma’.
After a lengthy wait as the breeze dropped and became
rather shifty, a second race was started at 1500hrs, but abandoned as the
lead boats rounded the windward mark and the breeze dropped completely and
then swung through 180 degrees.
Meanwhile the Talisker fleet had a full day of
racing. The Sportsboat class was dominated by Sonars, which took the top
two places in the first race and the top five places in race two. ‘Grouse’
won the first two races, but was pushed down to fifth in race three, which
was won by Hamish MacKay’s ‘Jazolino’
The Sonata class saw the return of Steve Goacher in
‘Eric the Boat’ who dominated to win all three races of the day. Steve has
won the series in a Sonata before, but that was back in 1993.
The 1720s also managed three races, with former
Series winner Ruairidh Scott on ‘King Quick taking the first race by over
a minute, and also notched up a win in race three. However Scott, who
originally hails from Tarbert, didn’t have things all his own way as he
was forced to settle for second in race two behind Charles Frize in ‘Buddy
White’. |
Cruising
