Report on Europe Traveller at Loch Lomond Sailing Club, 4/5 September 2004

Loch Lomond Sailing Club is situated on Millarochy Bay on the East side of the loch. The sailing area off the club is close to the widest part of the loch, and protected by a ring of islands. The hills at the southern end of the loch are relatively low (for Scotland) and with a generally southwesterly airflow, the wind on Saturday was fairly consistent, without the major shifts that often characterise lake sailing. Sunday was a different situation, with the breeze dropping to next to nothing at times and sharply changing conditions throughout the day which challenged the Race Officer trying to fit a full six races for six classes into the two day event.

Race 1

With the luxury of a separate start the Europes set off 3 minutes behind the preceding Radial class in a steady breeze from the southwest. The course, as were all the weekend courses, was an Olympic style sausage triangle. Greg arrived at the windward mark ahead but by the leeward mark Val had inched ahead and stayed in the lead for the next lap until the final beat to the finish, where Greg and Gareth squeezed past to leave Val third on the line. Liz Ashburn was finding her performance better upwind than downwind crossing the line fourth, with Pete Dowker and Brian Finnie bringing up the rear, Pete having spent most of the race recovering from having to do turns for an incident shortly after the start.

Race 2

Greg got away well from the start and led to the end with Gareth and Val finishing in second and third. Liz made an unfortunate mistake on the second beat and was some way up the windward leg before she realised that she had not passed through the gate and had to return, losing considerable ground to finish sixth, allowing Pete and Brian to take fourth and fifth places.

Race 3

While the fleet went right after the start, following the trend of the day so far, Val went left before crossing back to the right hand side, and led to the windward mark by a considerable margin, which she held until the finish. Greg continued to sail consistently to come in second, some way behind Val, with Gareth third. Pete again finished fourth with Liz and Brian following.

Race 4

Sunday dawned to the forecast of light winds, but despite an unpromising start to the day, the first race started on time in a light south-westerly. While the main group went left after the start, Brian took the right-hand side and despite a late start found sufficient shifts in the clearer wind to arrive at the windward mark in second place behind Greg, with the others close behind. In the light conditions the Europes soon caught up with the Radials and were themselves caught by the faster handicap boats behind, so tactics had to be devoted to keeping out of a lot of dirty wind. By the leeward mark Brian had dropped to fourth, letting Val and Gareth through on the reach and the top three were again clear ahead. Greg found a useful shift at the next windward mark to get to the front and kept the lead round the remainder of the lap to the end. The wind finally died off leaving Pete, Brian and Liz struggling on the final beat to fight their way through a sea of Radials. Pete managed to sail out to the clearer air on the right and took another fourth place while Brian and Liz, who had gone left after the mark, found themselves in the wind shadow from the Radial fleet as the wind had now taken on a north-westerly shift. In the face of the failing breeze the Race Officer signalled a postponement and the fleets went ashore for an unscheduled lunch break.

Race 5

After seeing the breeze fill in during lunch, the fifth race was signalled to start immediately after the one hour postponement, and true to form the wind promptly fell to nothing and shifted even further to the North, leaving the first beat as a starboard tack fetch and the second reaching leg as a beat to the "leeward" mark. Ultimately, the wind shifted back to southwesterly for the final beat to the line. For most of the race, now shortened to a single lap, the Europes were again entangled with Radials, Fast Handicap and the Five o Fives which had been round twice and had caught up with the later starters still on their first lap. After the windward mark Greg and Pete went left to try for clear air to windward while Val, Gareth and Brian tried to get through to leeward of the clutch of Radials ahead. In the event the clear air won with Pete beating Greg to the mark. The two leading Europes managed to squeeze through another Radial cluster at the mark and kept this advantage to the finish, by which time Greg had got through Pete on the beat to the bottom mark and made the line from there in a single fetch to win the race and the event. Val pulled away from the others on the right to finish third with Gareth only managing a fourth. Liz came back from a poor position on the early legs to catch Brian at the final mark and stay ahead to the line.

Race 6

The wind seemed to freshen from the Northwest and, after repositioning the marks, the Race Officer lost no time in getting the last six class starts underway. But by the time of the first class gun the wind had again dropped, and at the Europe start the wind had reversed completely resulting in a downwind start, followed by a period of very light airs from alternating southerly and northerly directions. It started to look like the local jet skis had something going for them after all as the entire regatta fleet drifted erratically towards the first mark. Finding themselves at the wrong end of the major change as the wind finally filled in from the Northwest, Gareth and Greg decided that if this was to be their discard they might as well make a start on the long journey home and retired. Meanwhile Val, Brian, and Pete were still in close contention with Liz not far behind, all four now having to contend with massed Lasers and Radials which had all been gathered together by the earlier lack of wind. Val used all her experience to make every shift work and pulled ahead to lead at the mark, with Pete next, followed by Brian and Liz. On the reaches Val and Pete stayed clear ahead and Liz came through to overtake Brian by the leeward mark. All four boats stayed within reach of each other up the second beat but Liz was caught in a gaggle at the windward mark allowing the three leading Europes to get away down the run. An inconveniently placed Radial took up Brian's attention right up to the leeward mark with Val and Pete by now well ahead. As Val and Pete were finishing the wind died almost completely leaving Brian to endure the final beat to the finish in a near calm, while Liz, who had been left behind trying to go round the outside of the Radial fleet on the run, retired without attempting to undertake the final beat and succumbed to the offer of as tow home.

Results