Loch Tummel  17th - 18th September

For several years in a row the Loch Tummel SC dinghy weekend in September has seen strong and blustery winds and this year was no exception. The wind was from the west and funnelled down the valley to create squalls of up to 30 knots on Saturday and on Sunday the gusts were still 25 knots at times. The conditions made the event one of survival for some, with the safety boats kept busy. The Europes had a separate start behind the General Handicap and RS200 fleets. Six races were scheduled and although Race Officer Graham Foster posted a postponement to the following day after two races on Saturday, the remaining races were completed on Sunday.

The course was a Trapezoid with an outer windward/leeward loop keeping the slower fleets apart from the RS200 asymmetrics. This course was to have repercussions later.

As little as half an hour before the start the wind was moderate and westerly, enticing all eight Europes to the line, but by the first signals the wind had risen considerably and was already gusting to over 20 knots. The Europes made an orderly start on a generous length of line and it was soon apparent that strong wind ability was going to decide the race. Gordon McGeorge and Lesley Foster soon worked out ahead but rounding the windward mark set off for the more visible third mark of the course, letting Val Ludlow and Brian Finnie to the front briefly. The two real leaders soon realised their error and worked their way back to the front while, behind, the weather progressively reduced the following fleet to one boat, where Kate Annan held on, eventually finishing in third place behind Gordon's first and Lesley's second.

Race 2

With the wind steadily rising, this race was a virtual repeat of the first, with Gordon and Lesley leading the way and the rest of the fleet reducing at every gybe. Kate Annan stayed in the race until failure of her main halyard after a capsize caused her to retire under tow, leaving only Catriona Spencer on the water to finish behind the two leaders.

The Race Officer signalled a wait ashore for conditions to improve but eventually postponed all further racing to the following day.

Race 3

Sunday started as usual at Loch Tummel with a light breeze from the west, but shortly before the scheduled start the wind increased until it seemed that Saturday was going to be repeated.

The first race of the day got under way in 15 knots with lengthy squalls gusting to over 20 knots. Gordon was once again first to the mark, with Brian and Val close behind. By the downwind mark Val had an overlap on Brian and with stragglers from the Handicap fleet to the outside the space at the mark was looking rather limited in the strong wind. Both Val and Brian capsized on the gybe, but recovered. Brian then forgot about the short windward loop, continuing instead to the leeward mark, but capsized again before reaching it. By the time he had recovered from this mistake the fleet was well ahead and Brian suffered the ignominy of being out of time after having struggled round to finish the course. At the front there was a battle for the first few places, only resolved on the final leg, with Gordon, Fiona and Val making the first three places with Kate Annan not far behind. Lesley Foster had earlier followed Gordon yet again to the wrong mark of the confusing trapezoid course and capsized while returning to correct the mistake, keeping her out of contention to finish in fifth place.

Race 4

The wind eased for this race, and getting and staying ahead depended once again on reading the shifty Tummel winds. The fleet separated into pairs for a while, with Gordon and Lesley contesting first and second places, Brian and Fiona third and fourth, until Fiona pulled ahead with her better downwind speed leaving Brian then to keep Kate behind him.

Race 5

After a welcome lunch, racing re-started with the wind again howling from the west, having sprung up during the break. Only six Europes made the decision to start in the final two back to back races. After another uneventful start Fiona made the right call on the first beat by staying on the tack inshore for a southerly shift and made the mark clear ahead of Gordon with Brian close behind. The wind shifts had created a lot of separation between the boats and at the downwind mark of the short loop, with Fiona already round, Gordon mistakenly headed onwards to the leeward mark leaving Brian second to Fiona on the second beat until he was hit by a gust in a moment of inattention and was blown over, losing all the remaining places before recovering. Gordon showed his amazing speed to work his way up from his long detour and at the final leg there were four boats in contention with Fiona in the lead from Kate, Lesley and Gordon. At this point Fiona put in a late tack, capsized and lost her place to all three following boats giving Kate a well deserved, if unexpected, win. Just further back, Lesley was ahead of Gordon but then also put in an unnecessary tack which let Gordon through to gain second place by inches. Lesley crossed third leaving Fiona to salvage fourth place.

Race 6

The wind had moderated only slightly but all six Europes stayed out to contest the final race. This saw Gordon sail the correct course from the front to gain his fifth win of the series and confirm his leadership of the weekend. Fiona and Lesley continued to press Gordon, until the last windward mark where Lesley's outhaul failed, and she found herself in irons while trying to work out how to deal with the problem. This allowed Fiona to hang on to her lead over Lesley to finish in second place, while Lesley just managed to keep Kate at bay to stay in third.

Summary

The weekend was Gordon McGeorge's chance to show that his 65 kg is no disadvantage in the higher wind range. Lesley Foster, sailing in her first Europe open event, demonstrated that even newcomers to the Europe can handle difficult conditions to do well. And Kate Annan, having sailed her Europe for this season only, used her experience to overcome any problems she found in the testing conditions. Val Ludlow, the traveller series leader, was overpowered by the conditions and after being towed in following an uncomfortable capsize in race 4 decided to call it a day and head for home.

There were few gear failures. Kate's halyard failure was down to previous damage to the mast head. Lesley's outhaul failure highlighted that the advice to have a safety line for this control is well founded (although very few, if any, Europes seem to have one fitted).

The course format of a Trapezoid with an outer short leeward-windward loop once again proved to be very confusing for competitors (the same course format the previous year had created considerable confusion throughout the entire handicap fleet, when few sailed the correct course in the first race on this course). In a busy race under trying conditions there was too much to do at the leeward mark to remember which part of the sequence you were in, although the younger sailors had no problem with this. The first trapezoid reaching mark was also less prominent against the background than the third mark and this added to the difficulty.

Brian Finnie GBR348 (with help from Fiona, Kathryn, Val and Graham)