Wormit 2007
Wormit 16th - 17th
June
2007
Wormit Boat Club's Woodhaven Pier is at the centre of this aerial shot. looking south west, of their sailing area. The Tay Rail Bridge is just visible at the top right of the picture. The road bridge is about a mile to the bottom left.
Photo: Maj. Torbjorn Haugen 333
Squadron Royal Norwegian
Airforce
The forecast for the weekend was for light winds on Saturday dropping to virtually nil on Sunday, not good on the Tay where the tides can run to 4 knots and more. However, the breeze on Saturday turned out to be 14-15 knots gusting to 20 plus at times and fortunately the breeze on Sunday filled in sufficiently for the Race Officer to set workable courses in the tricky conditions. Start lines were all shore based.
Race 1
The first race at the Wormit Regatta is traditionally an all-classes handicap and Val and Brian joined a fleet of 20 or so boats for a mass start into an easterly breeze and an incoming tide. While Val and most of the fleet took the windward end of a heavily port biased line, Brian stayed inshore with a few others hoping to cheat the tide. As it turned out the line bias overrode the tide considerations and most of the fleet crossed ahead of the inshore starters and were still ahead by the closing stages of the windward leg. However, the majority conservatively opted to stand on towards the shore before heading out into the estuary for the windward mark. Brian reckoned they had overdone it and, fingers crossed, kept going on what he judged to be the true lay line. After having to put in just one short tack at the last minute to clear, he rounded well ahead of the main pack, with only the few faster class boats ahead. Val then made a precautionary tack at the leeward gybe mark and uncharacteristically lost further ground on the next downwind leg, allowing Brian to sail the last round conservatively to avoid a ducking and finish in the lead. After the handicap calculations, Brian & Val finished a creditable 4th and 6th overall in the handicap result.
Race 2
After a short break and some sub-aqua work recovering boats onto the steep ramp of the seaplane harbour, the second race of the day was split into classes and the Europes found they had an unaccustomed - in Scottish events - separate start. The two local helms, who had missed the first race to deal with children's parties and other things, joined Val and Brian for this race in a breeze that had moderated only slightly and still contained knock down gusts. At the start Val and Robin got away cleanly at the port end while Jenny set off on the inshore route. Brian split the difference but started late and well to leeward of Val and Robin. By the mark Val and Robin were clear ahead followed by Brian then Jenny, who had found that with the tide approaching its turn there had been no advantage in the inshore route.
On the close reach to the first wing mark Robin's toe strap failed, and the subsequent gyrations resulted in a ducking, which was followed soon after by Val being overpowered in a sharp gust and also capsizing. These misadventures let Brian and Jenny through and they stayed ahead until the second lap where, with the tide now running out against the wind, Jenny found the going tougher downwind in the steeper waves and dropped behind both Val and Robin, leaving Brian well clear to take the gun. Behind, Val had been staying ahead of Robin until, at the final leeward mark, she was forced to make a large detour to avoid a suddenly immobile Laser4000 and it's water borne spinnaker, letting Robin sneak through on the inside, where he stayed to finish second. This was Robin's first serious outing in his Europe, which he had owned for only two weeks and sailed for less.
Race 3
Sunday's breeze was an improvement over the forecast with a light 6 or 7 knots from the North East, just enough to overcome the effects of the incoming tide. With Jenny staying at home, only Val, Brian and Robin ventured out in the fickle breeze. At the start Val took to the right for the shallow water before tacking out into the stream but by the end of the leg Brian had caught a valuable southerly shift and a lee bow from the tide to get ahead by the windward mark. However, Val overtook on the reach to the wing mark and both turned for what had appeared as a short reach inshore. However, the tide and southerly wind shift had caused this leg to be a slog of a beat against the tide in a dying wind. Val rounded first and had already turned the leeward mark while Brian was still struggling to make the mark before. When Brian eventually reached the leeward mark Val was, bizarrely, still just to windward. However, Brian then misjudged the track of two Merlin Rockets beating (!) to the leeward mark from down tide, thinking he could make the tack inside before they arrived. Seven twenty degrees later Brian was even further down tide and down wind leaving Val to finish with no further challenge. Behind, Robin was finding the windward effort against the tide too much and finally trailed in to finish third.
Race 4
With Robin leaving for family commitments, it left only Val and Brian to contest the final and potentially deciding race. The breeze had returned and there was the promise of a slackening tide as it reached its peak. Despite the obvious match racing potential, Brian decide that a tacking duel with Val was unlikely to succeed and concentrated instead on tacking with the several shifts and successfully reached the mark ahead. Brian held off Val to the wing mark but Val passed on the following reach when Brian wasted time heading up to windward. As it was, he should have persisted with this intent as the inshore reach again turned into a beat in the final stages. Val managed to round with just one extra tack but Brian fluffed his first attempt and had to make a second effort to clear the mark letting Val open out her lead. Some helpful gusts allowed Brian to close up some of the gap, but not enough. On the second beat, while Val stayed out in the breeze, Brian took the inshore route to work the southerly shifts, recovering his losses to arrive at the windward mark again level with Val. However this coincided with a hole in the wind and the route round the mark being blocked by a wayward straggler. Val was first to extricate herself from this situation and from then on kept her lead to the finish, giving her the event, as the overall result was now determined by this race to break the tie.
Throughout the weekend several influential factors round the course were attributable to conflicts with boats from other classes at marks - a lesson that even in class racing there is a need to employ handicap race thinking to take account of converging, often faster, boats with unpredictable performance around marks.
The weekend was informal but well organised and the Race Officer set well chosen courses that suited the conditions. With another Europe expected at the club in the next few weeks Wormit may become a popular venue for East of Scotland Europe sailors.
Overall Results
| Helm | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Total | Place |
| Val Ludlow | Port Edgar | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| Brian Finnie | Forfar | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Robin Duncan | Wormit | DNS | 2 | 3 | DNS | 10 | 3 |
| Jenny Wilson | Wormit | DNS | 4 | DNS | DNS | 14 | 4 |
Brian Finnie GBR367