03/09/2024
The Scottish Two Handed Race is the final event in the Largs Regatta Festival 2024 and this year’s event was run in very contrasting conditions to last week where there was almost too much wind (The Round Cumbraes Race was cancelled). One week later, on the last day of Meteorological Summer, the sun and warm temperatures appeared after a long wet month, but with the heat and high pressure came a complete absence of breeze for most of the day until a gusty 30 knot easterly filled in during darkness creating some challenging conditions after an arduous day ghosting on the tide.
For those racing around The Isle of Arran on a course of 80 miles it was never going to be plain sailing. A strong ebb tide and zephyrs of breeze did nothing to help the 12 strong fleet pass between the Cumbrae Islands and head to Arran, it was not until early evening that the leaders started to pull away from Lochranza and head down Kilbrannan Sound. The fresh easterly filled in after midnight bringing the first boats back across the line at 0612, with only 20 seconds separating Toucan (D Smith) and Samurai J (A MacLeod), with Samurai clinching the Viking Sword Trophy on corrected time by 20 minutes. 5 eventually retired, and despite their best efforts Shearwater (G Wilson) could not make the finish time and crossed only 10 minutes after the 9am cut off time – a cruel result after so much racing.
In the shorter 40 mile round Holy Island races the fleet struggled to get past Little Cumbrae and only a strong ebb tide moved them south towards the turning mark of Holy Island. It was a painful run downwind and an extremely slow drift into Lamlash Bay before rounding and finally getting the advantage of the growing easterly breeze for the return leg. There were several retirals throughout the afternoon with the first boats finishing after 1am. James Jamieson’s Clancy was the clear winner of Class 2, with Paul Cook’s Doris in Class 3. The classic Swan, Reindeer, was the only finisher in Class 5 (restricted sail) as was in Class 6 (restricted sail) veterans of the event Ian Nicolson and Clive Reeves with St Bridget.
Special prizes were awarded to Toucan (Dan Smith and Ross Hepburn) for being first boat home around Arran, to St Bridget (Ian Nicolson and Clive Reeves) for best performance by highest aggregate age of 174 years, and to Reindeer for best performance by a family crew.
Thanks were given to generous event sponsors, Arran Malt whisky, and to Saturn Sails for their overall sponsorship of Largs Regatta Festival. Race officer Pete Wright was also praised for his unstinting commitment to the event and for staying up all night to record finish times and be a welcoming face to returning sailors.
For full results see www.largsregattafestival.com
Photo credit Marc Turner and Carolyn Elder
