Solway Sunshine…. pity about the wind!
With the promise of high pressure building and good conditions, a select fleet of modern and vintage boats with their eager crews gathered on the pier in Kippford for the start of the 2024 Scottish National 12 Championships. Late summer sunshine was already warming the morning air, and hopes were rising of a pleasant sea breeze building. After briefing by Race Officer Stewart Mitchell, the boats launched and picked up a tow out to the starting area, any breeze yet to materialise.
After an initial postponement, and with only a very gentle north-easterly keeping the boats moving, a short course was set and race one got underway. The two “Dead Cat Bounce” design boats of Antony and Jo Gifford from Royal Tay YC, and Iain and Maisie Macintyre (Loch Tummel SC), plus the “Big Issue” of Tim and Chris Hampshire (Ripon SC) led away with Angus Beyts and Berry Behane, (Newburgh SC) getting a good start in their vintage boat. Meanwhile Ian and Margaret Purkis (Solway YC) were caught in the tide and only just avoided being OCS at the wrong end of the line. Clear of the windward mark and after a slow rounding of the wing mark, Antony and Jo were having a very close race with Tim and Chris as they headed for the leeward mark, Iain and Maisie not far behind. Some way back Ian and Margaret had made up for their poor start and got ahead of Angus and Berry and that’s how they finished.
After another postponement and now with only the lightest of sea airs coming from the South, the ebbing tide left the RO little alternative but to make the best of it and start race two. With a bit of help from the ebb, the new windward mark was reached with Tim and Chris already ahead. From somewhere they picked up wind and were building an ever-increasing lead at an astonishing rate. Ian and Margaret and Angus and Berry were in close company in their vintage boats, now joined by the leading club boats having their own race after a starting later. Tim and Chris’ lead seemed to get bigger with every minute and they were already well on their way into lap 2 while the others were still some way short of completing lap 1. Ian and Margaret broke clear of the following pack, but Angus and Berry got bogged down with the club boats, Tim and Chris lapping them before finishing and heading home. Antony and Jo were having the closest of light airs battles with Iain and Maisie while suddenly, further out, the sea breeze finally arrived giving Ian and Margaret a lovely broad reach in, “Mock Turtle” steaming along almost up to the transoms of the two semi-becalmed DCBs before they too finally got the breeze and were off again. With the Club fleet finishing on lap one, Angus and Berry had a lonely second lap but at least they enjoyed the best wind of the day.
After some tasty SYC pies and beans and a sunny walk for ice creams, an excellent social evening followed in “The Mariner” with the promise of the Palnackie Race the next day.
The Palnackie Pursuit race, a Solway Yacht Club institution, takes the fleet up-river round the twists and turns, mudbanks and shallows of the River Urr up to a mark laid midstream, two hundred yards short of Palnackie’s historic harbour. With the N12s taking their turn to start, they soon caught some of the earlier starting club boats. Reaching the mark, it was Antony and Jo inches ahead of Tim and Chris. Fickle winds gusting round the surrounding hills make this race tricky by any standards but as the minutes ticked away, Iain and Maisie picked just the right course and caught the perfect gust in the final few seconds to get them ahead when it mattered, claiming their first win of the weekend. With Ian and Margaret non-starting it was left to Angus and Berry to uphold vintage honours and in one final short race downstream, they’d saved their best till last, catching and very nearly gaining the lead over the two modern boats. In the end it was Antony and Jo who took the win and with it, retained the Scottish National 12 Championship trophy, immaculately polished by Antony ahead of the weekend.
Result:
1st Antony and Jo Gifford (N3529 “Cat in the Hat” Dead Cat Bounce)
2nd Tim and Chris Hampshire (N3502, “Carbonara” Big Issue)
3rd Iain and Maisie Macintyre (N3519 the original “Dead Cat Bounce”)
4th and winner of the Mariner Mug for older boats, Angus Beyts and Berry Behane (N2153 “Reflection” Starfish design)
5th Ian and Margaret Purkis (N1620 “Mock Turtle” Proctor Mk 6)