News / Sandwick regatta
THE SANDWICK Boating Club held its annual regatta at Sandsayre at the weekend, albeit two months later than originally scheduled.
A strong northerly wind and swell at the end of June put paid to the original date, and a busy summer of other sailing events meant this was the first real opportunity to hold the regatta.
The weather turned out to be ideal for sailing, with a moderate easterly wind and gentle swell on Saturday for the maids and a light to moderate easterly on Sunday for the mirror dinghies.
Three Sandwick maids took to the water on Saturday afternoon; the ‘ZIg-Zag’, helmed by Andrew Farquhar, the Streaker helmed by ‘Ian Bray’ and the ‘Skalva’ helmed by Brian Wishart.
To keep things interesting at the start, and due to the small number of boats, there was no handicap system, and so all boats started on scratch. The boats sailed a traditional “triangle” course, starting at the week, beating to a mid sound buoy and then a reach to a ‘back o da taing’ for the wing mark. The small course ensured the boats were sailing at close quarters throughout; sometimes perhaps closer than necessary!
The ‘Zig-Zag’, reinvigorated with a younger Farquhar at the helm, sailed well throughout the day, and took the first race with a little more than the length of his bow-sprit. He also took race two, mainly thanks to his tactician in chief, Rebecca Wishart.
The ‘Streaker’ won race three as the Zig-Zag seemed more intent on practicing her 360 rotations. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, with the only regret being it was the end of August, and not the start of the summer.
On Sunday morning, the real sailors of the club arrived, and showed the older generations how it should be done. All five club mirror dinghies were on the water, with enough sailors to fill a couple more, such is the enthusiasm at the moment. Whilst the wind was very light for race 1, it did strengthen through the morning to ensure all four races could be sailed.
The young sailors have shown again they are improving every time they are on the water, and with some new skippers coming through too, the future is in good hands.
RESULTS
Race 1
1st: Noness – Sophie Morris/Kirsten Keay
2nd: Nautlius – Ruth Morris/Kiera Munro
3rd: Mousa – Fraser Tait/Liam Jamieson
Race 2
1st: Seamew – James Morris/Rebecca Kerr
2nd: Mousa – Fraser Tait/Liam Jamieson
3rd: Noness – Sophie Morris/Kiera Munro
Race 3
1st: Seamew – James Morris/Rebecca Kerr
2nd: Noness – Sophie Morris/Kiera Munro
3rd: Nautilus – James Bell/Rebecca Millar
Race 4
1st: Noness – Sophie Morris/Kiera Munro
2nd: Mousa – Fraser Tait/Mollie Maxwell
3rd: Seamew – Ruth Morris/Liam Jamieson
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