The Banks-powered Crewsaver Dickies Yacht Sales (First 31.7),
was the eventual winner of the Regatta |
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Celtic ISORA Regatta 2001
This year's Celtic ISORA Regatta was held at Pwllheli Sailing
Club from 11 -14 July. For the event I joined Colin Perrin aboard
his J105, Touche. Colin is lucky in that he has managed to keep
his family interested in sailing and the crew therefore included
his teenage son and daughter doing bow and pit respectively.
Race 1 on Wednesday was held in a very strong breeze with gusts
of over 30 knots. After a good start we suffered a bit against
some of the bigger boats and ended up scoring a fifth, the race
was won by the new Dubois 40, Azure. Even worse was the fact
that we had significantly damaged one of our spinnakers.
The second race on Thursday morning was held in similar conditions
and although we sailed what we felt was a much better race the
result was the same, another fifth, although we managed to beat
both J35s on the water in this one. Our biggest mistake was
to forget to bring any food aboard for the day and by the end
of Race 3 we were all very tired and hungry. Another race with
gusts of over 30 knots and our worse score so far, seventh.
Race 4 was also scheduled to be held on Thursday but with the
wind building to a consistent 30 knots plus and the lifeboat
being called out to help the First 42s7 Value at Risk the committee
sensibly decided to abandon Race 5.
As we mulled over the day's racing in the Sailing Club we were
all hoping for less breeze for the next day but when we started
Race 5 on Friday morning in around 6 knots we were praying for
more wind again! The J105 equipped with a non-overlapping Class
jib is not a flyer in these conditions and with two ninth places
it was a day we'd rather forget!
For the final day a single long coastal race was scheduled,
starting at the rather anti-social time of 8am. We left the
Marina after carefully calculating the time needed to get to
the start line and just made it! The course was set: a short
beat to a laid windward mark then a spinnaker leg to St Tudwalls,
heading up on a fetch to Gull Island, then a long spinnaker
reach to Causeway followed by a mammoth beat back up to a finish
at the Club line.
We rounded the windward mark in the middle of the pack and had
a good battle with the Sigma 400 Still Smiling as we set of
downwind. As the breeze picked up we left the 400 behind and
set off after the pair of X-362 Sports in front. By the time
we hardened up towards Gull Island we had caught them both up.
We then managed to get a tow for nearly an hour behind Tamur
all the way to Gull Island, thanks very much!
On rounding Gull we rehoisted the Asymmetric and headed out
towards the Causeway buoy. With some nice gusts to 18 knots
coming through the boat was flying and we left the chasing pack
behind, now with only Azure, Gloves Off (Corby 38) and Jackhammer
(Farr 395) in front. We knew, however, that we would need to
get well ahead of the chasing pack to have a chance of holding
our time on the long beat home.
After rounding the buoy we hardened up and then tacked left.
The chasing pack followed suit and eventually went past although
Still Smiling did not pass us until just before the finish.
When the results were published we scored a fourth, finishing
the regatta with our best result of the week, behind Glover
Off, Azure and Tamur. We managed to score a respectable sixth
in IRC 1 for the week.
In IRC 2 five boats won individual races during the Regatta
but in the end it was the consistency of the Checkmate Sailing
Team aboard the Banks-Sails-powered First 31.7 Dickies Yacht
Sales that won through. Dickies never finished outside the top
five. This followed on from their impressive results in the
Solent earlier in the season.
Thanks very much to Colin and crew for a great fun regatta!
Hugh Myers,
Banks Sails
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