P&B Northern Paddle Series
Rooster Super Series
by Veronica Falat
This year’s Streaker Scottish Championships was held during East Lothian Yacht Club’s annual dinghy regatta on the weekend of June 3rd-4th and what a super weekend it was, with lots of sunshine and blue skies and excellent courses and race management. Thank you ELYC!
3 local Streakers were joined by 4 visitors to make a small but keen fleet that enjoyed some excellent racing.
Saturday’s 3 races were held in an easterly force 3 breeze with quite a tricky wave pattern, making boat speed really important, rather than tacking on every slight shift, as it was hard to tack without coming to a bit of a stop! Very soon it was apparent that James Sinclair had plenty of speed and each race saw him shoot off into the lead, pulling further ahead as the race went on. Michael Alexander was also going well, especially upwind, and he gained 3 second places, while Veronica Falat was in 3rd place at the end of the day, having had some close racing with Katie Masterson and Paul Noble.
The breeze was lighter on Sunday and there was a delay in getting racing started while the breeze settled – and a pod of dolphins swam through the racing area! The sea was also a lot flatter than the day before which allowed for more tacking on shifts and the racing was tighter. Again James was fastest but he had to keep a good cover on the rest of the fleet which was splitting tacks and it was hard to judge which side of each beat would pay. Sunday’s first race saw Veronica take 2nd place behind James, with Michael beating Paul for 3rd spot. Then the next race was the closest that James came to not winning. He and Paul arrived at the first mark together and they had a good battle for the lead until, on a reaching leg, Paul luffed James above the layline which allowed Veronica to sail past them both to leeward and stay ahead for much of the next lap – but James eventually overtook her on a run and so normal service was resumed with James taking his fifth win and the championship. He was then able to sail back to the harbour, discarding the final race which was won by Michael, securing 2nd place overall.
This was a really fun weekend and much of that was due to the team of ELYC club members helping with launching and recovery on the beach, making sure that things ran smoothly. If you haven’t done the East Lothian Regatta before, we highly recommend it!
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