06/06/2026
East Lothian Regatta East Lothian Yacht Club

HD Sails Scottish Series

by David Parkin

The annual regatta at East Lothian YC took place on June 6&7.  The Saturday was a late addition to the Scottish Streaker traveller series though we all stayed for both days.

The Streaker fleet has recently been reduced by accidents.  One ELYC member had his brand new Hartley holed by an escaped Solo when launching at the first traveller and another dislocated his shoulder last week.  Now our series leader is out of action; more later.

The hard core of the fleet were joined by multiple previous national champion Martin Penty from Beaver SC in Yorkshire who was getting practice on the lumpy stuff!

Race 1.  We raced on an outer trapezoid course in an east wind of F4-5 with big gusts and a bigger, steeper sea than was expected.  The first beat was tough. Martin and Jim Sinclair (ELYC) reached the windward mark together followed by Mark Way (ELYC).  Jim hit the mark and then capsized doing a penalty badly injuring his knee and putting him out for the rest of the weekend.

Martin then disappeared into the distance.  The reach was epic.  David Parkin (ASYC) followed Mark and was clear of Katie Masterton (St Mary's Loch SC).  The bear away onto the run risked going down the mine but all survived.  The remainder of the race was uneventful in terms of place changes but was really a case of survival.

Race 2.  Suddenly the wind was down to around 12mph with much smaller waves as the tide was now with the wind.  It was now possible to race more aggressively.  The course was tweaked giving a nice long reach into the finish.  The remaining four boats were closer together throughout but the result was unchanged.

Race 3.  The wind was now very similar to race 1 but the waves were kinder.  Martin lead at the windward mark with Mark and Katie close behind.  Class showed however and Martin built a large lead and at the end the result was as before.  Katie battled on to finish all three races.  We then had a beam reach of over a mile back to shore.

The results of the traveller were Martin Penty then Mark Way and David Parkin in third.

Sunday arrived with SW wind gusting from the land forecast to be 18-24 mph and to increase.  Martin raced with the standard rig.  Katie and Mark used the smaller Wave sail.  David decided that it might be a good idea to get a Wave and stayed ashore.

There were two races with Martin Penty beating Mark Way in both.  By this time gusts were being measured at 30mph.

The next event is the Scottish Championship at Chanonry Sailing Club on the Black Isle on June 27&28.  Hopefully Jim will be fit by then.

Overall Results: