#scottishseries – Day one of the Silvers Marine Scottish Series got off to a slightly later start than billed due to light winds. IRC Class 1 left Gourock at 10.30am and, from the start, Steve Cowie's Zephyr and Jonathan Anderson and Murray Caldwell's Roxstar made the running.
Conditions seemed to favour the boats which chose to start from the Gourock shore and the other boats which had elected to start from offshore found they had to come back in, which cost them considerable time.
But it wasn't all plain sailing at the front as Roxstar led Zephyr round the wrong marker, on the wrong course which meant both boats had to go back and get on the right course. Today was a real hard, tactical day for the IRC Class 1 boats and this, combined with the navigational issues meant that Friday's racing was much closer than anticipated.
However, the day concluded with a win to Zephyr with Jamie McGarry and Colin Moore, of Silvers Marine, in Eala of Rhu claiming a well-deserved second and Jim Dick in Fortuna clinching third.
In IRC Class 2 Kevin Aitken in Animal goes into tomorrow ahead after winning their class by 7 minutes, making yachts such as Neill Sandford's Now or Never 3 and John Corson's Salamander XXI playing catch up.
As well as the Clyde Passenger Challenge Race the MalinWaters fleet which includes the one design Sigma 33's, Sonta's and sport boats had four very successful races on upper Loch Fyne. In the Sigma's it's very tight at the front with Donald McLaren in Sigmatic followed by Harold Hood in Odyssey II and Roy Summers in Rajah.
In the Sonata's Murray Caldwell in Red Hot Poker goes into tomorrow with a comfortable ten point lead over Mark Taylor in Saraband and Mark Bradshaw in Mostly Harmless.
Today has seen some very tight racing but there's one certainty – it's great to see Scottish Series underway on Loch Fyne!
