In advance of the final eighth race of the National Squib championships at the Royal Forth Yacht Club, it was apparent that two Squibs were dominating the daily results; they were Micky Wright’s ‘Spoof’ from the Royal Corinthian YC at Burnham on 20 points, with a discard of 16th place, and the other boat was Mark Hogan’s serial championship winner ‘RicO’Shea’ from South Caernarvonshire YC on 24 points, and with a discard of 23rd. place.
The weather forecast seemed to indicate a day with breezes stronger than the Squib fleet had experienced all week on the Firth of Forth, and when the Squibs were rigging, it was certain that at least 12 knots of wind would be blowing across the course. By the time the competitors reached the race area on the Firth of Forth, it was apparent that they had been mistaken, and the offshore wind was creeping along at about six knots from the south-west.
While the bulk of the fleet was jockeying for position on the start line near the committee vessel, near the pin end, a match race occurred between ‘Spoof’ and ‘Ric O’Shea’. The result of that match was ‘Spoof’ sailing up the left (coastal) side of the course and ‘RicO’Shea’ somewhere in the middle of the course. Meanwhile, Malcolm Hutchings in the distinctive blue ‘Lady Penelope’ got a clean start and stayed in the middle of the Firth, and led the fleet around the windward mark. On the first run, there was a wind shift towards the south, which caused some compaction within the fleet as they reached the leeward gate. In some cases, there were as many as four boats rounding the right-hand gate mark together.
On the second beat, ‘Lady P’ led the fleet, but, the Committee did not have time to relocate the windward mark, so most of the beat was on port tack in the unstable wind. However, there were plenty of opportunities for overtaking, by playing the shifts. Again, the second run was actually a spinnaker reach. The windward mark was moved about 500m towards the south and closer to the shore, presenting an even more unstable wind. Places could be made by staying out near the channel and by making the approach to the windward mark on starboard tack. ‘Lady P’ held her lead.
At the finish the order was ‘Lady Penelope’ sailed by Malcolm Hutchinson and Andy Carley, followed by ‘Moonstone’ with Malcolm Blackburn and Steve Allso, ‘Squib’ with sailmaker Dick Batt and Pete Richards, ‘Magic Flute’ with Mark Bradshaw and Robin Jarvis, ‘Harry VI’ with Mike Budd and Mark Thompson, ‘Spoof’ and ‘RicO’Shea.’
It was a points scenario that gave Micky Wright’s ‘Spoof’ from the Royal Corinthian YC the title.
Micky Wright (left) and Alex Porteous receiving the 'Chris Hogan Memorial Trophy' from the RFYC Commodore Michel Tasker
See the full results attached below
