The weekend was a celebration of the year’s sailing – both on and off the water – at Solway Yacht Club.
As well as the penultimate racing weekend of the season, it was also craning out for the larger yachts into their winter berths ashore and one of the first social events to be held in the clubhouse since 2019.
However, Saturday dawned with a poor forecast, steady rain and moderate winds but still weather that enabled race officer Stewart Biggar to set a challenging course while craning out proceeded under the watchful eye of immediate past commodore, Lindsay Tosh.
Out in the bay, the leading fast handicap racers were soon away followed by the rest, all disappearing into the reducing visibility and wet. As the race progressed it was the big asymmetric spinnaker of Alec Glendinning’s Vortex that emerged out of the gloom in the lead heading to the finish but just as he looked to get line honours he overcooked it, capsized and went for a swim, soon recovering but handing the win to Stewart Mitchell in the Finn.
In race two it was the turn of Colin Filer and Jamie Gascoigne in their Flying Fifteen keelboat to take the win after finishing second in race two. Sadly, that was their weekend over with a damaged boat from a previous incident forcing them out.
Saturday wasn’t over as the clubhouse warmed to another great evening with the craning out supper, under the club’s expert volunteer chef Duncan Gillespie. A great evening was rounded off when club commodore, Robert Dinwiddie announced the sum raised in the collection from those attending for the club’s chosen charity, Marie Curie, was almost £250.
Sunday dawned with a much brighter forecast, sunshine, and initially light winds. The fleet was joined by James Bishop, taking a break from his studies and role as dinghy sailing captain at Glasgow University, who with sister Katie had their GP14 on the start line.
The day’s race officer, John Broadbent had set an unusual course taking the fleet into waters off Rockcliffe, giving beach goers a grandstand view, just as the light winds blew in much stronger.
Again, it was the Stewart Mitchell Olympic Finn that took a good win, ahead of the rapidly improving Flying Fifteen of another brother and sister pairing Scott Train and Anne Stewart in second. Further down the fleet in the slower rated boats, the Bishop crew’s GP14 was going well and had Ian and Margaret Purkis’ Firefly well beaten until they sailed to the wrong marker buoy, handing their hard-earned place back to the Firefly.
In the final race and achieving a three, two, one of placings in successive races, it was the Train/Stewart Flying Fifteen that rounded off the day.
Final Fling results: 1 Stewart Mitchell (Finn), 2 Scott Train & Anne Stewart (Flying Fifteen), 3 Keith Veasey (Finn), 4 Alec Glendinning (Vortex), 5 Colin Filer and Jamie Gascoigne (Flying Fifteen), 6 Scott McColm and Katie Bishop (RS400), 7 Jim Holland and Ian Murgatroyd (Flying Fifteen), 8 Ian and Margaret Purkis (Firefly), 9 James and Katie Bishop (GP14), 10 Richard and James Colbeck (Buzz).
