Stromness Sailing
On Sunday, 4 September the autumn Silver Snipe series began and the summer youth training sessions came to an end. It was a lovely sunny afternoon with a good breeze from the south/south-east. Separate races were run for the Snipes and Toppers.
Snipes
The first Snipe race was three laps over a figure of eight course using marks 7, 2, 6 and 1 and five Snipes took part. Thofrinn Johnston and Finley Hall, two young who normally serve as crews, this time took the helms in Go Faster Blue and Scooby, sailing against other regular skippers. Go Quickly Red led the race for most of the way but Go Faster Blue and Double Dutch had a good tussle for second place which was finally secured by Go Faster Blue.
Only three Snipes took part in the second race over two laps. This time the battle for first place was between Double Dutch and Go Faster Blue. Double Dutch was leading at the end of the first lap but by the end of the race Go Faster Blue had come through to win.
The full results of the Snipe races were as follows:
Race 1 (3 Laps): 1 Go Quickly Red (Malcolm Tipler and Paula Hemsley), 2 Go Faster Blue (Thorfinn Johnston and Pete Tipler), 3 Double Dutch (Kenny Holland and Dave Bews), 4 Bonxie (James and Hamish Burgon), 5 Scooby (Finley and Donnie Hall).
Race 2 (2 laps): 1 Go Faster Blue, 2 Double Dutch, 3 Go Quickly Red.
Toppers
There were three one-lap Topper races over a short course comprising marks 7, 6 and 1 with the lowest cumulative points for the three races providing a winner for the afternoon. The course meant that Snipes and Toppers met from opposite directions at mark 6 in the first race, providing useful lessons for both Snipe and Topper skippers for boat handling, knowledge of rights of way and avoiding collisions. The Topper sailors coped well with the challenge, although Eilidh capsized after rounding mark 6. As the Toppers vary in performance, the youngsters changed boats at the end of each race.
The first two races were dominated by Nathan Omand and Ed Johnstone who took first and second places, with Griogair Morrison and Eilidh Leiper in third and fourth places. In the third race there was a turn-around with Griogair coming through to win. The full results were as follows:
Race 1: 1 Nathan Omand (9289), 2 Ed Johnstone (27150), 3 Griogair Morrison (Dream Topping), 4 Eilidh Leiper (No number)
Race 2: 1 Nathan Omand (27150), 2 Ed Johnstone (9289), 3 Griogair Morrison (No number), 4 Eilidh Leiper (Dream Topping)
Race 3: 1 Griogair Morrison (27150), 2 Nathan Omand (No number), 3 Eilidh Leiper (9289), 4 Ed Johnstone (Dream Topping)
The overall placing and points were: 1 Nathan Omand (4), 2 Griogair Morrison (7), 3 Ed Johnstone (8), 4 Eilidh Leiper (11 Points)
Mark Taylor and Ian Johnstone combined supervising the youngsters with manning the support boat and Isobel Tipler was the race starter.
After racing Mark Taylor presented the four trainees, plus youth sailors Thorfinn Johnston and Finley Hall, with gifts of sailing gloves kindly donated by Sheena Taylor who has been a long term supporter and encourager of youth sailing at the Club.
6 September 2011
6 September 2011