Regatta 1980

Holm Regatta 1980

26 boats compete in Holm Regatta

This Year's Holm Regatta was the longest lasting yet seen. Thunder, lightning and torrential rain early on Saturday morning, together with a fierce wind did not augur well for the start at noon, but by ten o'clock the wind had dropped and the first race started on schedule.

The next menace was fog and the 26 boats which took part would have been sugmented by the Stromness boats which set off at 8 a.m., but they were fogbound somewhere in Scapa Flow and they only got back to Stromness at 4 p.m.

For the first race for Snipes the wind was very light, southerly and the course set was a reach to Ayre buoy, a beat to No. 2 Barrier, a reach to No. 1 Barrier and a run home, twice round.

Snipe

Place	Boat	Number	Skipper	Time
1	Tyro	H9	H. Johnston	2:15.10
2	Firewood	H6	Sinclair Muir	2:12.12
3	Sceptre	H12	L. Johnston	2:17.04

Merlin Rocket:

The second race was for Rockets:

Place	Boat	Skipper	Time	Corr
1	Skidbladnir	L. Tait	1:37.35	1:29.31
2	Dunhill	M. Dunn	1:53.08	1:43.07
3	Tyste	D. Kemp	2:01.23	1:48.32

Albacores

The third race was for Albacores:

Place	Boat	Skipper	Time
1	Mizpah	D. Grieve	1:49.17
2	Moonshadow	R. Grieve	1:51.59
3	Samoa	B. Dunnet	1:54.38

Bosuns

The third race was for the four Bosuns of the Sea Cadets with results:

Place	Number	Skipper	Time
1	1004	I. Tait	1:07.19
2	1366	K. Foulis	1:07.59
3	445	J. Peddie	1:08.22

The fifth race for Centreboards was the best of the day with the wind freshening specially for it. The first Snipe across the line in this race was H10 Valhalla (Brian Aim).

Centreboards:

Place	Boat	Type	Skipper	Time	Corr
1	Mizpah	Albacore	D. Grieve	31:31	27:43
2	Tyste	Merlin Rocket	D. Kemp	31:07	27:47
3	Skidbladnir	Merlin Rocket	L. Tait	30:41	28:09

Then followed two catamaran races, one after the other.

Catamarans

Boat	Skipper	Race 1	Race 2
Tabitha	G. Rouse	26:51	32:20
Tornado	E. Dunnet	29:22	32:22
Samoa	R. Thomson	33:23	48:10

The Allcomers Race was abandoned because of lack of wind and dense fog which again prevented iit being held on Sunday evening, 27th. But the fog lifted just in time for it to be heldd on Monday evening 28th and the officials - Commodore Scollay of Kirkwall Sailing Club and Mr. John Tait of Holm Sailing Club sighed with relief when eleven boats jockeyed for position at the start.

The wind was light south-easterly and the course set was a beat to No. 1 Barrier, a reach to No. 2, a run to Ayre buoy and a reach home, twice round. The wind was just tight for Skidbladnit (Leslie Tait) who rounding No. 2 Barrier buoy, raised his spinnaker and raced away from the rest of the boats crossing the line almost two minutes ahead of Moonshadow (R. Grieve) who was second. The first Snipe across the line was H9 Tyro (H. Johnston).

Allcomers

Place	Boat	Type	Skipper	Time	Corr
3	Samoa	Albacore	Bruce Dunnet	31:31	27:43
2	Tyste	Merlin Rocket	D. Kemp	31:07	27:47
1	Skidbladnir	Merlin Rocket	L. Tait	39:05	35:51
2	Moonshadow	Albacore	R. Grieve	40:48	36:06
3	Samoa	Albacore	Bruce Dunnet	41:00	36:17

On Saturday afternoon the crews were entertained to a meal in Holm Community Centre after which the cups and trophies won that day were presented by Mrs. Peggy Aim, wife of Vice-Commodore Brian Aim who welcomed everyone, thanked them for attending, deplored the weather which had prevented the Stromness contingent from being present, thanked the various rescue boat skippers and the tea ladies and announced that, weather permitting, the Allcomers race would take place on Sunday evening, which failing, Monday evening. And Monday evening it was with a fine spanking wind.

At the end of this race the cups and trophies were presented to the winners by Mr. John Tait, secretary of Holm Sailing Club with Commodore Fred Johnston.