The Serpent Yacht Club

Serpent Autumn Muster 18th 19th September

For a change this year’s Autumn Muster headed South to Rothesay. The acting Race Officer unwisely set a shortened course which missed out the passage through the Tan and resulted merely in a fetch to Hun 1, Toward and thence to Rothesay.
Such was the enthusiasm at the start that there were two recalls. Kelpie :D was first over the start line having miscounted the guns but heard the recall announcement and restarted. On the other hand, Stewart Toy on Out of the Blue, powering up to the line in great style and distracted by his all female crew, mistook Anne Sutherland waving at him as an instruction to cross the line (N.B. 2 excuses there!) and was completely over when the horn sounded. Unfortunately, and presumably due to the aforementioned distraction, Out of the Blue paid no heed to the recall signals and remained OCS.

Sailing through a breezy but drizzly force four which was followed by light and bright threes, the fleet reached Rothesay far too early in what had become a fine sailing afternoon.
Later, Que Chica, Emma Louise and Exody cruised over to join the racing fleet.
A pleasant few hours were spent socialising and viewing new boats in and around the new harbour- Neil McDougal’s Camus Bosta, Peter Jennet’s Exody and Tom Hutchinson’s fast-looking Aquaholic. Drinks parties developed on Camus Bosta and Troikka and many thanks to Neil and Marie and Charles and Anne for hosting these.

 At six thirty, a bus transported us all to the very stylish Mount Stuart Visitor Centre where we enjoyed a beautiful dinner of locally produced food: lamb, halibut, langoustine and Isle of Bute cheeses and many thanks go to Mount Stuart catering staff for providing such a fine dinner. At the dinner the results were announced. The Acting Race Officer appears to have mislaid the timesheet (or left it on his boat) but the result order was:

Class 1

1. Guilty
2. Aquaholic

Class 3

1. Tulla
2. Camus Bosta
3. Troikka
4. Kelpie: D
5. Out of the Blue (OCS)

Sunday dawned misty and damp. Only Kelpie D, Tulla , Guilty and Aquaholic braved the morning haar and absence of wind to struggle back to Kip. With her early start, Kelpie:D was first to catch the wind and took line honours, closely followed by Tulla, Guilty and Aquaholic.