Autumn Muster 16/17 September

 

There was a light north -easterly when Tulla Mhor, Silverjack and Lollypop gathered off Kip for the race to Rothesay.  Race Officer Don Gillies with Marge on board Black Pepper chose course 2 - (the familiar trek to Hun 1, Buoy B, Toward Bank with the finish at Ardyne.) meaning a downwind start which, using the available in-situ buoys resulted in an extraordinarily long start line and no incidents. As would be expected Tulla Mhor pulled away strongly but Lollypop was able to maintain distance on them as far as Hun 1 after which the wind filled in to a good sailing breeze and Tulla Mhor found her true stride.  Dugald and Val were joined on this occasion by Stewart and Catherine Toy who were just one day away from no longer being boatless.  Silverjack, with Norena crewing for Graham, was by this time some distance behind Lollypop and there was no change in positions before the finish. Given the wind direction it was a somewhat undemanding reachy course but by midday the sun was blazing, the Clyde was sparkling and with a good sailing wind the conditions were to the enjoyment of all involved.  

Parking up in our reserved berths in Rothesay inner harbour was also uneventful, aided by the always helpful shoreside staff.  Most crews eventually went for a stroll about the town which does show some limited but welcome evidence of regeneration and later on all crews gathered on board Lollypop for the Commodore's drinks reception, it being the final opportunity available to the present Commodore for so doing.  The race results seemed so unexpected when I calculated them on the Excel sheet that I had to triple check everything to ensure there were no errors before presenting them to the assembled party.  The elapsed and corrected times are below. There then followed our annual  visit to the Victoria Hotel, where the ambience continues to resemble a benign version of Fawlty Towers, for what was a perfectly acceptable dinner.  After that, a smaller group of salt encrusted would-be party animals were led by Stewart Toy in search of a performance by the legendary Margaret Zavaroni but ended up having a quiet nightcap in the Black Bull.   

Overnight it was wet and so was the dreich Sunday morning when everyone eventually departed on their separate ways, generally satisfied with the latest Serpent outing.   

Lollypop     elapsed 3hr 5m 29s   corrected  131.45 minutes

Silverjack   elapsed 3hr 15m 26s  corrected 140.85 minutes

Tulla Mhor  elapsed  2hr  39m 00s corrected 141.78 minutes