The glorious sunny weather continued for the Serpent Tarbert weekend but sadly there was no wind to allow a start in Rothesay Bay. This suited the Lollypops who were motoring over from Kip and were late but anyway the sensible decision to postpone and motor up up the East Kyle in search of a breeze was taken by the Race Officer on Encore and Lollypop joined the procession amounting to four vessels in all. Once through the Burnt Isles there was evidence of wind in the West Kyle so the Toys on Encore laid a start line off the Kames Hotel at a time nobody can remember. As it happens this mass forgetfulness turned out to be of no consequence in the results calculation but more of that later. So Silverjack with the crack team of Norena and Tom assisting Graham performed the perfect start and tacked away, closely followed by Exody with the club's most experienced duo on board. Lollypop continued inshore on starboard before tacking and this proved to be a good move. The wind was light and it was simply a matter of looking for wind, avoiding holes and playing the shifts. By the time Lollypop reached Ardlamont, Silverjack and Exody were well behind. New member Alan Kirk, sailing Tailor Maid a well-raced Fulmar, appeared from the Largs direction and sailed close by before motoring off to Tarbert. Once round Ardlamont, Exody started to close the distance on Lollypop and then Encore motored past, having had some technical hitch. Tarbert was unusually quiet with an abundance of vacant berths and Lollypop, first in by some margin went on to an available pontoon assuming it was one of the booked ones. Unknown to them it wasn't and Encore was in the booked position far into the marina. Exody arrived next alongside Lollypop and we began to be worried by the non appearance of Silverjack but eventually they arrived in acceptable time for the Commodore's reception. As Encore had retired Exody can claim first place in Class 1 and Lollypop with a handicap advantage over the larger and potentially more powerful Silverjack can be awarded first in Class 2 assuming any of it can be considered a race at all. The cup polishers will decide. The Commodores reception in the marquee kicked off the social side with an abundance of carefully prepared nibbles and we were able to meet Alan Kirk and his young crew Soon after with a bit of prosecco on board the company continued to the Red Herring, a new venue in Tarbert. It was later unanimously agreed that the service, ambience and food quality were all excellent.
Sunday was to be Ladies race day. It being a truth universally acknowledged that the Encore team were agog to pit themselves in a match race against the formidable Exody crew, Lollypop and Silverjack agreed that one of them should be the start boat and tossed for it. Silverjack lost and had the unenviable task of arranging a start off Tarbert. Which couldn't happen. So another start was arranged further down the loch on the west side in very little more wind than nothing. Eventually Lollypop having tired of attempting fruitlessly to pole out a limp genoa decided to retire and left the others with sails hanging. However some breeze did eventually appear and Exody rounded the Ardlamont cardinal first closely followed by Encore and then Silverjack who had the handicap advantage. We can only hope for more of that sunshine which helped make it all a most enjoyable weekend.
| Ladies Race results | elapsed | corrected | place | ||||
| Peter & Marian | Exody | GBR6883T | Starlight 39 | 13.650 | 2.45.20 | 2.07.43 | 1 |
| Stewart Toy | Encore | GBR9770T | Starlight 39 | 12.750 | 2.46.10 | 2.10.52 | 3 |
| Graham Gillies | Silverjack | 2551C | Oceanis 31 | 16.670 | 2.58.25 | 2.08.51 | 2 |
| Chas Sutherland | Lollypop | 2901C | First 29 | 17.480 | retd |
