Serpents in the Buff

The Serpent Yacht Club marketing juggernaut has come up with an unmissable opportunity.  Catherine Toy has organised the manufacture of bespoke club Buffs.  What is a buff?  Well the photo below shows Catherine modelling one.

Buffs are an immensely versatile addition to the unisex outdoor wardrobe. Essentially they are tubes of stretchy fabric and can be used as a scarf - as modelled by Catherine -to stop spray going down your neck. They can be worn as a kind of balaclava or other headwarmer variant (great under ski or cycle helmets and have a use in midge protection too).  There are also numerous other possibilities including the jihadist look as modelled below by David Toy.

The Club buff is very attractive in navy blue and dotted with the Serpent logo.  Every club member should have one even just for walking the dog. They are available from the club at £14 collected directly at a club function or £15 to include postage.  Much more useful than a  boring old tie although those can be supplied also.

Annual Dinner - Friday 27th November

The Commodore Speaks: 
 
"With the Frostbite marking the end of this season’s  
sailing events, it is now time for our annual SYC dinner, which is again in the Grand Central Hotel, Glasgow. This year will see a change in format with the event commencing slightly later with drinks at 19.30 followed by dinner at 20.00.
Your Committee has also decided, as we approach
our 40th anniversary, that there should be more opportunity to socialise with other members of the Club towards the end of the evening and to allow sufficient time for this, there will not be a formal speaker this year.
There will, of course be our usual prize giving, photo competition and fund raising activities which this year will be for Yorkhill Hospital
Charity.
I would like to invite you to support our forthcoming event and look forward to the evening."

Frostbite Race 2015

There was no possibility of frostbite on this year's so-called Frostbite Race.  Having brought the event so far forward in the calendar the Committee is duty bound to rename it more appropriately. That being said the conditions could have been worse.  The Race Officer and his loyal assistant on Troikka were concerned about starting the race in so little wind but elected to run an anticlockwise circuit of the Cumbrae as the perceptible breeze appeared to be coming from the north west rather than the east which was forecast. The picture below by Graham Gillies illustrates the conditions.

 Nevertheless a little breeze filled in and the race started on time. Those who displayed carelessness in not being close to the start line or who were close in to the shore where the wind was completely absent suffered badly.  Aquaholic and Tulla Mhor made a safe getaway but soon found themselves becalmed briefly.  It was certainly not the conditions which favour Camus Bosta and I think Neil would prefer no further comment.  For Class 2 once Troikka had put away the starting gear and joined in an enjoyable little beat to Hun1 ensued with Troikka first to the mark closely followed by Tulla Mhor. Once round the west of Cumbrae the mighty Arcona soon started to gain on the Elan

but looking back it was worrying to see little evidence of Class 3 approaching HUN1.  However, following a few calls on VHF it transpired that Class 3 were prepared to sail on.   Troikka and Tulla Mhor eventually reached the Tan Spit buoy together, Troikka giving water to Tulla and proceeding across Millport Bay 

but in a declining breeze until it ran out completely and we both stopped, Troikka going backwards in the tide of this notorious whirlpool.  There the two boats remained for at least 20 minutes until Aquaholic appeared, creeping along the shore.  Eventually the skeely Hutchinson manipulated Aquaholic around the Hun 9 buoy just ahead of Tulla Mhor and where it was decided to finish the Class 2 race. Troikka meanwhile had drifted southwards on the tide with little hope of reaching the buoy in the next 30 minutes and so she retired.  As there was no sense in asking Class 3 to put up with this ordeal it was decided that their race should be stopped at the Tan Spit buoy where all, with the notable exception of the Commodore had recorded their times, as per the race instructions. We were pleased to see new members Ken and Elizabeth McCartney out on Kerrera Moon, assisted by Martin Yuill and in fact all of Class 3 expressed their satisfaction with the race albeit one in which the conditions were far from ideal.  

The results are below.  The Commodore was saved from disqualification by Graham Gillies who noted that Emma Louise arrived at the Tan Spit approximately one minute before Silverjack and he has accordingly been accredited with this time.  The results are below: click the table to see it clearly

The Frostbite Race

This year's Frostbite Race will be held in brilliant warm sunshine and moderate winds on 10th October.  Returning to usual form the start is off Largs Marina at 10.45am and will, we hope, involve a tour round the Cumbrae and ideally a figure 8 around both Cumbraes.  The Race Instructions and Entry Form can be downloaded here 
Ideally some informal post race socialising would be good but it is up to participants to organise that themselves

The Ladies Race

The 2015 Ladies Race was held on the Sunday after the Rothesay Race. The Race Secretary still thinks that having a round the cans pursuit race is a daft idea but everyone appears to have enjoyed it so it will probably be continued into 2016.  Since we have had two consecutive postponements of the Ladies Race due to unsuitable conditions at Tarbert in May perhaps we should consider making the Autumn Muster the fixture for the Ladies Race. Or maybe just keep it as a moveable thing. Anyway the race this year was well attended and was won by the mighty Tulla Mhor, Val and Dugald Glen's highly impressive Arcona 43.  Apparently the Glens were not sparing anything as some other competitors were treated to a glimpse of her keel.  The finish order was as follows:

1. Tulla Mhor
2. Aquaholic
3.Out of the Blue
4.Pondskater
5.Spirit
6.Silverjack
7.Black Pepper
8.Kerrera Moon

2015 Autumn Muster

Here are the results as processed by hand by Martin Yuill

As you can see the race of combined classes was won by Tom Hutchison in Aquaholic, he having dropped into Class 3 as there were no other class 2 entries. Second place went to Pondskater after some delay retrieving his committee boat anchor.  We assume therefore that the club will be spared the expense of engraving the Class 1 and 2 trophies.

These are all photos from the start. Later a large group assembled in the Victoria Hotel, Rothesay and Stewart took the following pictures mainly while in happy anticipation of the meal.

The next, and final sailing event for 2015 is the Frostbite Race although it has been brought forward substantially to 10th October, much reducing the risk of any temperature-related risk to the extremities. Returning to convention the start is from Largs with possible variations from the usual Round Cumbrae course.

Portavadie Race

Five boats turned up for the race from Rothesay to Portavadie. Aquaholic kindly acted as start boat and as such started off five minutes after everybody else.

This meant that the race up the East Kyle was a very friendly race with everybody vying for position However it was a bit of a lottery with first one side then the other looking favourable, however the boats who sailed mid channel in the East Kyle faired best.

As the winds were very light, Out Of the Blue drifted with the tide onto the Ardyne Buoy, requiring a penalty 360 turn. Camus Bosta also struggled with lack of wind and tide at this buoy and they retired. As Aquaholic disappeared into the distance, Black Pepper and Silver Jack crept on ahead of Out of the Blue. However holding to mid channel Stewart caught up with the help of tide and a little wind, as BP and SJ both got becalmed inshore.

A misunderstanding of a radio message from Tom resulted in OOTB thinking that the race had been shortened to the Rubha Bhodach, the Green Buoy at  Colintraive and transmitting the message to those behind who did not have the race channel on their radios. It was therefore with some surprise that as Black Pepper and OOTB were rafted up in Wreck Bay having lunch, they heard race officer Tom radioing  in that the race would finish at Tignabruach. Oops.

However honour was restored when Tom split the race into two classes. Class one which ended at Tighnabruach and class two which ended at Colintraive.

Results are as follows:

Class One

1. Aquaholic              corrected time     1 hour and 14 minutes

Class Two

1.Black Pepper        corrected time      1 hour and 37 minutes.

2.Out of the Blue     corrected time      1 hour and 41 minutes

3. Silver Jack           corrected time     1 hour and 47 minutes.

Cambus Bosta         retired

18 people joined the Aquaholic crew for a delicious spread of drinks and nibbles followed by a lovely meal in the marina restaurant. Many thanks to Tom and Caroline and their helpful neighbours for preparing such a delicious spread. After the meal Stewart gave his famous lecture on how to balance a wine bottle on the edge of a table.