Musto Skiff Scottish Championships - East Lothian Yacht Club
Trotter Triumphs Again!

An excellent turnout of 15 boats and very close racing produced a worthy winner at the second ever Scottish Championships of the Musto Performance Skiff at East Lothian Yacht Club. Ian Trotter from Derwent won - for the second time - with a very consistent set of results - he was never out of the top 3, but he did not have it all his own way and only won one of the 6 races. The racing was very tight with 5 different people winning races - the only person to win two races was second placed Martin Boatman from Sunderland.

The first two races on Saturday were sailed in glorious sunshine and light Westerly winds - marginal trapezing to flat wiring, then the wind died and filled in from the opposite direction and the last race was sailed in a moderate cold Easterly. Ian Renilson (Dalgety Bay) was the overnight leader with a score of 1,2,2, but Trotter was close behind with 2,3,1, followed by Richard Stenhouse with 3,1,7.

The Saturday evening barbeque was moved indoors due to a torrential downpour, and after the excellent food most people were too stuffed to move and so they stayed to enjoy the hospitality of the club.

Sunday started with light and fickle winds for the first race, then the breeze filled in to allow trapezing, but it was not windy enough for the big boys. Martin Boatman faired best in these conditions and won two races to climb to second overall, but Trotter won the Championship with three second places. Renilson failed to find his form from the previous day and ended tied on points with Stenhouse, but Renilson won on countback. Anthony Chapman (Rutland) sailed a stormer of a last race to win it by a good margin.

The racing was made more interesting by starting in a mass start with the ‘Scottish Skiffs’ - sponsored by Trident UK, which added to the excitement and meant that you had to look out for other skiffs as well as Musto Skiffs. It worked very well and there were always other skiff-type boats around to sail against.

Race No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total
1 Ian Trotter Derwent Reservoir SC 2 3 1 2 2 2 9
2 Martin Boatman Sunderland YC 4 7 4 1 1 4 14
3 Ian Renilson Dalgety Bay SC 1 2 2 7 6 5 16
4 Richard Stenhouse Rutland SC 3 1 7 6 3 3 16
5 Mark Addison Sunderland YC 6 4 6 3 5 7 24
6 Ant Chapman Rutland SC 7 5 3 9 12 1 25
7 Kit Stenhouse Rutland SC 10 6 9 11 4 6 35
8 Andy Hutchinson Dalgety Bay SC 8 10 8 4 8 10 38
9 Martin Goodlad Peterhead SC 5 8 5 12 10 12 40
10 Tim Chapman Rutland SC 9 11 13 5 7 9 41
11 Andy Bunyan Largs SC 12 9 11 10 9 8 47
12 Ken Ward Sunderland YC 11 12 10 13 13 DNC 59
13 Peter Griffith South Shields SC 14 15 12 14 11 11 62
14 Cliff English South Shields SC 13 14 15 8 14 DNC 64
15 Ian Judd South Shields SC 15 13 14 DNC DNC DNC 74

Many thanks to East Lothian for the excellent organisation and hospitality.

Ian Renilson

Windward boat!!!