Scottish Skiff Grand Prix/ Musto Skiff Scottish Travellers Trophy

South Shields Sailing Club 7 & 8 May 2005

Sponsored by Trident UK - the Dinghy & Yacht Shop on the Web

Scottish Skiff Racing is pleased to welcome sponsorship from Trident UK at this their second ever Grand Prix event.

The weekend promised to be a cracker - boats travelled from as far South as Whitstable and as far north as Aberdeen to give a good entry of 23 boats, including a strong fleet of 15 Musto Skiffs - the forecast was just about perfect - 15 to 18 knots of breeze with sunny intervals. And as we sailed out to the start it could not have looked better - the sun shone and it warmed up nicely. Then the wind died completely and left a real nasty chop.

3 races were scheduled for Saturday - the first was sailed in very light winds, until the wind filled in at the end. Richard Stenhouse from Rutland did very well to keep in touch with the International 14 of Gavin Homer from Dalgety Bay and beat him on handicap. They were followed home by newcomer Martin Goodlad from Peterhead in a Musto Skiff and Martin Boatman from Sunderland, also in a Musto Skiff.

The second race started in a reasonable breeze, but then it swung to make the course uneven, and towards the end of the race a huge squall came through, complete with hailstones and thunder & lightening, and racing was abandoned for the day. Martin Boatman won the race from the Gavin Homer in the Int 14, followed by the Musto Skiffs of Ian Trotter from Derwent and Richard Stenhouse.

After a night of great Northern hospitality, we were sure conditions could not be as bad on the Sunday - but that just shows all we knew!

Sunday morning again looked promising, with more wind and sun. The first two races were started in a reasonable wind, but suffered large fluctuations in the wind. The Int 14 of Gavin Homer won the first, followed by Richard Stenhouse and Martin Boatman, and in the second race it was Ian Trotter in a Musto Skiff who beat Gavin Homer’s Int 14, followed by Richard Stenhouse. At the end of the second race there was another large squall, accompanied again by hailstones and thunder & lightening.

Then the third Sunday race was started in so little wind that we could barely make way against the tide and it was several minutes before the fleet crossed the start line. Shortly after starting the second round the wind died completely and the race was abandoned, with results taken from the positions at the end of the first round - Richard Stenhouse won from Ian Renilson of Dalgety Bay, both in Musto Skiffs, followed by Gavin Homer in the International 14.

The overall results were very close, with the Musto Skiff of Richard Stenhouse and the Int 14 of Gavin Homer both tied on 7 points. The count back gave overall Ovingtonsy to Stenhouse with two first places to Homer’s one. Third and fourth overall were also tied on points, and Martin Boatman and Ian Trotter both counted the same results, so Boatman just edged ahead with a better discard.

South Shields Sailing Club has to be congratulated for running the event as well as they did in such difficult conditions and for providing excellent hospitality, and many thanks to Trident for sponsoring for prizes.

Race: 1 2 3 4 5 Total
1st Richard Stenhouse Rutland SC Musto Skiff 1 4 2 3 1 7
2nd Gavin Homer & Ali Mitchell/ Gavin Mackinnon Dalgety Bay SC Int 14 2 2 1 2 3 7
3rd Martin Boatman Sunderland YC Musto Skiff 4 1 3 5 6 13
4th Ian Trotter Derwent SC Musto Skiff 8 3 5 1 4 13
5th Ian Renilson Dalgety Bay SC Musto Skiff 9 5 4 7 2 18
6th Graham Oliver Whitstable YC Musto Skiff 6 6 6 4 24 22
7th Martin Goodland Peterhead SC Musto Skiff 3 18 8 6 10 27
8th Mark Addison Sunderland YC Musto Skiff 5 9 7 8 7 27
9th Howard Steavenson & Phil Wade Tynemouth SC Int14 10 10 15 10 5 35
10th Kit Stenhouse Rutland SC Musto Skiff 11 8 11 9 8 36
11th Andy Bunyan Largs SC Musto Skiff 23 11 9 12 9 41
12th Phil Eltringham & Rachel Bennett South Shields SC B14 7 15 14 13 24 49
13th Jason Ribby South Shields SC Musto Skiff 16 19 10 14 24 59
14th Paul Davis South Shields SC Musto Skiff 12 24 12 11 24 59
15th Peter Griffiths South Shields SC Musto Skiff 15 16 16 15 24 62
16th Tim Chapman Rutland SC Musto Skiff 14 14 13 24 24 65
17th Craig English & Ian Judd South Shields SC 49er 19 13 17 16 24 65
18th Simon Evans & Stephen Cronshaw Delph SC 49er 17 7 20 24 24 68
19th Adam Macrae & Matt Davies DUSC ISO 13 12 24 24 24 73
20th Alan Mackie & Mat Lee Loch Lomond SC 49er 18 17 18 24 24 77
21st Richard Purdy Sunderland YC Musto Skiff 20 24 24 24 24 92
22nd Stephen Lowe South Shields SC Musto Skiff 21 24 24 24 24 93
23rd Ronnie Millar & Peter Marshall Dalgety Bay SC 49er 24 24 24 24 24 96