Pursuit handicap race is first special event of season for Pentland Firth Yacht Club
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Sunday saw the first of the season’s special sailing events for Pentland Firth Yacht Club with a pursuit handicap race.
The weather was fine if a little cool with blue skies and a wind from the north-north-west at about 10 mph.
This event was a twist on the normal race format with the slowest boats starting first and the faster boats later, the delay being calculated so that, in theory, all the boats would complete the 30-minute race “dead level”.
In practice there is always a separation at the end of the 30 minutes and the order of the boats at this stage gives the winner and losers. The plan was to have three races so that an overall winner should emerge.
A total of five boats took part – the Lasers of Marjory and Martin Lord, a Topper dinghy with Malcolm Lord on board and two Mirror dinghies with Steve Foster and Ian Grant in one and Jane Foster and Keisha Sutherland in the other. Dave Lord and Thomas McAlonan crewed the club rescue boat, set the course and did all the necessary timings.
The first race saw Malcolm Lord quickly catching and overtaking the Mirrors and then Marjory Lord trying her best to overtake all three. She managed to pass the Mirrors but could not catch the Topper.
Martin Lord, in his Laser with a full sail, was last to start and he again managed to overtake the Mirrors but that was as far as he got. The final results of the first race were thus Malcolm Lord first, Marjory Lord second and Martin Lord third, with the Mirrors battling for the last two places.
The second race followed a similar pattern to the first except that Marjory managed to catch and pass Malcolm Lord and won the race.
This left the final result dependent on the results of the third race. This was a repeat of the second, with Marjory working her away through the fleet and hers was the leading boat at the 30-minute end of the race.
The club is always looking for new members. Anyone who has an interest in sailing or would like to become involved can contact pentlandfirthyc@gmail.com
