Once again the Traditional Boat Muster produced lively conditions for the participants.  This is the fourth year that ELYC have run this event.  The rowing races this year were held in the new class of four man rowing boats designed for the scottish coastal rowing project www.scottishcoastalrowing.org.  Four races were held on Saturday morning, racing round the Craig.  This is the longest course that these boats have raced on so far, and it was much appreciated by the crews of the six boats that took part. 

 Ten boats took part in the parade of sail, although only three hung on for the sternchase.  Guests included an RNSA (a class that used to be raced regularly at ELYC) and a  25' Yorkshire beach boat with a dipping lug rig. They were joined by a Memory, Shrimper, and Lugger from the clubs' register, as well as four smaller dinghies, and 75 year old Paragon. Sadly although sunny, Sunday brought a screaming Northerly, and water based activity was cancelled.  Participants sheltered in the sail loft and ate their way through the scones.  An art exhibition also ran successfully throughout the weekend.   Although it is the taking part that counts..... we do of course have some prizewinners for the Muster.  They are as follows:

 1.  Furthest journey by Sea to join us:  Osbert Lancaster from Portobello in "Scratch".

 2.  Concours d'Elegance:  Hugh Henderson in RNSA "Dragon" (to celebrate her reversion to a stunning gaff rig)

 3.  Men's Open Rowing race:  "Coigach Lass", Achiltilbuie

 4.  Women's Open Rowing Race:  "Boatie Rows", Port Seton and Cockenzie

 5.  Mens over 40 Rowing Race:  "Boatie Rows", Port Seton and Cockenzie.

 6.  Women's  over 40 Rowing Race:  "Chris O'Kinnard",  Anstruther

 7.  Traditional Sail Stern Chase:  1. John Wightman in "Paragon"  2. Andrew Duns in "Memory"

David and Jane Hivey have won the RS200 Nationals in North Berwick from Robbie Burns/Vic Simpson with Ben Saxton/Matt Rainback rounding off the top three.

The competitors arrived early for the final days racing with a early start time of 11am planned.  Unfortunately the wind was absent and the fleet was held ashore waiting for wind.  At midday, an unexpected 12knots arrived and the competitors launched for the last time.

The first race got away after one recall when a 30 degree shift made the first attempted gate start unfair.  The leaders at the windward mark came from the right where there was less tide.  Amongst these were Hamish Walker/Emma Clarke and Ben Saxton/Matt Rainback.  An interesting point for the event was that The Hivey’s (Sailingtogs) and Robbie Burns/Vic Simpson had gone left rounding the windward mark well down.  Unfortunately for Robbie he discovered that taking 2 or 3 attempts to get around the windward mark is not fast and he slipped even further down the field where as Sailingtogs soaked low under the bunch and managed to round the leeward mark in fifth.  By the finish Hamish/Emma won comfortably from Ben/Matt with Andy McKeown/Ben Wilcox sailing brilliantly to hold onto third place.  Right at the final mark Sailingtogs managed to squeeze inside Wayne/Deb Fletcher to snatch fourth.  This meant that if only one more race was sailed the even was already won.  However with three races scheduled they had to sail again.

What did turn out to be the final race was sailed in similar conditions to the first.  Again the leaders came from the right of the course.  James Peters/Alan Roberts lead comfortably at the windward mark and extended to win by a good distance after the shortened two laps.  In the bar later that night Ian Pickard was heard saying how he tacked onto a header to get away from Robbie and Dave who were fighting for the championship.  He definitely didn’t want to get tangled in that one!  Down the last run Ben Saxton/Matt Rainback, Steve Dunn/Sheena Craig and Sailingtogs were having a great battle for second, changing places constantly as they surfed the waves.  At the bottom Steve rounded second but Ben just managed to squeeze under him heading into the finish.  Sailingtogs lost the battle on the run but the 4^th place secured the National Championships.  Robbie Burns/Victoria Simpson sailed a great week to take second with Ben Saxton/Matt Rainback moving up to third by winning the day.  The biggest jump on the last day had to be Hamish Walker sailing with Emma Clarke who swapped a 53^rd for a 1^st to halve their points and jump up to fifth overall. 

The silver fleet title was taken comfortably by Dave Royse/Nikki Russell finishing in 15^th overall.  The bronze prize went to Chloe/Daniel Martin. 

North Berwick put on an excellent event and the race officer did a sterling job in particularly tricky conditions.  It was certainly one of the trickiest Nationals most of the competitors had sailed in.  The food and drink on the last night was excellent!  80 boats travelled to Scotland for this event & 68 boats travelled to Garda last month no doubt we will have a huge turnout next year at Weymouth for the RS Games when all the RS classes join forces for a multi- nationals/europeans event.

Sailors arrived and rigged expecting a light day with a fairly shocking forecast.  We launched on time with a gentle North Westerly breeze.  The first race was a tricky one, the wind was clocking right but there was more breeze and favourable tide on the left hand side.  The leaders eventually came from the left as the pressure really died on the right.  Ben Saxton/Matt Rainback lead from Robbie Burns/Vic Simpson with Chris Martin/Katharine Lovering in third.  Down the run, the fleet closed in the patchy breeze and David/Jane Hivey (Sailingtogs) lead around the leeward gate.  Sailingtogs chose the left gate as the wind was still clocking left where as Burns/Simpson and Saxton/Rainback chose the right mark.  This paid greatly and these two extended to finish well ahead of the fleet with Saxton/Rainback eventually coming out on top.  Rob Style/Liz Jamie sailed excellently to round off the top three.

The breeze then died completely and the majority of the fleet tried to vote with their fleet and drifted towards the shore.  Just as the first boat made the rocks about 13-14 knots filled in from the East. At the windward mark James Peters/Alan Roberts lead from Steve Dunn/Sheena Craig.    These two then extended to win comfortably in marginal planing conditions.  The rest of the fleet exchanged places regularly in the oscillating breeze with some extremes of angles being sailed by the boats.  One person described Burns a bumble bee buzzing around the fleet because he was sailing so high! Sailingtogs used the waves down the last run to just take third from Maria Stanley/Dyfrig Mon.

The third race of the day started in similar conditions.  Some of the leaders were caught out by a shift just into the path finders run meaning that the boats that started within 30 seconds could not cross the fleet.  Sailingtogs used their upwind pace to lead around the windward mark from Chris Catt/Ali Martin.  The top boats extended down the run and after a lap, Sailingtogs lead comfortably from Catt/Martin.  In third and fourth with no chance of catching the leaders but equally no chance of being caught James Stuart/Toby Lewis (Gill) and Hamish Walker/Emma Clarke (Sail Navy/ASA) had a great match race for the last lap.  Unfortunately for Gill, he picked a boat with a top level team racer being crewed for by a professional match racer.  Strangely enough Sail Navy/ASA came out on top!  It was great to watch though.  Burns/Simpson sailed excellently to catch up to fifth by the end of the race, leaving them just 3 points behind Sailngtogs going into the last day with a light breeze forecast.  (Windguru actually said 6 knots gusting 3.  Not sure how that will work out!)

 In the evening the crews got extremely tipsy at the crews union (an excuse for drinking games!) and the helms were treated to helms question time where they were given the opportunity to pose questions to the top sailors. 

After day two being cancelled due to lack of wind day 3 of the RS200 National Championships at North Berwick dawned cloudy & windy but the forecast told us that the wind would drop so the PRO sent the fleet out on time in 25 knots.

The pathfinder made the most of the fact that right would pay & Josh Flack & Tim Brophy from Parkstone YC held the lead from start to finish whilst RS Chairman Pete Vincent crewed by Tessa Nicholls held on to 2nd.

The wind had dropped by race two & the pathfinder slowly opened the gate in a shifting 4 knot breeze. The conditions were tricky but boats from either side of the course made it to the front of the fleet however after the leaders rounded the leeward gate that's when the wind swung 10 degrees & then a further 30 degrees. The boats at the front struggled to make it up tide to the shortened finish at the windward mark whilst boats rounding 10th managed to fetch to the finish & some further down the fleet hoisted kites.

Chris Catt & Ally Martin climbed the ladder into first with Robbie Burns & Vicki Simpson up to 2nd leaving others sliding down the snake to the back of the fleet. Protests were held but the results stand. Race 3 started after more delays for the shifting wind & although the fleet started the conditions worsened & the last race of the day was adandoned.