This year's Aberdeen and Stonehaven Yacht Club Regatta was over the weekend 28 and 29 August and included the Scottish Championships for the Blaze, Scottish skiffs and Fireballs along with the Be n Ledi trophy for the Solos. The club received generous sponsorship for the Bay Fish and Chips and there is a good selection of photos from the event linked from club website.
There was a good turnout for the Skiff and Blaze fleets, with the Blazes having the furthest travelled competitor all the way from Pembrokeshire yacht club. The Aberdeen and Stonehaven Fireball fleet were struggling due to the clash with the nationals and were delighted to see the arrival of the Fireball XLS from Port Edgar, ensuring the fleet had their own start. The Juniors in the club helped with the trolleys on the beach and also had some training and racing in Optimists.
Saturday and the boats headed out onto the race area under a decent Force 3 wind with the start a short run from the harbour mouth. The NW wind was gusting and moving around, being influenced by some big rain clouds rolling over. The wind strength varied throughout the day; always seeming to be stronger between races then easing again as the start sequence got going.
The heavier weather crews were hoping for the go ahead on Sunday morning but the horizontal rain and enough white horses in the bay to win the Grand National, confirmed that the forecasters had got the 27mph wind with 47mph gusts correct. The racing was cancelled so the over night positions became the final ones.
In the Fireball fleet Elspeth and Alan Fraser got away at the start on the first race and held onto this to win, in the next 2 races Donald Smith and Alex Taylor sailed consistently to win them both. This meant Donald and Alex were Scottish Champions with Elspeth and Alan Fraser second and Colin Ladd and Keith Stewart third (all ASYC).
