Six Scottish boats, including two from Shetland, travelled to the Albacore National and International (formally World) Championship hosted by Royal Torbay Yacht Club in Devon. The event, held every two years and rotating between the USA, Canada and the UK, attracted 70 boats with each of the major Albacore nations well represented. The Scottish boats faired well, demonstrating the strength of the home fleet even in the absence of Scottish Champions Stuart Gibson & Gavin Berry.

The event began on Saturday 4 August but boats began arriving on the Wednesday before the event, hoping to get used to the local conditions. Sadly, Torbay was not willing to allow much sensible practice with a few days of light airs preceding one of the windiest championships imaginable. Of the eight races sailed, at least three saw gusts into the 30’s of knots and 2 others were sailed with the wind in the mid 20’s. Add to this two light airs races in which the wind swung through 180º and you have a very tricky championship.

At the front, Mike McNamara & Robin Barker, who proved again that a 25-year-old albacore is still a very competitive beast, dominated the event. Although never out of sight, they always did enough to come off the water with their noses in front and won the championship with a race to spare. Martin Cockram & Colin Smith chased them all the way and local sailors Richard & Jenny Thompson recovered from a disastrous 48th in Race 1 to claim 3rd place.

Of the Scottish boats, Steven Brown & Scott Nicholson from Mid Yell on Shetland were the undoubted stars. Only once did another Scot beat them and their 9th place won them the trophies for top Scottish boat and best performance by sailors in their first Championship. It is a great shame that the expense of travelling between the mainland and the Northern Isles precludes the sizeable Scottish Albacore fleet from ever getting together. The only Scottish sailors who managed to get a result ahead of the fast blue boat from Shetland were Jim Sinclair & William Howarth from East Lothian Yacht Club. Finishing 11th overall went some way to making amends for a poor day on the Monday which relegated them to 18th in the Nationals results, calculated on races sailed between Sunday and Tuesday. Although fast round the course, a couple of mistakes meant that they never looked like catching the Shetlanders.

The 3rd Scottish boat in the Internationals and 2nd Scot in the Nationals, was Crawford Reid & Colin Boyce from Strathclyde Loch. Perhaps a little under weight in the windiest races, they showed some excellent bursts of speed, particularly downwind, to finish 19th in the Internationals and 16th in the Nationals. They just edged ahead of the second Shetland boat, Robert and David Thompson who struggled to find any consistency but a couple of very good races showed their potential.

Other Scots who had an up and down series were Derek & Katie Gibbon. Three top 20 scores were offset by some lower results and a sizeable hole in the topsides thanks to another boat losing control at the wrong moment. Although not seen out on the Scottish circuit, Derek’s Dragon sailing colleagues, and Albacore sailors for more years than they may care to remember, Ron & Julie James from Royal Forth sailed a very steady series to finish 38th, beating some well known sailors in the process.

As far as gear was concerned, there were few conclusions to be drawn from the event. No hulls or sails stood out as being ahead of the game. Wooden Young, Woof and Kingsfield hulls all featured in the top twenty, as did the new Speed FRP boats. Irrespective of age, as long as the boat was properly fitted and rigged, there was little to choose. Sails were a fairly mixed bag with McNamara sails filling the top two places but a fairly even split between Macs, North’s and Speeds in the top 20.

The class AGM on Monday evening turned out to be a very productive forum. A number of grey areas in the measurement rules were tightened up but most discussion centred on two particularly emotive topics. The question of individual sponsorship was covered in some detail. The class had the opportunity to see how a sponsored boat looks when Sinclair & Howarth sailed the practice race with their sponsored sails. A healthy compromise was reached in which the class will adopt Category A with a number of amendments that will permit advertising on the sails. Also discussed was the question of what format the championship should take, an issue which touches most classes. Next year the class will experiment with a three day, Saturday to Monday, Championship at Herne Bay. It is hoped that the combination of the impetus gained from such a successful championship this year and a less time consuming event next year will help generate another strong turnout. Following such an enjoyable event, perhaps even more of the active Scottish fleet will venture South.