Inverkip on the Clyde was the venue for the Scottish IRC Championships held over the weekend of 9-10th June.

It was the intention to hold 5 races, 3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday but looking at the weather forecast it didn’t look good. Light winds were forecast for both days.

 

The boats were separated into 3 classes with David McFarland’s Northern Ireland based X-35, eXaltation, being the scratch boat in class 2.

Our competition included a Swan 40, J109, First 36.7’s, a First 34.7, Bavaria Match 38 amongst others.

 

The 1st race of the event got off to a late start after the race organisers searched for a steadier breeze further up the Clyde.

We made a good start in class 2 and quickly lead the fleet around the windward-leeward course in 7-9kts of breeze.

 

Unfortunately, we were unable to put enough distance between ourselves and the following Swan 40 to secure first place on corrected time.

 

Race 2 saw a slight increase in wind to 10 -11kts. Making a more aggressive push on the start line resulted in 4 boats being recalled, ourselves being the last one to be recalled. This put us to the back of the fleet after our return back to the line.

I

t was in this race that our X-35 showed her true colours. By the time we’d reached, the weather marked we’d passed several of the tail boats in our fleet. On the down wind leg we caught and passed several other boats. After making our way up to 4th position the race was shortened and we settled for 5th place on corrected time.

 

The breeze held and race 3 quickly got under way. Again the X35 showed her full potential and led from start to finish. Even after shortening the course we finished 2mins ahead of the 2nd placed boat on corrected time.

 

The following morning racing got under way in light conditions with the wind not getting much above 7kts. After a clean start and well sailed beat we found ourselves catching up with the bigger class 1 boats. By the time we reached windward mark on the 2nd round we’d managed to pass a First 40.7, BH41 and a First 47.7. And to top that, we lapped a First 40.7 by the time we finished the race.

 

The last race gave us similar wind conditions and some close racing against a J109. However, in the light down wind conditions we were able to open the gap to finish with another victory.

 

We finished the series in First place overall, counting 3 firsts and a second place.

 

David McFarland