WHYW

Published 1:00am on 4 Aug 2024

One of our sailors , Calum (left) was doing rather well at West Highland Yachting Week, Calum writes: 

I was sailing on 'Sorr of Appin' which is a Westerly Storm 33 skippered by Brian Wiseman and had an unbelievable week, winning 5 out of 6 of the races, scoring a perfect 5 points after our 3rd place discard. Naturally this was enough to win Class 9 but we were also awarded the Peter Cocks Trophy for best overall performance for a yacht in the points series which is very much a thing that happens once in a lifetime. What is particularly pleasing is that our crew never normally sail together and had no practice before the event, being very much an amalgam of experienced sailors from my brother's X332, 'Celtic Spirit', and 'Sorr' as we don't have the crew numbers to race individually. We started the week with 3 excellent starts which set-up the winning run and our boat speed was excellent in all wind strengths, as was our boat handling.

 Class 9 is a restricted sail class with 13 boats competing for the points series plus several other boats doing only passage races. Our main competitor was 'Valhalla of Ashton', a Swan 36, which has won it's class several times before and also a previous winner of the Peter Cocks Trophy, so formidable opposition. We had great boat to boat racing with 'Valhalla' and 'Froach' all week. We didn't mind too much when the wind died on the race to Tobermory and a beautiful Island Class called, 'Gigha', won on handicap.

 The 2024 WHYW was blessed with mostly dry, sunny weather with a good sailing breeze most days so thoroughly enjoyable. The wet and windy day was saved for the Friday when we could all go home and get dry!

The photo is of our 'Celtic Spirit' crew with the skipper of 'Sorr' and the haul of trophies. 

Last updated 9:22pm on 1 December 2024