SSS Louis Crouton Cup Report
The SSS Louis Crouton Cup 31st October – 1st November
In its first year, this event organised by our very own Commodore (no, he has no idea how he got away with the name either) constituted Glasgow’s second yachting outing of the year. Designed to be a mixture of fleet racing and on the water coaching we set off for Edinburgh with a slightly make-shift team of Emily, Tara, Elizabeth, Ruth and Julia. Our primary aim for the weekend was to beat Strathclyde in at least one race, as Doros has promised us all drinks if we did. After arriving at our hosts, we headed to Finnegans Wake for plenty of Irish themed pints.
Getting out on the water on Saturday morning saw us dealing with light and fluky winds, and a strong tide. With three of us having never sailing a 707 before, the morning was mainly concerned with us getting to grips with the boat. We managed a 5th, 7th and 8th in the morning so morale could have been higher by lunch time. Then came the devastating news that we weren’t going ashore for lunch, and the ladies of Glasgow hadn’t thought to bring their lunch onto the boat. It seemed all was lost, until one of the Port Edgar staff kindly purchased us some chips, which were then delivered to us by rib. This incident wasn’t at all related to the change in the SIs for Sunday which stated that if lunch wasn’t taken onto the boat you would be disqualified…
During lunch the wind truly died and the sun came out. The race officer and coach boats did a sterling job laying and re-laying courses as the wind continually shifted direction. We had a less successful afternoon with a series of three 8th places.
Nevermind, it was Halloween! In typical Glasgow style, in order to cram as much facepaint and glitter into our costumes as possible it had been decided we were going as unicorns. The original plan for the night had been to head to Pilgrim then Silk, but when we got there the queue was two hours long. With none of SUSA feeling keen to stand outside for ages, we headed for Hive instead. Always reliable for making you feel entirely gross, though not nearly as gross as Newcastle must have felt in their onesies.
The wind on Sunday was even lighter than the day before which led to some frustrating racing. We managed two 7th places in the morning. With a crew reshuffle at lunch time we achieved two 5th places in the afternoon. It was really great to see an improvement over the weekend as people began to get to grips with their roles in the boat.
To say that Louis was kind to us in the video debrief over the weekend would be a lie, but we were in fact the first all ladies yacht team SUSA has ever seen. We also beat Strathclyde 1 in a single race, so we achieved our goal for the weekend. Thank you to Callum from Edinburgh for hosting us and to Louis for organising such a worthwhile event! Now to get some training organised…
