The Berlin Yacht Club Annual Invitational Regatta has been called “a true Sandy Douglass regatta” because it is a multi-class regatta featuring Flying Scots, Thistles, and Highlanders. The regatta is held on Father’s Day weekend every year at Berlin Lake near North Benton, Ohio.

This year the BYC Regatta was held on June 18-19, 2016. 16 Flying Scots attended, along with 21 other boats from other classes. Scot sailors traveled from as far away as Chicago, Illinois, to attend the regatta. The Ohio weather was warm and sunny, but winds were light and variable on Saturday. One shortened race was held on Saturday, and all in attendance returned to shore to enjoy a sumptuous appetizer buffet, pulled-pork dinner, and folk music provide by BYC Member Lesa Miller.

Saturday night was a wonderful chicken dinner prepared by the Commodore and crew.  Lots of stories were traded and lots of fun!  We followed that up with a raffle  that masqueraded as a baby shower for the Flying Scot Royalty, Carrie and Tyler Andrews!

What a difference a day makes!  We went from 5-6 MPH to 15-17 MPH winds between yesterday and today.  The good news is that we raced right outside the club so we did not have far to go either to or from the race course.  We had 3 W-L 5 races and every team was working very hard to keep the boats moving and keep them upright!  What an amazing day on the water!

Championship Winners were Jeff Linton and Amy Smith Linton, Challenger Winners were Chris and Jessica Powers.  Full results are here.

The Flying Scot Class sailed for three different perpetual trophies as part of Southern Yacht Club's annual Juby Wynne Memorial Regatta: The Commissioner General Trophy, the Charles L Dees Memorial Trophy, and, the Cock-of-the-Walk Trophy.  Each had its own individual criteria.  Whoever meets the criteria of the      sub-fleets, i.e. Districts and/or Cock-of-the-Walk (COW), first is awarded those trophies.

The Commissioner General Trophy is presented to the overall winner of the Flying Scot Class, and was won by Dwight LeBlanc IV sailing with his father, Dwilight Leblanc III, as crew.

The Charles L. Dees Memorial Trophy is presented to the winner of the FSSA Gulf District Championship, and was also won by Dwight LeBlanc IV. Second place went to Larry Taggart and crew Carrie Berger (aka "Team Alieve", and third to Nancy Claypool and crew Frank Collins.

The Cock-of-the-Walk Trophy is presented to the winner of the Gulf Yachting Association (GYA) Flying Scot Championship.  Entrants (skippers only) must be a member of a GYA Club and have a minimum crew weight of 390 pounds live weight.  This year’s winner was Eric Alber.

The first race of the 5-race series began with a gentle southeast breeze of approximately 8 knots.  But by the beginning of the second downwind leg, a few thunderstorms began to develop in the area.  The race committee wisely decided to send everyone in and wait it out.  After the storms passed through, the fleet were sent back out, but were greeted with 15 to 20 knots of northeast wind and chop. They abated only a little that afternoon.  Only 2 points separated the leaders at the end of the day!

by Joe VerPlank

Memorial Day weekend at Muscle Shoals Sailing Club started out hot and sunny with a nice breeze that we all anticipated for the Saturday and Sunday races.  By the time we had finished the Skipper’s Meeting and lunch, the breeze was beginning to pick up to a nice Southeasterly.  Our flawless PRO, Gar Bouse, had set a perfect windward-leeward course two times around.  By the time we had our first start, the wind had puffed up to around twelve knots.  Then the skippers had to decide whether to take the route closer to shore where there is usually a lift or to go up the middle where there was more wind.  It didn’t seem to make much difference which route you took since we all met at the windward mark about the same time and we were all competitive.  Going downwind was a different story.  The shifty winds started taking its toll on the boats that were not quite as skilled on their spinnakers.  As we rounded the leeward mark, the boats that could douse their chutes the best and trim windward surged further ahead.  There were puffs at eighteen to twenty as the wind built higher.  Some boats were going into survival mode but fortunately, no one went over.  The wind stayed up the duration of our three races on Saturday.