Visitors to Argyll's coast and the Clyde are enjoying some of Scotland's best sailing of the season so far with two major regattas staged this week.
On the west coast, the West Highland Yachting Week, sponsored by Tunnock's, is in full swing with two races sailed out of Oban yesterday. Class 0 is dominated by Paul Scutt and Alan Jeffries' Carmen II. The pair are seasoned West Highland Week campaigners and have the scorecard to prove it with straight firsts so far. They cannot afford to be complacent, though, as they are facing a strong challenge from Richard Shellcock's Thrust, which has scored two seconds.
Enjoying the competition in Class 3 are John MacKenzie's Storinn Mhor and Craig Anderson's Moody 366 Cool Bandit 2 in Class 5 while sponsor Boyd Tunnock in Lemarac added to his tally by winning one of the day's races. The fleet moves from Oban to Tobermory tomorrow, with racing starting at 2pm.
On the Clyde, summer returned to treat crews in the Flying Dutchman World Championships at Largs Yacht Haven to blue skies and steady west south westerly winds of 9-12 knots, after Monday's heavy weather. Two races were contested across triangular sausage courses and the lighter winds made sure that it was all about the tactics.
The regatta is intensely competitive with the current world champion and three of his predecessors in the top five places. A third and a fourth place kept the Hungarians Szabolcs Majthenyi and Andras Domokos out in front from the Dutch pair of Enno Kramer and Ard Geelkerken, with Germany's Kay-Uwe Ludtke and Kai Schafers moving into third place ahead of Denmark's Jorgen Biosen-Moller and Jacob Boisen Moller. The leading British team of Julian Bridges and Jack Wild are back in 15th place.
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