Last year's overall winners of the Jura Scottish Series, Allan Manuel's Etchells 22 Bounce Back, are returning to Tarbert, Loch Fyne over the coming days looking to defend the class title which they won with a convincing scoreline, counting nine race wins from ten starts.
Manuel's top trophy victory came after competing at the north of Britain's top sailing regatta for nearly 35 years on many different boats. And while he may hold a certain level of confidence he and his crew can retain the Etchells class title, he knows it is a big ask to secure the overall top prize again as it is awarded subjectively, always to the 'best performing boat at the regatta' in the opinion of a panel of officials and sponsors.
Three days before racing starts on Friday on beautiful Loch Fyne, Manuel is upbeat, "I think in general we are pretty confident in the Etchells class, although there are a couple of boats are getting better all the time, those being Simon Reid's Animal and Peter Judd's Lock n Load."
Entries for the imminent 2025 regatta look set to stabilise around 84 or 85 boats, an 'acceptable' total according to the Clyde Cruising Club's Roddy Angus who leads the regatta organisation.
Angus sums up, "In line with trends around the country we have to be happy with the level of entries we have achieved and are grateful to everyone for their efforts. We are still a little disappointed not to have attracted the Irish boats which used to come. Overall we are very happy with the splits into the different classes as it means everyone should have a good number of boats in their fleet and a good level of competition."
Event website: - www.scottishseries.co.uk
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