BLUEMOMENT

.....West Highland Week, that is. It wasn't a particularly good one, though nae bad, for Marisca. We ended 4th in our class but with places lost by 2 seconds (twice!), 8 seconds and 12 seconds (also twice!) we weren't that far away from being good. Crew were all in their 7th decade except for the last 3 days when a 4th decade stripling joined us - and what a blessing he was. With a total crew age of over 300 we were long on experience but just a wee tad short of athleticism and stamina. I have a habit of forgetting the age thing and expect miracles of winch grinding, sail handling and movement round the boat - they did better than I should expect so thank you Alan, Chris and John (the venerable yins) and Ozi (the youngster), you were all great.

Only 93 entries this year and quite a few were no shows. It's a long way from the 200+ of a few years back and Croabh, Oban and Balamory were notably quiet. The prize-giving had a speech from a local councillor (I think that's what she was - I didn't catch her name) who had quite bullish words about the 'tween the piers Oban Bay pontoons and bringing the fleet back to spend money in Oban just like they did when I was a lad. I wouldn't hold my breath, though.

As for next year, I almost said "never again" but one of the advantages of age is the shortness of the memory and just 2 days after trying to flatten her by broaching in what was the skipper's self-generated clusterfuck I am trying to raise a younger crew for 29th July to 4th August 2017 (if I'm spared!).

Well done, loosing places by small margins must be frustrating.

We managed to keep out of your way by sailing to Loch Aline on Saturday, passing what we assumed was the feeder race from Oban to Croabh, a dozen boats all sailing in the same general direction, in the Firth of Lorne. Hiding in Loch Aline for 4 days wasn't part of the plan but that's how it worked.

There were boats looking purposeful off Ballamory on Thursday as we entered the Sound of Mull but we kept to the Morvern shore out of the way.

I don't do racing, but then I wouldn't reduce your average age by much so there isn't much point me volunteering.

Clusterfuck? Something you racers do?