Unofficial Tiree Beach Report Day three

The day dawned with lightish winds and heavily overcast with no real waves to speak of, so the call was made for freestyle in Gott Bay, where the Tiree Lodge Hotel is based, so an easy commute for the judges.

Conditions on the beach weren’t perfect for freestyle with the wind bolt onshore and pushing in steady lines of tiny choppy waves. Most sailors rigged a 5.8 and 5.3 and battle commenced…

Then it was the usual parade of flakas, spocks, grubbies etc etc with plenty of one handed, one footed, clew first, switch stance and chacoo variations, but that’s standard for freestyle competitions these days, right down to the first rounds. All of the pro fleet can do at least some of these moves, the top guys can do them all, both ways, even when they were drinking heavily the night before, which most of them were. Controversial moments included the heat when Greg Martin of Rhosniegr fame beat Jonas Ceballos of Pozo fame despite the Spaniard pulling off flakas both ways and slipping the judges a 50 euro note. However things quickly moved along and by the end there were only two remaining… John Skye and Phil Horrocks – who both sailed in the final of the wave round on Saturday. They gave it to Skyeboy meaning he leads overall from Phil with Ben Proffitt still in third, but not by much.

Here’s John Skye’s report of the 8 minute final:

“I tried to start out to sea to give me more distance downwind to do the moves, and started off with a spock, then a flaka, forward, clew first spock 540, then a spock going the other way, then a flaka, then a clew first 540, then a grubby, I think there was a willy skipper in there somewhere as well, then a forward going the other way, another 540 going the other way, a one handed spock, I tried a switch chachoo but crashed and then finished with a clew first willy skipper.

I actually think Phil totally outsailed me with all his moves, doing a flaka Diablo and a perfect switch chachoo but he didn’t have enough wind to get out and get other moves, so my more moves beat his better moves.”

After the Pros were out of the way the other fleets were all sent out to try their hands at freestyle. Richard Jones won the Juniors, Darren Mitchell won the Youths, Seb Pape sneaked the Amatuers although I personally think the judges made some very dubious decisions in that final, particularly the one putting me in third. We think Russ Tetlow won the Masters, but it could have been Sav, the judges are still deep in discussion deciding that one.

It’s now time for the TTTTTTTTT (Tiree Table Tennis Tournament Two Thousand Tand Tive) generously sponsored by Fat Face, currently Chris Audsley is playing James Cox with the latest score being ten five to Chris…

Check the official Tiree Website for more.